Drivers are being asked to avoid the area around St. Matthews Avenue and Empress Street in Winnipeg Friday morning after a major natural gas leak Thursday night.
The leak, which was first detected at 3:30 p.m., forced the evacuation of the Polo Park Shopping Centre and several businesses in the area. At its peak, it caused an outage for 2,000 Hydro customers in the neighbourhood.
Early Friday morning, Manitoba Hydro said on Twitter power had been restored for all but 230 of them. The corporation said power was restored to nearly everybody by 6:30 a.m., except for the Home Depot, Toys R Us and the old Target building in the area, which were kept dark for safety as crews monitored gas levels.
Friday morning, Empress Street was closed between Willis and Maroons Road. St Matthews Avenue was closed between St James and Strathcona Streets.
<a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/mboutage?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#mboutage</a> Customers restored as of 6:30 a.m. in Empress/St.Matthews outage except for Home Depot, former Target, and Toys R Us to ensure safety while crews continue to monitor gas levels.
—@manitobahydro<a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/mboutage?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#mboutage</a> Repairs continue to address the natural gas leak at Empress and StMatthews this morning. No ETR on service restoration to approx 230 customers until situation can be resolved safely.
—@manitobahydro