The Pipeline explosion that rocked southern Manitoba on Saturday is to blame for nearly 4,000 dealing with the extremely cold temperatures sans heat. Many of theses residents have alternate sources of heat to fall back on, according to Chambers Ewen, spokesperson for the Rural Municipality of Hanover.

“Given the area we live in, there’s a lot of people that have an alternative source of heat,” she said, and added that many who don’t are staying with friends and family to ride out the disaster until TransCanada can supply gas again to Manitoba Hydro, which provides heat to the area.

According to the Globe and Mail, Manitoba Hydro has warned their customers to prepare for an outage that could last several days and be an immediate danger in temperatures that drop to around -20 degrees C and snow blowing so hard it causes visibility issues and closes many roads.

According to Yahoo, Emergency Measures spokesperson Nicki Albus confirms that it is going to be a cold, nasty ordeal but assures the public that they are doing everything they can to help those affected.

“We know it’s cold and people may be concerned about that but we are on the job here. Everyone here’s communicating well. We have a great group of people at the site and in the communities who have set up their emergency operation centres to handle this dilemma.”​

TransCanada stated in a press release yesterday that they are working vigorously on the issues and hope to resolve them as soon as possibe.

“TransCanada wants Manitoba Hydro customers affected by the natural gas outage to know that our staff are doing everything possible to determine the cause of the fire and get the pipeline repaired and regular natural gas service restored quickly, safely and in accordance with regulations.”

Community Warming Centers were quickly set up for those who might need a place to stay, and as for those who are using alternate heat, they were reminded not to use kerosene heaters, barbeques, or temporary space heaters as they could be unsafe. Only approved space heaters should be used.

Image via youtube