A downed tree is shown in Winnipeg on Wednesday. Parts of southern Manitoba are in clean-up mode after a storm brought torrential downpours, tennis ball-sized hail chunks and unconfirmed reports of tornadoes.Brittany Hobson/The Canadian Press
Residents in a Manitoba town famous for its limestone were busy mopping up and pumping out Wednesday after overnight torrential rain flooded basements and swamped its cemetery and signature Quarry Park.
It was after midnight when water burst through Sabrina Cornwell’s basement in Stonewall, just north of Winnipeg. It rose quickly, taking with it the small-business owner’s at-home hair salon.
“My family and I ... we had to scramble and save all the important things,” she told The Canadian Press.
“You just think in the state of an emergency what’s priority, and you do your best.”
A few hours later, after clearing what they could from the water-soaked basement, the family turned off the lights and let the sump pumps take over.
Outside the home, water flooded streets, preventing vehicles from getting through. In some cases, cars had to be abandoned.
Cornwell lives down the street from her sister, but they couldn’t get to each other because the water was knee-high.
“The storm was actually scary ... the fear of the unknown. We don’t know what to do, how to respond because everything is happening so quickly,” said Cornwell.
Residents in a Manitoba town famous for its limestone were kept busy mopping up and pumping out after overnight torrential rains flooded basements and swamped its cemetery and the signature Quarry Park.
The Canadian Press
She’s now looking for an alternate space to run her business, which is booked until mid-July with graduation hair appointments.
Stonewall was one of several municipalities in cleanup mode after the overnight downpour that delivered sheets of water, tennis ball-size hail and unconfirmed reports of tornadoes.
Environment Canada said the area was hit with 255 millimetres of rain – a level about as high as a wine bottle, not counting the neck.
“I’ve never experienced anything like this before in Stonewall. This is an unprecedented amount of rain,” said Mayor Sandra Smith, who noted the town last experienced overland flooding in 2010.
“We’ll just pray that we have sunny skies here for the next 24 to 48 hours.”
Severe weather caused more than $2.4-billion in insured damage in 2025
By Wednesday afternoon, streets were drying as drivers navigated shallow pools of water.
One local took advantage of a flooded ditch to try his hand at wakeboarding for the first time.
“It was smooth, it was really fun, it’s cool, and the water is nice and warm too, actually,” Duncan Thompson said after a few attempts of being pulled by his friends in a car.
On some streets, hoses poked out of houses, pumping water as owners hauled out swollen, squishy blankets, clothes and even a wayward mattress.
Smith said it’s unclear how many homes were affected. She encouraged residents to limit unnecessary water use.
Parts of Winnipeg were also walloped. The Forks downtown tourist site registered 124 millimetres of rain.
The city said it received about 850 emergency calls overnight, with some relating to downed power lines, fires and stranded vehicles.
Mayor Scott Gillingham thanked crews and residents for working together to restore services and help out neighbours.
“This was a difficult night for many Winnipeggers, and I’m grateful to the dedicated city staff who were in the field and on the phones helping keep people safe,” he said in a statement.
Manitoba Hydro called the summer storm one of the worst in recent memory.
More than 25,000 customers were without power as of Wednesday afternoon, including about 17,000 in Winnipeg.
Several hours of high winds, heavy rain and lightning caused extensive damage to power lines, poles and equipment, the Crown corporation said in a release.
“Due to the scale and widespread nature of damage, customers should prepare for extended outages, including overnight and into Thursday. In rural areas, flooding and highway closures may delay response,” said Hydro spokesman Peter Chura.
The hail came in degrees of damage. Winnipeg and surrounding communities saw hail as big as tennis balls. Other parts of southern Manitoba saw golf ball- and dime-size hail.
Meteorologist Brian Proctor with Environment and Climate Change Canada said parts of the province could see more showers and thunderstorms this week but not as intense.
Proctor said there’s no way to protect against such a deluge.
“Horrific amounts of rain is probably the best way to put it. It’s going to overwhelm any and all infrastructure completely,” Proctor said.
“Nothing is built to take those kind of rainfall amounts in that short duration.”
Rain has been playing havoc elsewhere in Manitoba for days.
The Town of Swan River, about 480 kilometres northwest of Winnipeg near the Saskatchewan boundary, declared a state of emergency this week as floods burst riverbanks, swamping some homes and businesses.
The town said in a social media post Wednesday that water levels in most areas had gradually receded. A highway east of the town was cut open to help accelerate the release of backup water.
Premier Wab Kinew toured portions of the Swan Valley region, which includes Swan River and the nearby community of Minitonas, to view firsthand some of the damage.
He said he was surprised to see the amount of water that has accumulated in the region.
“To see how what could have been a dry creek bed in normal years all of a sudden tear apart a major highway or tear apart someone’s property, this is why you come to disaster zones, because the images and videos don’t do justice to the scale,” he said Wednesday.
Communities that have declared states of emergency will have access to disaster financial assistance, Kinew said.
The province said several highways continued to experience washouts due to heavy rainfall and flooding.
In addition to Stonewall, the government also issued flood warnings for heavily impacted areas between Winnipeg and Lake Winnipeg, including Selkirk and Petersfield.