Here's what life looks like when you have no heat, electricity and it's freezing cold outside

This First Person article is the experience of Lori Osborne, a mother of four from Pimicikamak Cree Nation. For more information about CBC's First Person stories, please see this FAQ. You can read more First Person articles here.

Late in the night on Sunday, Dec. 28, 2025, a power line that serviced the northern Manitoba community of Pimicikamak Cree Nation, about 530 kilometres north of Winnipeg, snapped. It left residents without heat for several days, in extreme cold temperatures that dropped well below –20 C.

Lori Osborne spent those days photo-documenting the family's efforts to keep each other safe, sound and warm.

The first night we went to bed without power, so I found as many blankets as I could to keep us warm throughout the night.

Waking up that morning, the floor was cold, I was cold, my one-year-old was cold. I layered her up with a shirt, pants and a warm sleepover over that, along with two pairs of socks and her moccasins. She was bundled for sure!

We had no source of heat — literally nothing but blankets to keep us warm. Our living room window had a big crack so you can feel the draft coming through there. Hour by hour, it was just getting colder!

My brothers covered the doors with blankets. Stapled them closed good enough so a draft won’t come through.

Mind you, we still didn’t have a generator here. My dad gave us one of his camp stoves.

So what did I do? I made soup! We ate it in our jackets along with some hot tea. Our only source of warmth was that. It was yummy! (I’ll tell you that, not because I cooked it. Ha ha!)

Around 12:30 a.m., these awesome men arrived. On the left is Carl Silas Umpherville Jr. In the middle is Edward Walter McKay and on the right is Garry A. McKay. Our lifesavers!

As they walked in, they said “the queen of housing called” (my mom works at the housing department, LOL).

Thanks to them we were able to have a generator, and yay — we have heat! Without power, we dreaded going to the washroom, because of how cold it was in the other side of our house.

And we’re not sitting in the dark. We had a limited number of flashlights. (Literally only, like, three.) And we're warm! My daughter Meena and I bundled up and stayed warm.

The house is not connected to the water line, so we had a water tank right under our house. My brothers and I grabbed a bunch of pails and a scooper, so I could scoop up the water.

Me being shorter than my brothers, I had to be the one to go under the house to grab the water. Legs are sore, arms are sore, my back is killing me already.

We did this for three days.

We had three different pails for drinking, doing dishes and flushing the toilet.

My mom told me that years ago, they would just walk down to the riverbank to grab water, but it's not safe to drink anymore. 

My little brother Errol did night shifts, because we got word a trailer burned down while people were trying to keep warm. Actually, I heard four homes were burned.

A friend had the same cord as this one here, and the black part of the plug on her cord burned. So my brother stayed awake at night to make sure nothing happened while we all slept. 

You ever wondered how we shopped without power? I never shopped with a flashlight before in my life.

We needed things — we were running out of food and snacks. Our fridge was out, so some of our food melted. When I went shopping I had to line up three times!

The first was outside — I wasn't the only one that needed a few things. The second time lining up was inside, which led us to the third line, which was just taking names of who was coming in.

Finally I got to shop. I grabbed some snacks for my babies, a little bit of munchies and canned food. The store owner yelled, "Essentials only. Think of others, too," as some stuff was limited.

This was Dec. 31, the night before New Year's! Usually we have all the good foods, fireworks and such. This time it was so different!

I wondered if we could get a box of fireworks just for my babies, but the owner also announced we weren't allowed to grab that. Just food and essentials only.

Yeah, ringing in the new year sucked.

Here is my uncle Alister Osborne. He's 72 years old.

We finally convinced him to stay with us, as he was staying home with no power nor generator. He stayed in his house for two days, when it was –38.

When the power came back on, he was one of the community members whose homes were ruined. His pipes were busted and his basement was flooded.

I'm glad he stayed with us the last two days, because this man would have been really cold staying in that house with no generator.

My mom, Pearl McKay, above, my uncle and Meena slept in the living room. I slept in my room, and made sure my room was nice and warm for me and my little Greenly girl.

We covered up our windows and slept in our sweaters with blankets until Day 4, when the power in our community came back on.

This is the view from my home.

Beautiful, hey? :)

The military is still in town. Some houses have no running water, and even though we’re lucky enough to have a water tank, it still isn’t safe to drink. (We were advised that it’s mandatory to boil water).

So many houses were flooded, and pipes were busted.

But all in all, we were warm, we had food and we did OK.