After April 2 power plant fire, it’s back to basics in Pangnirtung

Pangnirtung’s power plant burns during the night of April 2, knocking out the main diesel-generated power source for the community of 1,500. (PHOTO BY MICHAEL DAVIES)

(Updated, April 6 at 07:37 a.m.)

The lights are back on in Pangnirtung.

Reports from Pangnirtung say full power came back at about midnight, April 5.

The Qulliq Energy Corp. planned to restore full power to Pangnirtung some time late April 5, the Government of Nunavut said in its Easter Sunday update on the electrical power crisis that hit Pangnirtung April 2.

That’s after a new generator arrived in the community.

“QEC technicians will begin installing this generator this afternoon with the goal of restoring full power to the entire community late Sunday night,” said the GN update, issued at 4:30 p.m., April 5.

The GN is still advising residents to conserve power until further notice.

“There may be periodic outages as full power is restored and services are added to the main power line. Until then, power services remain on a regular four hour rotation,” the GN said.

Fuel services, including the delivery of home heating oil and jet fuel, continue to operate regularily, the GN said, and local stores remain open from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. every day.

The comforts — heat, electricity, internet, television, hot food and running water — that people in Pangnirtung took for granted disappeared after the community of 1,500 lost power April 2 and the hamlet declared a local state of emergency.

The worst appeared to be already over by the evening of April 3.

An April 4 midday update from the Nunavut Emergency Management office said workers had made progress toward restoring full power, phone service and internet to the community.

But the local state of emergency will remain in place until all the power is back on across the entire community, the GN said.

Some people in Pangnirtung have told Nunatsiaq News that they fear the situation may continue to be unstable for months — although the GN’s director of protection services, Ed Zebedee, said April 3 that the goal is to get Pangnirtung back to normal functioning as soon as possible.

He said, however, that may take “a while.”

There are big logistical issues to overcome in the delivery of the equipment that Pangnirtung needs, he said.

That’s due to the length of the runway, which, at 2,900 feet, is 300 feet short of what’s needed for a military Hercules transport, Zebedee said.

“The hunters were like, we can take them here by skidoos,” said one resident about the community response to the problem with getting equipment into the community.

The plans now include the use of a helicopter to bring in some equipment.

On rotating power service of about four hours with power, and four without, people in Pangnirtung were asked to avoid using ovens, microwaves and dryers.

“So much we rely on for power. How precious power is. So we will be hanging our clothes to dry. In my lifetime, we go back to how it was,” a Pangnirtung woman told Nunatsiaq News April 3.

“In between, [we had] the luxury of electronics — and now [we’re] back to basics,” she said.

There’s no cable television and no video games, for now.

“Families will be more together… and elders are saying that it is good to wake up cold, like how it use to be,” she said.

Pangnirtung residents with generators, including some residents of GN staff housing, were among the luckiest when the power went out: they were able to keep warm in the comfort of their own homes thanks to those power sources.

Some fishers with generators at their cabins fetched them to use at home.

But water remained at a premium. One woman said she was grateful for the delivery of ice — which meant, at her brother’s generator-heated home, they could have some coffee in the morning.

But for others, finding a warm place during the outage meant heading to the Attagoyuk Ilisavik School where cots, mattresses, blankets and warm food served by Canadian Rangers awaited them.

Although 14 patients were evacuated by the Department of Health to Iqaluit, others with young children and some elderly residents have left, or are eager to leave the community, on flights which are delivering emergency equipment.

Zebedee said evacuation is always “the last resort” during any emergency.

During this power-outage crisis, one of several that have taken place in Nunavut over the past 12 months, “the weather has helped us,” he said.

“Two weeks earlier it would have been very chilly,” Zebedee said of the sunny and relatively warm weather in recent days.

Praising the local response, Zebedee said it’s been “excellent,” with everyone in the community reacting according to their local emergency plan.

Thirty hours after receiving word that the power in Pangnirtung was out, Zebedee said April 3 that “we’re getting some normalcy back to the community.”

After the crisis winds down, staff will analyze the response, he said, to see what worked and what could have been done differently.

Hamlets may also be asked to produce emergency response plans tailored to deal with a power plant mishap, he said.

Meanwhile, people in Nunavut have also stepped in to assist their neighbours in Pangnirtung: at the Iqaluit Legion’s April 2 karaoke night, a request for donations raised $800 for the community.