Photo: Iqaluit storm an autumn gale

Iqaluit residents woke up to high winds gusting to between 90 and 100 kilometres an hour Oct. 8, as an autumn gale that began just after midnight swept over the community. The Qulliq Energy Corp.’s power transmission system failed several times during the early morning hours. At the same time, cell phone, internet and landline phone services were periodically knocked out. As of about 9 a.m., all schools and many workplaces were closed and Environment Canada forecasts the bad weather will continue throughout the day. Most federal government offices in Iqaluit are closed until at least 1 p.m. but it’s not clear if Nunavut government offices are open. We advise workers to contact their employer for such information. The telecom outages have delayed the posting of news stories on nunatsiaqonline.ca but we expect that to resume soon. (PHOTO BY JIM BELL)