Arviat to update emergency plan after blizzard, 4-day power outage
Warming shelter did not open until 4 days into outage
A severe blizzard knocked out power to 53 homes over four days in Arviat. (File photo)
Arviat’s mayor says local leaders will revisit the hamlet’s emergency plan after a blizzard that blew through the community last week knocked out power to some homes for days.
The storm brought wind gusts in excess of 100 km/h starting late on Nov. 21 and cut electricity to the entire community. Most people had their power back within a short time, but 53 homes were left unconnected for four days, said Mayor Joe Savikataaq Jr.
The hamlet called a local state of emergency on the evening of Nov. 24, more than 48 hours into the outage. A warming shelter was operational by 1 p.m. the next day, a few hours before power was restored.
Savikataaq said there is no specific protocol for when to declare a state of emergency during a prolonged outage in extreme cold weather because emergency situations are fluid.
“We didn’t know it was gonna last that long,” Savikataaq said.
“We can’t see into the future. It’s a hard choice to [make] when an issue comes up, you don’t know how long it’s gonna be for.”
Nunatsiaq News contacted the Department of Community and Government Services as well as Arviat’s administration for copies of the hamlet’s emergency plan, but did not receive a response in time for publication.
Some northern communities have adopted standardized protocol for when to open a warming shelter during a lengthy outage in cold weather. Yellowknife, for example, will activate its emergency plan if an outage lasts longer than four hours in temperatures below -30 C.
Savikataaq said options like this are one thing the hamlet could explore in updating Arviat’s emergency plan, but he emphasized that every emergency is different.
“Even if we did declare a state of emergency a second after the wind blew up, it would have made no difference because the weather was that extreme,” he said.
“Even if the warming shelter was open at the height of the blizzard [it was] absolutely too dangerous to even go out of your doorsteps. We could have opened a gym earlier, but how many more people would we have lost?”
One person in Arviat died during the storm. The 27-year-old man left his home midday on Nov. 22 and his body was found several hours later, once it was safe for police to conduct a search.
Part of the reason the wait for power restoration took so long was the storm itself led to delays in air travel for workers coming to make repairs. Linemen were flown out from Cambridge Bay and Rankin Inlet, but their planes weren’t able to land until Nov. 25.
Savikataaq said the power could have been brought back much sooner if the community had its own permanent linemen.
Before the warming shelter was up and running, the mayor said Nunavut Housing Corp. moved its six portable generators from home to home, bringing them up to a safe temperature before moving onto the next house.
In light of this, Savikataaq said he would advocate for more generators, including a backup for the airport.
But the six generators the housing corporation did have were helpful — pipes burst in two homes, but the rest of the damage was limited to more cosmetic issues like siding.
The extent of storm damage was than initially thought, Savikataaq said.
Beyond the hamlet and housing corporation’s work, he said residents also made sure their neighbours were safe.
“The people of Arviat are phenomenal and amazing,” he said.
“In times like this, they help each other and that’s exactly what happened. People went to other people’s homes to use as a warming place.”
Incidentally, Savikataaq said, the hamlet was in the midst of readying an emergency preparedness drill for the whole community before the blizzard.
“Instead of getting everyone together to see what we would do in certain scenarios, we had a real live one,” Savikataaq said.
He said lessons learned from the emergency will be front and centre at the drill, rescheduled to happen in January.
QEC is having difficult a time filling their current line men jobs in the territory. Easy to open up more jobs, getting the jobs filled is becoming a monumental challenge for QEC.
QEC should be encouraging more of Nunavut youth to enter the profession. Nunavut needs its home grown linemen.
Here is an idea.
QEC should offer apprenticeship jobs 2 positions in Rankin, 2 position in Iqaluit and 2 positions in Cambridge Bay. 4-6 year plan to get them the education and knowledge required to get th4eir tickets. After they get their ticket give them full time jobs and hirer 6 more apprentices. in 20-24 years Nunavut will have enough home grown, skilled linesmen’s
A apprentice program would be the best option for QEC in the long run. The only issue I see with it is the last batch of apprentices hired in 2010 or so, only one remains as of today. All the rest have gone on to do other things, work in different departments within the corporation or work for a different corporation. There is nothing wrong with any of that except when apprentices move on or go into a different line of work the power corp is left with the same issues they have always had. High employee turnover and no one left to really spear head and take responsibility over an apprenticeship program. Hiring apprentices from within the territory to stay in the territory has been an on going issue. Unless something is written in stone contractually and an apprenticeship program is ironed out I fear the same issues will keep happening and things will never change. More qualified workers with the skills needed to keep the power on is the best and only option, how power corp goes ahead with that is totally up to them in the long run. I do agree QEC needs apprentices who will learn the system and stay around for the long run. A good program is the only way forward.
Apprenticeship is one part of the solution.
Not just at QEC, but throughout Nunavut.
Proper leadership is another.
Those apprentices, and all other employees, have to feel appreciated and respected.
They each have to know that they have the best job in the world, and that they are part of the best team in the world.
That takes leaders, not bosses.
Agreed. There is a clear lack of competent and respectable leadership in QEC. People in trades need to feel respected and appreciated. Currently, they are being treated like disposable machinery by the President and the rest of management at QEC. In many ways, retention is more important than opening up more jobs. No one wants to work for bad bosses, and currently that is all QEC has.
That why I said this would be a 20 plus year plan. QEC should not stop at just one group of people, they need to keep going until they have enough qualified linesmen that want to stick around to fill all the jobs they have.
Whatever happend to the “KEEP ARVIAT STRONG” dude?
Arviat needs to work with other organizations to update their plan.
RCMP, Health Centre, Kivalliq School Operations (Emergency Shelters), Fire Department, CGS, PPD, etc
During emergencies everyone should be prepared.
Arviat has gone through may storms in the past, these storms have claims lives over the years, power plant even burned to the ground some years back and this administration is talking “emergency measures?” Little late are they? Hamlet just bought two generators few days ago? rumor mill, did they? Big Plan…two.