Iqaluit shuts down as blizzard sweeps in
City tells people to stay off roads as winds to hit 90km/h; warning covers Baffin communities and parts of Nunavik
The view from Road to Nowhere in Iqaluit as a blizzard sweeps through the city on Friday. (Photo by Meral Jamal)
Iqaluit has its first blizzard of the season, which is being felt across Baffin Island and on the Ungava coast of Nunavik.
The City of Iqaluit announced early Friday morning that all city services, including water delivery, waste management and snow removal are suspended under further notice.
The city also advised people to stay off the roads.
“If you are not currently home, we highly recommend you go home and remain there until the severe weather conditions end,” a news release from the city says.
Residents on trucked services should also reduce their water consumption and delay doing laundry or using dishwashers.
Emergency services will still be available, but there may be delays.
According to Environment and Climate Change Canada, Iqaluit was under a blizzard warning as of about 4 a.m. Friday morning.
Other Baffin communities are feeling the effects of the storm. Kimmirut is under a winter storm warning, while there is a wind warning in Pangnirtung, and Qikiqtarjuaq is under a snowfall warning.
The federal government’s weather service also issued a blizzard warning for the Ungava coast in Nunavik. It predicted high winds in Aupaluk, Kangiqsualujjuaq, Kangiqsujuaq, Kangirsuk, Quaqtaq and Tasiujaq.
In Iqaluit, wind gusts of up to 90 km/h hour are likely with total snowfall from the storm predicted to be in the 15 to 25 centimetre range.
The blizzard warning is expected to end Friday evening, with both snow and wind easing.
Government of Nunavut offices and grocery stores are also closed as of Friday morning.
Flights in and out of Iqaluit have also been cancelled for the morning.
For updates on services, residents can call the city’s blizzard line: 867-979-5300.
The public housing system is f’d up.
Get a job and buy a house then…
What a useless comment.
Both rent and housing prices are out of reach for so many trying to start out. Attitudes like yours are nothing but harmful to community.
The same applies to people starting out all over the country. And the vast majority do not have a social housing system to fall back on. They do things like renting what they can afford, taking out loans to further their education, putting off starting a family, cutting back on non essential spending, not wasting money on bad habits like cigarettes/drugs/drinking/gambling, not spending every penny on motorized toys, working overtime or more than one job, etc. People all over the world make hard choices to get ahead in life. But it seems this concept does not translate to Nunavut, where the less you put in the more you get to take out.
Spoken like a true transient.
lol Transients trying to transplant their Southern solutions to Nunavut/Nunavik, without even pausing to consider the “options” they suggest its’ practical application to the territories. Ie “They do things like renting what they can afford,…”, Thing is there is little to no housing market anywhere in Northern Canada, so that Southern double speak, is just to allow the bithchers to bitch, given there is nothing to chose from affordable or not.
so like people who can’t afford a house in the south you rent. sorry if you’re not a high income earner, not the south’s fault.
Got it, a complete lack of personal responsibility and no chance for individual self determination for anyone in Nunavut without government social programs. And here I was under the assumption that colonialism was a bad thing. 🙄
so true, i have been working all my life and theres no way i can even be able to afford a house
Ok Canadian North, your excused this time
Blizzard? It’s a snow storm, you still can see over 100 yards!
I believe the requirements for blizzard conditions is visibility of 400 metres or less for 6 or more hours.
who cares what type of blizzard or storm it was call,it got me stuck at work for 17 hours instead of 12 and lucky for me i have a boos that cares, He rescue me and pick me up with a Caterpilar Loader.
In your flat countryside during a blizzard your visibility is pretty much the same where ever you go in town, here we have big hills, some areas visibility will be down to less than 20 yards and other areas will have visibility of 100 yards, on top of that driving up or down hill that you are not used to in your flat land. It can be difficult to get around pretty much impossible.
We can tell you haven’t experienced our blizzard here and trying to get out and drive somewhere, I’m sure your itiq would squeeze tight trying to drive down hill slipping and can’t see where you are going, your hills are like a speed bump here.
if it was in resolute bay, everything would still be open LOL
Thats because it takes you 4 minutes to walk from one side of Resolute to the other, the roads most people take to work are longer than Resolute Bay haha
That was nice! Usually we have to wait until everyine else is closed and it’s already too dangerous to get home safely.