Gjoa Haven opens warming centre as hamlet endures power outage
Parts of community have been without power for more than 17 hours
Residents of Gjoa Haven are asking the hamlet to open community spaces for warmth as a power outage leaves parts of the community without heat for more than 17 hours amid near-blizzard conditions. (File photo)
People in Gjoa Haven will soon have a place to warm up as the hamlet opens the high school gym amid a prolonged power outage that has left parts of the community without heat for more than 17 hours.
In an update mid-afternoon Thursday, the hamlet said it has secured permission to use the gym and that coffee, tea and other snacks will be provided in an hour or so.
Gjoa Haven lost power at 5 p.m. Wednesday after the power plant experienced a failure, said an update posted to Qulliq Energy Corp.’s Facebook page. The post did not describe the nature of the problem.
As of Thursday afternoon, 17 hours later, some people still don’t have power.
Power was restored at 7:45 a.m. on Thursday, but less than an hour later a blown fuse cut power again to parts of the community including the school, airport, water treatment plant and community hall. Weather conditions were delaying repairs Thursday afternoon also.
The community was under a blizzard warning Wednesday, with winds gusting 60 to 80 km/h bringing wind chills of -50 C, according to Environment Canada.
Conditions Thursday remained extremely cold, with a wind chill of -36 C. Schools, hamlet offices and government buildings were closed.
Some community members have asked to borrow generators to heat their homes on Facebook. One person offered to share an extra stove and use of a power station to charge phones or a small space heater.
Laura Tavalok, a Gjoa Haven resident, was critical of the hamlet for the amount of time it took to provide an emergency response.
“[There are] no places for the ones that waited 14 hours with no heat, and it was extremely cold and very stormy with really poor visibility,” Tavalok said in a Facebook message.
“They should have people to go to warm places like the school, church, hamlet, community hall, you name it.”
The Hamlet of Gjoa Haven was providing updates on Facebook, saying community leaders were working to find a suitable warming shelter but added that the community hall was closed because it was unheated.
The Nunavut Water Board announced it would open its office as a warming shelter as of 1 p.m. Thursday and hamlet officials were also working on warming up the elder bus to give rides to people who need them.
Gjoa Haven Mayor Ray Quqshuun and senior administrative officer Jennifer Wakegijig did not respond to requests for more information.
Third world conditions in a rich country!
Isn’t this what NTI spent money to prepare for? Was it a million dollars?
The mayor nor Jennifer care to ever be accountible to the hamlet. Thats why they never comment. No discussion, all council meetings cancelled. No one wants to work and no inter agency communication. Maybe the mayor and Jennifer need to ask themselves some questions while looking in the mirror.
Thank you to CAO , Mayor, and community members, School principals N.W.B , Housing Manager ,Community members for such endless support to our community. The S&R & Volunteers for coming together to keep the community safe country food and snacks from schools DEA and waterboard for providing warm places and food
None of the hamlet buildings are fit. They are always froze up and closed cause the hamlet doesnt do their job. How many months has the let equipment been broken down parked out in the tundra. Our hamlet management need to do better. A lot better.
I was good until it far to long and cold! It was very hard trying to keep my children warm!!! They were cold a little 1 year old wanted to run around!! And not stay in the blankey while her little hands and feet were cold!!! It was tough! I bursted out crying because we couldnt take the cold !anymore and than i calles bylaw! Becausw there was a post if anybody dont have a place to go by 9! Hamlet can find a solution I called bylaw and told them we got nowhwhere to go unfortunately they couldnt find us places!!! We were left cold for to long it hurts !!!
Its really hard to trust anything the hamlet says. They post stuff like above congratulating everyone but the hamlet didnt do anything. It was everyone else scared and tired of waiting who did all the great work. This hamlet has really gotten bad the last 3 years
Several days in to this issue and still no real action happening. Hamlet CAO has left again and no one seems to be getting anything done. Most houses still dont have water or heat but she gets moved to a working house immediately and than hops on the first plane out. This leader needs to look in the mirror.