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INUVIK
Much of Inuvik was closed down on Tuesday as blustery winds earlier in the week evolved into a full-blown whiteout.

There was low visibility on Mackenzie Road Tuesday afternoon as Inuvik was hit with a strong blizzard. - Katherine Hudson/NNSL photo

Karen King, manager of the Inuvik Mike Zubko Airport, said there was "substantial damage" to the airport roof.

She said the town's public works department which performs building maintenance have observed the damage and temporary repairs will be made to the roof as soon as the winds die down.

Inside, she said the building has power, heat and water and "you would never know there was exterior damage from the interior."

According to Yvonne Bilan-Wallace of Environment Canada, the winds in Inuvik on Tuesday broke a record at 98 km/h – with second place now going to 97 km/h winds in January 1991.

She said this system is an extremely unusual one – not made up of the normal circumstances of low pressure systems from the west including the Pacific, the Yukon or the Alaska coast.

"This came around the top of Greenland and basically dropped like a rock from the North Pole and came right through Victoria Island," said Bilan-Wallace.

She said there was also a big ridge of high pressure over Alaska and the Yukon and this deep, low pressure system with lots of snow and cloud dropped down simultaneously.

"The NWT got caught right in the middle, between the low and the high, and that's what's generating all of this."

Bilan-Wallace said the good news is the storm was expected to subside by Thursday, but the bad news is that there's another one right around the corner.

"The little brother of the big brother that just dropped into the North is swinging down into the area, too ... Stronger winds will be developing in the (Beaufort) Delta area on Friday, but not lasting very long. By the weekend, things should be a lot better," she said.

The temperatures increased on Tuesday to -17 C from -30 C on Monday morning – although the wind chill still made an impact.

All Town of Inuvik facilities were closed due to the weather including the Midnight Sun Complex, while the snow removal contractor was out clearing the roads to keep them open in case of emergencies.

Samuel Hearne Secondary School and Sir Alexander Mackenzie School were closed Tuesday and Wednesday. Aurora College, meanwhile, was open although all classes were cancelled on Tuesday.

Thea Rogers, an office clerk at NorthMart, said the shelves were stocked and the store was open for business during its regular hours on Tuesday.

Abdalla Mohamed, a taxi driver with United Taxi, said Tuesday morning that only the company's three SUVs were on the road.

"We're trying to just cover the emergency calls first," he said.

"We try to go the best we can, anywhere that's accessible to us. It's just that visibility is completely zero."

The Dempster Highway was temporarily closed Tuesday between Eagle Plains and Fort McPherson due to high winds and blowing snow as well as both the Tuktoyaktuk and Aklavik ice roads, according to a road report from the Department of Transportation.

"You can't see the runway," said an airport clerk Tuesday afternoon.

The clerk said flights were cancelled on both Monday and Tuesday and had still not resumed as of Wednesday at noon. It is up to the individual airlines to decide about starting up flights once weather conditions improve.

Staff Sgt. Wayne Norris said there were no major incidents on Tuesday during the blizzard.

"We keep our doors open and our lights on and we're getting our members out to patrol around," he said.

"We're getting them out onto the streets to keep a presence to make sure everyone's getting to where they need to get to and encouraging everyone to be safe out there."

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