It was a dark and stormy night in Tuk
High winds and a power outage sent more than 50 to shelter at school
Evan Kiyoshi French
Northern News Services
Monday, March 9, 2015
TUKTOYAKTUK
Mangilaluk School became a shelter to more than 50 people after high winds knocked out power in Tuk March 1.
Katrina Cockney, executive assistant for the hamlet, said the majority of people who sheltered at the school came and went but around 25 stayed the night on mats in the gym.
"Everybody was in good spirits," she said. "We just made sure everybody was okay and had something to eat and drink."
A donation from a hamlet store provided sandwiches, water and snacks for the children, said Cockney.
"That was good," she said. "We had coffee, tea and juice in the kitchen."
Community SAO Terry Testart said the power dropped at the Ranger Point subdivision around 5 a.m., and by 7 a.m. power was out in most of the other buildings in the hamlet. Northwest Territories Power Corp (NTPC) told hamlet staff they wouldn't be able to get to the area until the following morning, so by 5 p.m. a state of emergency was declared, he said.
"It was to trigger response and also to activate an emergency measures group to do something and to mitigate any liabilities or spending that (we) do in an emergency," he said. "So we alerted the Government of the Northwest Territories of the declaration."
Testart said around 200 homes lost power, leaving the majority of approximately 850 hamlet inhabitants in the dark.
Although there were high winds the temperature was unusually high–around 0 C at the warmest point–so many residents opted to stay locked up in their homes.
With a forecast saying temperatures would drop well below -20 C, Testart said hamlet staff decided to send out a bus to pick up the most vulnerable residents to take them to the school.
Cockney said it was her first time dealing with an emergency situation.
"It didn't bother me," she said.
"I wanted to help because I wanted to make sure the kids that didn't have power had somewhere to go. There was quite a few kids that went to the school."
Children played while the adults passed the time with card games and many had personal tablets to keep entertained, said Cockney.
Power was restored around 10 a.m. the following morning, she said, although two homes were still without power until 10:30. She said the women's shelter opened their doors and housed two families during the blackout as well.
Testart said he hasn't learned exactly where the power lines were severed, although he suspects it would have been the main trunk line into town because some homes connected to other trunk lines still had power.
He said the wind did minimal damage but one building at the hamlet's landfill site was knocked down.
