by Kerry McCluskey
Northern News Services

NNSL (Jan 07/98) - Extreme cold forced Aven Manor seniors out of their homes late Sunday afternoon.

When an underground cable linked to a transformer was destroyed by ice, 29 residents of the around-the-clock-care facility were left without power and forced to evacuate and move across the road to the Baker community centre.

"One of the underground cables feeding the transformer failed because there was ice buildup in the duct that carries the cable," said Firmin Gaudet, the manager of customer services at Northland Utilities.

"The pressure of the ice tore the cable apart and we had to put a new cable in."

Gaudet said the entire process took just under three hours. "We got the call at 3:49 p.m. and power was restored by 6:40 p.m."

He added that the seniors can expect to be evacuated again. "Actually, the repairs that were done were temporary because of the extreme cold weather. We'll do the permanent repairs when the weather breaks again." Gaudet says the lasting fix will take a few hours to complete.

Lynda Koe, the resident care co-ordinator of Aven Manor, said the seniors were kept comfortable and entertained by supper, a sing-song led by Esther Braden and movies during the evacuation.

Koe credits everyone involved in the process, saying that it went smoothly.

"We needed to identify how long we would be there in case alternate arrangements needed to be made for some of our residents if they were not able to make the repairs right away," he said.

But we weren't in danger. The residents and staff did very well moving the 29 residents either on foot or by wheelchair to the Baker Centre."