Brodie Thomas
Northern News Services
Published Wednesday, January 30, 2008
YELLOWKNIFE - Yellowknifers are shivering through the midst of a -40C cold snap with no immediate end in sight.
Residents of Yellowknife were left in the cold and the dark Monday night for more than two hours when a power outage hit the entire city around 10:15 p.m.
Krystine Hogan, left, and May Thiessen bundle up against the -40C weather yesterday. - Brodie Thomas/NNSL photo |
Albert Bouchard of Northland Utilities said that most customers had their power restored shortly after midnight.
"Our people responded as quickly as they possibly could," said Bouchard.
Randy Patrick, director of hydro operations with Northwest Territories Power Corporation (NTPC), said the outage was due to a malfunctioning transformer at the Jackfish Lake power plant.
"The extreme cold weather we are currently experiencing decreases the volume occupied by oil in transformers and in this case triggered an alarm causing the outage," he said.
Patrick said the outage affected the entire city of Yellowknife, as well as Ndilo, Dettah, and Behchoko. The malfunctioning transformer was bypassed and power from the Snare Lake hydro system was restored.
NTPC did not have to resort to using the Jackfish Lake diesel generating station.
It is unclear how many residents had problems with plumbing and heating in their homes. Susan Leblanc said she lost her propane water heater after the outage.
"I'd like to know why the power company can't get on these things more quickly," said Leblanc.
This is only the third day of what could be the longest stretch of -40C weather since January, 2004.
In that year, Yellowknife experienced six straight days of -40C weather.
The long-term forecast shows these temperatures continuing through the weekend.
"There's no clear hope in sight," said Environment Canada meteorologist Yvonne Bilan-Wallace.
The cold weather has put emergency shelters into overdrive.
The Salvation Army has kept its shelter open 23 hours a day since the cold weather hit on Sunday.
"We've been operating at capacity," said Julie Gould-Benreddad, director of community services and the homeless shelter with the Salvation Army.
She said the homeless shelter does its best to accommodate everyone who is in need of shelter when the temperature drops below -30C.
She said they are working closely with the RCMP to ensure that nobody is left out in the cold.
The Department of Transportation issued a warning Tuesday that airline schedules have been affected by the extremely cold weather.
Air Tindi spokesperson Teri Arychuk said that ice fog has caused some troubles.
"There were some definite delays in the early morning with ice fog but it seems to be clearing up by 10 or 11 (a.m.)."
Students hoping that schools might close because of the cold weather are probably out of luck. Yellowknife Education District No. 1's policy is to remain open during extremely cold weather, said Metro Huculak, the district superintendent.
The city has cancelled all major snow removal for the rest of the week due to the cold weather, according to Dennis Althouse, public works superintendent.
"After -40 our graders start to give us a rough time. When it gets this cold it doesn't look as if there will be (snow) accumulation," said Althouse.
The service is scheduled to resume on Monday, if the temperatures rise.
