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AKLAVIK - A blizzard knocked out power for more than 11 hours to much of Aklavik last Tuesday, prompting a courageous pick-up and repair operation.

Randy Robinson, director of the NWT Power Corporation's high Arctic region, said the corporation noticed the power went out to half of Aklavik around 8:30 a.m. Power was not restored until approximately 7:30 p.m. because a lineman wasn't available in the community to fix the problem.

"When this sort of an incident happens, you're waiting for a lineman," said Robinson.

The closest lineman available was in Inuvik, and with sustained winds of 56 kilometres per hour - and gusts of up to 102 km per hour - whipping up walls of snow, planes were unable to get into the community.

Evelyn Storr, senior administrative officer with the hamlet, said her office contacted the power corporation around noon and suggested a snowplow be sent to Inuvik to pick up the lineman, as the community had already been without power for nearly four hours and the situation was "serious."

"They thought it was a good idea and something had to happen," said Storr.

The 87 kilometre Aklavik access road - connecting to the Tuktoyaktuk access road - had not opened yet for the winter as of press time Wednesday afternoon.

However, Gurdev Jagpal, regional director of the Department of Transportation's Inuvik region, said the road was ready for traffic by Tuesday.

"It was about to open," he said. "Our foreman was there, checking the ice."

He said the department okayed the decision to pick up the lineman beforehand.

"We didn't ask," said Robinson. "They, of their own volition, figured that was a good solution to this problem."

The lineman - a contractor for the power corporation - had the problem fixed in 10 minutes, said Robinson.

Storr said people in the community mostly stayed in their homes.

"Some elders went to stay with family," she said. "People were worried but not panicking."

Scott Nightingale, principal of Moose Kerr school, said the power stayed on at the school and Aurora College.

"People were able to go to Moose Kerr school or Aurora College if they wanted a place to get warm or to use the washroom facilities."

"School was cancelled for the first time in years,."

He said the college had up to 25 people staying there at a time.

Nightingale said residents of the community drove around in snowmobiles or vehicles to make sure everyone was OK and had a warm place to go.

Yvonne Bilan-Wallace, meteorologist with Environment Canada, said blizzard and wind warnings were issued for most parts of the Mackenzie Delta on Monday.

Wallace called it a "unusually nasty day in the Delta" and a once-in-20-year windstorm for Inuvik.

Temperatures were relatively mild in Aklavik, dipping down to -13 C and a wind chill of -22 C.

Robinson said there were no other outages in the region, other than a brief three-minute blip in Inuvik, not related to the storm.

Jagpal said workers were busy plowing snowdrifts off the road Wednesday and the access road would be open soon.