NUNAVUT
High wind and blizzard conditions battered Nunavut last week, with some of the most remote communities taking the brunt of the damage.

Wind damaged a Pangnirtung home under construction last week. Harsh blizzards closed schools and caused power outages in communities across the territory. - David Kilabuk photo

Debris from building material flew through the air in Grise Fiord and damaged power lines, cutting off half of the community's electricity supply. A chartered aircraft carrying a Qulliq Energy Corporation repair crew landed on a runway lit only by headlights from pickup trucks and snowmobiles.

In Pangnirtung, consistent extreme winds vibrated power lines and damaged insulators and connections in the hamlet's power system.

"We've had some damage to our distribution systems in Grise Fiord and Pangnirtung," said Andy Burns, manager of operations and maintenance with QEC. "It started on Monday and has been ongoing."

Qulliq Energy Corporation staff were working overtime to resolve the issues but were impeded by continuing extreme weather conditions.

"We have not been able to land a chartered aircraft with line maintenance crew in either community due to the winds," Burns said on Jan. 13.

By the next day, QEC had managed to make it to both Pangnirtung and Grise Fiord but was still delayed landing in Resolute.

Government organizations in Grise Fiord had to move backup generators from house to house around the community to prevent freeze-ups during the outage.

QEC staff were on call 24/7 last week, with a team of 15 to 20 people working on the outages and providing remote support from Iqaluit.

Burns said he didn't want to speculate yet about how expensive this storm could turn out to be.

"This does happen with extremely high winds from time to time and we're prepared to respond to these situations, as we've experienced in the past as well," he said.

"Our crews will continue to work around the clock until power is restored to all of our customers in each of the communities that had trouble. We really appreciate our customers patience and understanding during this time."

Blizzards hit just about every inch of Nunavut over the past week and a half, with each community taking its turn.

Sanikiluaq and Baffin Island communities had blizzards and high gusting winds early in the week, while the west side of Nunavut took a bruising just after.

At time of press on Jan. 15, both Naujaat and Baker Lake still had blizzard warnings in effect from Environment Canada.