Residents of Grise Fiord, Nunavut, staying in local school, await power restoration

Snowmobile and truck lights helped a crew with the Qulliq Energy Corporation land in Grise Fiord, Nunavutthis morning, to restore power to about half the community.

Power was knocked out to the whole community ofGrise Fiord Monday night during a wind storm,when the roof of a house ripped off and took down a power line. During the storm, strong winds topped out at over 100 km/h.

Power has beenrestored to about 50 per cent of residents; the other half have taken shelter in the local school.

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"We had to evacuate with the kids from our house," said Susie Kiguktak, a town councillor.

Grise Fiord, population150, isCanada's most northerly community, and at this time of year the sun doesn't rise.

Despite that, Kiguktak said it was strange to see the town in total darkness.

"It was eerie just going through the community when it was like pitch black," she said. "We had no lights except for the car lights... that's all we could see.

"Never seen the town like that before," she laughed.

Kiguktak says about 50 people whose homesare without power are currently holding up in the school.

"Each classroom is filled with people, all night," she said. "People brought their mattresses and blankets with them."

'We had homemade runway lights'

A line crew with the Qulliq Energy Corporation finally made it the community to restore power this morning, after being delayed due to the continuing wind storm.

But it was no easy task to land the plane.

"We had homemade lights," Kiguktak laughed. "I think we had four skidoos, two trucks and a police truck at the end of the runway flashing their lights, with flare [pots].

"People up there at the airport started clapping and welcoming the crew," she said.

"It was a long couple days, couple nights."

Qulliq Energy's operations manager,Andy Burns, says he'sunsure how long it will take thecrew to fully restore power.

"I'm hesitant to give a restoration time," Burns said. "They can make a full assessment of the extent of the damages and we'll go fromthere."

Hole in health centre

The storm has left extensive damage to homes and buildings in the community. A roof was ripped off at least one house and Kiguktak says the local health centre also suffered significant damage.

"Our health centre wall from the outside to the inside has been hit.It's open from four feet up and two feet wide so it's actually open from the outside, you can actually see through the wall."

Kiguktak has lived in the community her whole life and said, "I've never seen anything like this."

But she said people in Grise Fiord have pulled together, as they always do.

"I just realized...how lucky I am to be living in the community where everyone works together and we're all a big family here and everyone gives a hand and we share our energy.

"I'm really proud to say that."