Residents of Pimicikamak Cree Nation are celebrating and relieved now that power and electricity are being restored to the community.
Manitoba Hydro has repaired a broken line that caused a widespread outage. On Thursday, it began restoring power to homes in stages, nearly four days after the downed line left community members without heat in freezing winter temperatures and prompted a state of emergency.
“I seen my outside light on. I said, ‘praise the Lord! We have light again!’” said Brenda Monias, who remained in the community for the entire duration of the outage.
She was overjoyed with the return of light and warmth on New Year’s Day. “It’s very good. And I’m happy for my grandchildren so they won’t be cold.”
Manitoba Hydro spokesperson Peter Chura said crews have completed repairs to the downed power line. He said power will be restored throughout the First Nation community Thursday as the utility gradually re-energizes customers.
The utility is turning the power back on in stages because doing so all at once “could overload and damage equipment, and prolong the outage,” Chura told CBC News
Power is expected to be fully restored to all customers in the community by sometime Thursday evening, he added.
On Sunday night, lights went dark and heaters went cold in the northern Manitoba First Nation, located about 530 kilometres north of Winnipeg, when a power line that crosses the Nelson River snapped.
“It was –30 with the wind chill here,” Grand Elder Raymond Robinson said of the situation earlier in the week before power was restored. “When I go to these homes, when they’re breathing you just see that mist coming out of people’s mouths because they didn’t have [any] heating system.”
Chief David Monias declared a state of emergency on Monday and criticized Hydro Manitoba for its initial slow response.
About 1,400 people left the community — which has a population of about 7,000 residents — to seek warm shelter at hotels or with loved ones, a provincial spokesperson told CBC News on Thursday.
The Canadian Red Cross shipped in more than 500 generators and 600 heaters for household use as of Thursday, the national organization told CBC News.
In a Thursday Facebook post Chief Monias said community leaders are concerned about the impact the prolonged outage and extreme cold may have had on infrastructure, like burst pipes and damaged water pumps.
He said plumbers are already working to fix the damage, but they might need more support as hundreds of homes may have been affected.
Coun. Shirley Robinson says that since the slowed return of power and water in Pimicikamak, she’s received calls and messages from residents detailing concerns in their homes.
“There’s sewage backups in bathtubs, there’s cracked toilet bowls, there’s cracked flooring from busted water lines,” Robinson said Thursday night. Communication with the provincial government had been minimal prior to Thursday, she added.
During the outage, community members rallied together to provide warm meals and shelter to residents.
Loretta Ross, for instance, made food for more than 1,000 people. “It was –30 with the wind chill here … but people were just lining up and they got hot meals, which I’m thankful for,” Ross said Thursday.
Brenda Monias echoed that community spirit. “We are survivors. Anything comes our way, we help each other,” she said, thanking front-line workers from the grocery store, to the nursing station and community volunteers who went home to home checking on people.
Hydro personnel will remain in the community to ensure that the power supply remains stable, Chura said.
The utility is also supplying Pimicikamak with a large generator to get its water treatment plant back up and running, as well generators and heaters for the warming centres until residents are able to return to their homes.
Despite the completed repairs, Chief Monias said evacuations are still ongoing for elders, babies and vulnerable people with medical concerns.
