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One of the northern-most communities in the Northwest Territories is enduring its third blizzard in about two weeks, and with Christmas just hours away, residents are being greeted by mostly bare shelves in one of the community’s few stores.
Apart from empty shelves, residents of the Hamlet of Tuktoyaktuk also have to contend with rationing water, and Christmas mail being held up because of blizzards beating down on the area.
Mayor Erwin Elias said the ice road has been opening and closing, depending on the vagaries of the weather.
“There’s nothing anybody can do,” he said. “We’re dealing with Mother Nature.”
But he added that it was “trying times” for the hamlet.
With Christmas around the corner, Elias said store shelves have been almost stripped clean. Residents have even been asked to conserve water because trucks are unable to pass through the blizzards.
“Sometimes you have to preserve and ration some of the water because you never know how long the storms are going to last,” Elias said.
Christmas mail hasn’t reached community for a week
Christmas mail and gifts haven’t reached the community for about a week, Elias added.
“That’s definitely something that was unforeseen and unfortunate … we have to adapt to what’s happening at every level,” he said. “Whether it’s flooding in the community or highway closing, it’s something we’re always challenged with here.”
Environment Canada has issued a blizzard warning for Tuktoyaktuk with blowing snow expected on Christmas Day and a high of -18 C. It also warns that wind gusts will reach up to 60 kilometres per hour.
Kurt Wainman, who owns Northwind Industries, which has the contract to clear the Inuvik-Tuktoyaktuk highway, said his crews had to pull back Wednesday morning because it wouldn’t stop “snowing and blowing.”
“You couldn’t see anything in the road.”
Although crews managed to punch a hole through the snow earlier this week that allowed two trucks to pass through, Wainman said the weather “got too ugly too fast,” putting a stop to vehicles.
The blowing snow makes it dangerous because it is hard to see oncoming traffic, he noted.
It would take the crew at least two weeks to clean up the width of the road and make it passable for two vehicles, Wainman said.
“Because there’s that much snow. We have 20 and 30 foot (six to nine metre) banks in some areas.”
Elias, who travelled down south on Tuesday, said he managed to get back home via a narrow trail with high banks on either side, called a “goat trail.”
The weather — with snow piles — reminds Elias of his childhood days, he said.
“We used to have crazy big storms in the community where banks would be 20 to 30 feet (six to nine metres) high with snow and we’d have storms that would last a week,” the mayor said. “I haven’t seen that for a long time.”