Canadian Armed Forces on ground in Manitoba First Nation assessing damage from outage

Members of the Canadian Armed Forces are on the ground to survey the damage after a days-long power outage at a northern Manitoba First Nation.

The Canadian Armed Forces (CAF) is now on the ground on a Manitoba First Nation to survey the damage caused by a nearly week-long power outage last month.

The CAF confirmed Tuesday that seven members of a technical assessment team are currently in Pimicikamak Cree Nation assessing the needs of the community.

“We have folks on our team that are experts in construction engineering, environmental engineering, power generating systems, electrical distribution systems, and a couple others,” said Lt. Colonel Aarthi Prabhakaran, the technical assessment team’s commanding officer.

A power outage on Dec. 28 that wasn’t fully repaired until Jan. 2 plunged the community into darkness, forcing residents to heat their homes using candles and generators. Thousands of residents evacuated to Winnipeg, Thompson and other communities as Manitoba Hydro worked to repair the broken line that caused the outage.

Roughly 4,400 people remain evacuated.

The outage occurred during a period of extreme cold in northern Manitoba, causing pipes to freeze and burst and sewers to backup. The province and community leaders requested assistance from the CAF.

Prabhakaran said the first priority for the team is assessing the water and sewer treatment plants in the community to determine next steps.

“A lot of great work has gone into remediating the systems, and so as we continue our assessment, we’ll be able to better refine the work that’s already been done and what work needs to take place,” she said.

Prabhakaran said more technicians are expected to arrive Wednesday.

“We have an electrical distribution technician who’s coming in, and we have a water filtration and environment technician as well,” she said. “They’ll both be key in helping do the assessment on the wastewater treatment facilities as well as support the power generation systems. The third individual is a liaison officer to help us with the coordination efforts.”

Prabhakaran said the assessments will determine if more assistance and support are needed from CAF.

- With files from CTV’s Harrison Shin