RED LAKE, Ont. — Forty-eight hours after a violent weather event knocked out hydro infrastructure in Red Lake, power was finally restored to all residences and businesses.
More than 2,100 customers were affected at the height of the outage.
But Mayor Fred Mota says there's a lot of work to be done to repair damaged structures and remove fallen trees in the sprawling municipality of 4,500.
A storm that brought wind in excess of 120 kilometres an hour knocked numerous trees onto power lines, ripped the roof off the Red Lake Regional Heritage Centre, and tore shingles off homes and businesses.
In an interview on Monday, Mota said it will take a considerable length of time to clean up all the debris.
The Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry is assisting with the removal of downed trees from roadways.
"We're getting back to, I don't want to say a normal state yet, but we're slowly making our way back to that," the mayor said.
Many local stores ran out of supplies during the power outage, but those are being replenished with new truckloads headed to Red Lake.
Mota expects the state of emergency to remain in effect for the balance of the week.
The declaration is necessary for the municipality to qualify for disaster relief from the Ontario government.
Mota said no one reported seeing a funnel cloud during Friday's event, but "the winds that day were strong for hours at a time."
The most significant damage to municipal infrastructure occurred at the heritage centre where the entire roof was ripped away, leaving exposed artifacts exposed to the rain.
The mayor said community groups assisted by the local Superior International Junior Hockey League team entered the building after it was declared safe to do so, and covered the artifacts with plastic, Some of the items were removed for storage elsewhere.
Red Lake's new Market Pavilion, currently under construction, also suffered a blow in the storm.
Mota described that as "a sad event."
He said some steel poles to support the roof of the half-completed structure were bent by the wind, pulling footings right out of the concrete.
"We were hoping to have a grand opening going into Halloween, but that could be delayed now. We're waiting for an engineer to assess it."
Mota said he's grateful to the Ministry of the Environment for relaxing rules limiting the amount of brush and wood that can be brought to the municipal landfill for burning.
"They've given us an extension on that agreement due to the amount of fallen trees and brush that residents are bringing," he said.
