Canada Kitamaat Village evacuated after 3 days without power due to near record

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Residents had to cut through fallen trees with chainsaws to gain road access

B.C.'s Haisla First Nation ordered the evacuation of Kitamaat Village and its 800 residents on Saturday night, three days after the community lost power following a major snowstorm.



Believe it or not, there's a car in there somewhere. Residents spent Saturday, Feb. 7, 2015, digging out from a record snowfall in Kitimat and Terrace.
Residents have been asked to stay off the roads as municipal crews try to clear streets of snow, fallen trees and downed power lines.
A Kitimat resident used a drone to take this aerial view of the snowbound town.
Kitimat and the surrounding area was still digging out Sunday after a record snowfall dumped nearly two metres of snow on the region.
Video camera footage from a local resident's drone shows the extent of the snowfall in one Kitimat neighbourhood.
Snowbanks rise on either side of the road near the a construction camp in Kitimat. At times during the storm, snowplows just couldn't keep up.
In many areas of the town, snow was nearly up to the rooftops.
Most of Kitimat was closed on Friday because of the snowstorm.
A car is half buried in snow following record snowfall.
Kitimat Pentecostal Church peeks out from beneath a blanket of snow.
Kitimat residents were buried by nearly two metres of snow over the weekend.
Kitimat residents say the snow has reached some rooftops.
Snow fills the KMP construction camp in Kitimat.
The snow in Terrace has kept Hilary Zornow and her family from going anywhere.
















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Many residents are staying at the Kitimat Riverlodge Leisure Centre, about 15 kilometres north in the town of Kitimat.

Others are staying with family and friends.

The small towns of Kitimat and Terrace were hit with heavy snow earlier this week — nearly two metres of snow from a Pineapple Express weather system was dumped on the region.

The record for a 24-hour snowfall, set on Feb. 5, 1961, was 112 cm. Weather officials say Kitimat came close with 109 cm of snow in a 24-hour period.

Evacuation ordered over Facebook

In a notice posted to Facebook on Saturday, Haisla First Nation chief councillor Ellis Ross warned of a short timeline for the Sunday morning evacuation — the road in and out of the village would be open for just three hours.

"If you have the means to get to town or somewhere else besides Kitamaat Village, please be gone before 8 a.m. PT. Anytime after 8 a.m., don't even try. The crews will be working and there will be no traffic allowed," the notice said.

Resident Robin Rowland said the evacuation was complicated by downed trees, power lines and heavy snow.

Residents had to use chainsaws to gain access to the winding road between the village and Kitimat, he said. The road was reported as barely passable due to fallen trees and snow.

Drone video of snow-bound Kitimat
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/kitamaat-village-evacuated-after-3-days-without-power-due-to-near-record-snowfall-1.2949616

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