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Blizzard puts strain on hamlet crews

A three-day blizzard late last week left walls of drifting snow in Cambridge Bay and has pushed hamlet staff to their limits in trying to maintain services.

Cambridge Bay Mayor Pamela Gross says hamlet crews have been working late into the evening to clear snow from a three-day blizzard and to provide water and sewage services. Gailene Pigalak/Hamlet of Cambridge Bay photo

Calls have flooded into the hamlet office requesting water tank fill ups and sewage pump outs. Mayor Pamela Gross said municipal employees have been trying to keep up.

"The crews are working really hard and working really late into the evenings. We need their services and appreciate what they do," Gross said Tuesday.

Making things even more challenging, the mayor noted, is that the hamlet didn't receive the vehicles it ordered on the final sealift of the season. That barge didn't arrive due to accumulating ice. Among the vehicles were a sewage truck and a garbage truck.

Regardless, workers are forging ahead with existing equipment.

"They're still cleaning up and they're doing a great job removing all the snow," said Gross. "Things are slowly getting back to normal around here, but there's still high snowbanks all over the place."