Some communities on the west coast are still dealing with serious ramifications from last weekend’s weather, but Corner Brook appears to have mostly escaped that fate.
While there was certainly damage done, the current focus of the city is on assessing exactly how much.
There was at least one more water break on Wednesday, in the Curling area, but Mayor Jim Parsons said those are common for this time of year and not necessarily related to the recent mid-winter thaw. There was another potential break in the Raymond Heights area, but Parsons couldn’t confirm that at the time of the interview.
“Other that that, it’s business as usual,” he said via cell phone from Marble Mountain on Wednesday evening, where he had just witnessed the Stanley Cup be skied down the hill.
Information on how the city could file for disaster relief money was released on Tuesday, so Parsons said the work on putting together that claim is ongoing.
There’s so much now hidden under the snow, he said, so workers are trying to document as much of it as possible.
Ice currently exists on the outdoor rinks being constructed for Scotiabank Hockey Day in Canada activities on Saturday, so if they survive the somewhat milder temperature that was expected today, everything should be good to go.
“It’s looking good,” Parsons said. “We’re optimistic.”
Humber Arm South
Now that the road has been temporarily repaired near John’s Beach, Frenchman’s Cove is accessible again, so the state of emergency for that section of the four-community town was lifted on Tuesday.
Obviously a full fix won’t be possible until summer, so the next big thaw — which Mayor Glenn Savard is praying won’t come until spring — will likely cause issues in the area again. The road is currently just flattened out with Class A gravel.
“We have to see what kind of stuff shakes down when the frost comes out of the ground,” he said. “It’s hard. It’s a bad time of year.”
There’s still a lot of work to be done, with clean-up efforts moving to the Clarke’s Brook and Cammie’s Brook areas today, Savard said, where flooding caused a lot of damage.
Lark Harbour/York Harbour
Lark Harbour Mayor Melanie Joyce was hopeful the section of road washed away near Rattlers Brook would be reopened sometime today for one lane of traffic when contacted by The Western Star on Wednesday night.
“We’re just waiting for government officials to say what time,” she said.
Later in the evening, following that interview, a media advisory did state traffic lights were in place in the area and that Route 450 was reopened, with crews monitoring and escorting traffic through.
Joyce said residents of Lark Harbour and York Harbour received supplies like eggs, bread, milk, and furnace oil on Tuesday thanks to Coast Guard auxiliary members. Skipper Alan Sheppard and Joyce’s husband Gerard took the Western Leader on the run from Lark Harbour to Benoit’s Cove to pick up the goods.
Everything else, she said, is looking pretty good as workers continue to patch up the main roads, before turning their attention to the byroads.
Trout River
“We didn’t have hours, we had minutes.”
That’s what Trout River Mayor Horace Crocker said of the close call the town experienced with the bank behind Jakeman All Grade School eroding away into the river behind it on Tuesday.
“From the time the first rock fill was gone in the river, I’d say we only had two or three inches of earth between the water and the physical concrete in the wall,” he said.
Contractors will continue to work in that area and others today, so the school will remain closed until at least Monday, since Friday was already scheduled as a personal development day for teachers.
“Hopefully everything will be A-OK for Monday morning,” Crocker said.
