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[Capergirl]

Mayor: no �quick fix� Tuesday, September 30, 2003
By Shaune MacKinlay, Brian Flinn, Kim Moar, Andrea MacDonald & Cathy Nicoll

Binney Street in Halifax was one of dozens of streets in metro that were clogged with fallen trees yesterday. (Photo: Paul Darrow)

Rob Blackburn was sitting in the newly renovated living room of his Roslyn Road home in Halifax�s west end, reading The Sunday Daily News by candlelight, when he heard the crash of the maple tree in his front yard falling early yesterday morning.

�The branch came about four feet through the picture window,� Blackburn said yesterday, gesturing to the plywood he managed to hammer up in high winds, while wearing a football helmet for protection.

His 13-year-old son Ryan was asleep upstairs, when he heard the wind whip up and the tree crack.

�I ran downstairs, I saw glass everywhere, everything was blowing around,� Ryan said.

It was a scene repeated throughout the Halifax region, as Hurricane Juan tore a vicious path across Nova Scotia, ransacking Truro and driving the tall ship replica Hector aground in Pictou, before heading across the Northumberland Strait to wallop Prince Edward Island.

Premier John Hamm said he was struck by the extent of damage when he drove into Halifax yesterday.

�When you see something, it�s far more dramatic than looking at a briefing note,� he said.

Hamm said he has seen no estimate on the cost of the damage across Nova Scotia. Ottawa is committed to helping pay for any disaster where damage amounts to more than $900,000.

Hamm said Hurricane Juan will add to the province�s financial trouble: his government already needs to cut $32 million to erase a deficit created by a slumping economy.

At least three people were killed in the storm. John Rossiter, a 31-year-old paramedic, died when a tree fell on an ambulance in Halifax. Two other unidentified persons were killed in separate incidents in Enfield and Hants County when trees crushed their cars.

The Department of National Defence has committed 600 troops from the navy, army and air force to assist in the clean up of fallen trees and limbs that have clogged streets throughout Halifax Regional Municipality. And Nova Scotia Power workers were scrambling to restore power to more than 180,000 homes and businesses that were still in the dark as of the late afternoon.

NSP chief executive Chris Huskilson said some metro residents could be without electricity until Thursday. He urged people to check on their neighbours and the elderly.

Aliant crews are also busy restoring telephone service in metro, Truro and New Glasgow. Spokeswoman Kelly Gallant said power outages and obstructed streets were slowing repairs.

�We�re trying to do it as safely as possible, and as quickly as possible,� Gallant said.

George McLellan, HRM�s chief administrative officer, said work crews are toiling around the clock to restore services, including public transit. The city will issue an update at 6 a.m. notifying residents about the status of bus and ferry services, and whether power has been restored to the downtown cores.

To help reduce accidents during the outage, Halifax Regional Police Chief Frank Beazley advised motorists to treat intersections without working traffic signals as four-way stops. Since many city streets are still hazardous, police urge the public to leave their cars at home.

Beazley increased patrols in case of looting during the power outages, though none had been reported.

The Halifax Regional School Board cancelled classes for today, as did Saint Mary�s University. The provincial and federal governments told their workers to stay home today unless they are needed in the cleanup effort. Health-care workers will report to work as usual.

Also yesterday, officials urged citizens to stay off streets and give city crews room to work. But summer-like temperatures and sunshine brought out residents in droves.

City spokesman John O�Brien said �rubber-neckers� driving around sightseeing presented problems for both police, who were forced into traffic duty, and work crews who couldn�t clean up debris properly.

Juan�s wrath was impressive in the Hydrostone district, where trees planted more than 80 years ago tipped over at their roots. Kane Street resident Janet Kimber was looking out her front window when a 20-metre elm crashed into her home.

The neighbourhood was built from concrete blocks for people left homeless by the Halifax Explosion. Kimber said the sturdy construction saved her from anything worse than a cracked skylight.

�It wasn�t really until we went upstairs that we realized it was on our house,� she said.

Out on the boulevard, passers-by scavenged for debris from the last catastrophe to hit the neighbourhood. One man found intact medicine bottles and a piece of a ginger beer bottle in the exposed roots of a tree, planted on refuse from the Explosion.

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[Wolf]

Nasty. A real mess. My family informed me of the storm (and that they're all ok) just after I posted here.