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Sentinel
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Northern
www.northernsentinel.com
Volume 61 No. 06
Wednesday, February 11, 2015
1.30 INCLUDES TAX
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The old history of a Kitimat’s legendary disaster. /page 6 Sentinel show brings out past employees. /page 9
Rallying trying to save grizzly CO says bear is a problem as others say that’s wrong Cameron Orr A grizzly bear, which the Conservation Officer Service have set to be destroyed once captured in Kitimat, has some residents crying out. The problem bear has been rummaging through the garbage of a dumpster on the Rio Tinto Alcan smelter site. Conservation Officer Gareth Scrivner says the bear has been using the dumpster as a food source for a number of weeks now and its reliance on the waste means the bear isn’t a candidate for relocation. “It’s unusual for [the bear] to be up at the site at this time of year so we’ve got some concerns over why exactly it would be up and about right now. I know it’s been mild but generally grizzlies are pretty good at denning out for the winter time,” said Scrivner. “It could be that perhaps it’s been accessing this food stuff for a length of time before we were made aware of it.” He said bears sometimes won’t den and hibernate if they have a good food source. At Lakelse some bears won’t den until near Christmas because there is still salmon in the rivers and its not cold enough. Unfortunately for this bear, the fact that it’s been consistently going through garbage means it will have to be put down. That said a local scaffolding worker who is in the area often said the bear in question hasn’t been a problem and fears the loss of the large animal for what he sees as no good reason. Continued on page 6 PM477761
BC Hydro crews have been stretched to their limits and tirelessly continue to work around the clock to repair fallen lines. Photo Louisa Genzale
Blizzards, blankets, communities Malcolm Baxter It was a trick. After a January of rain, rain and more rain, Old Man Winter unleashed a ferocious snow storm the likes of which had not been seen here for many a year. After a gorgeous sunny day Wednesday, February 4, heavy powder snow began falling overnight and continued to come down throughout the day February 5. Even then it wasn’t anything we wouldn’t see in any normal winter storm. But as darkness fell the full fury of the storm was unleashed and increased through Friday, February 6 as a fully fledged blizzard. The first power outages started Thurs-
day night and their number grew on Friday as the snow load brought down trees and power lines, especially on the Kitamaat Village Road as the village lost all power. At 10:21 a.m. Friday the city’s public works operations manager Brian Krause, in a release, said, “Our employees are doing the best they can and we ask all Kitimatians to bear with us as the snow continues to fall. By then the city’s recreation facilities had already closed. They were to be followed by the City Centre Mall, other businesses and even the bus service. At 7:40 p.m mayor Phil Germuth issued a statement the city was doing the best it could
in the circumstances. “Our employees have been working around the clock to get streets cleared but the extremely heavy snowfall, combined with power outage, has made these efforts challenging.” As the blizzard
roared on private contractors and Rio Tinto Alcan joined the city in its efforts to clear streeets more quickly and the city said crews would be working through the night. It also warned it would be towing vehicles abandoned on
city streets to Nechako Centre - vehicles left on streets were creating havoc with efforts to clear roads. By Friday night Kitimat’s Emergency Operations Centre had been set up to organise all the extra equipment Continued on page 6