NEWS 3
NEWS 5
Refinery loses power
SALUTING LABOUR UNIONS 21
Firefighters do double duty A message from labour prez FOR THE BEST LOCAL
COVERAGE WEDNESDAY SEPTEMBER 2 2015
LOCAL NEWS â LOCAL MATTERS
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ROOTS UP
Neighbours stop to snap a pic of a large tree that fell down on Cascade Street, between Erin and 16th avenues. For more photos of the damage and debris left behind from the weekendâs storm, visit www. burnabynow.com. PHOTO JENNIFER GAUTHIER
City crews tackle storm aftermath Storm caused more damage than one in 2006, and it took city three months to clean up from that one Janaya Fuller-Evans
jfuller-evans@burnabynow.com
City Hall went dark during this weekendâs storm, along with much of Burnaby, according to the cityâs director of engineering, Leon Gous. City staff had to contend with the power outage, with backup generators providing power for high priority areas such as police dispatch and phone lines, while city crews were clearing up the mess left behind by high winds and drought-damaged trees.
âAny of the important public-facing services were up and running really quickly,â Gous told the NOW, adding administrative services were back on Sunday night. However, power went down again on Monday, he said, adding, âSo there are some areas where people are in the dark this morning (Monday).â Meanwhile, city crews were out dealing with fallen trees and storm debris full-time from Saturday at noon until 11 p.m., and again on Sunday, he said. There were 25 roads blocked by fallen
trees over the weekend, he added, and all of those have been cleared. âTheyâre now dealing with curb-to-curb cleanup,â Gous said, adding Mondayâs heavy rains also affected the work. âWeâre obviously trying to make sure as well, that weâre managing the rain storm on top of what came down,â he said. City crews are checking catch basins to make sure leaves and branches arenât blocking them, as well as making sure filter bags are removed at construction sites. Over the weekend, three water pump stations were also affected by the power outage, with two up and running on backup power pretty quickly, according to Gous. âThere was, I think, one small area that
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had about 75 homes that had no water for a very short period, but we then got a backup system up and running, retesting the water and re-chlorinated it,â he said. âSo we did that, cleaned out the water and got those up and running.â That was in the Capitol Hill area, he added. As crews are clearing city streets, Gous had suggestions for residents regarding clearing their properties. Large branches should be piled on the curb, for road crews to pick up, he said. âAnything that does fit in the green bins, we obviously recommend people do that, but we suspect thereâll be far more than the Continued on page 8
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