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All hands on deck

Mennonite volunteers add their support for Cape Breton post-storm cleanup

IAN NATHANSON ian.nathanson@cbpost.com @CBPost_Ian

SYDNEY — Mounting cleanup efforts in the wake of post-tropical storm Fiona have prompted the Cape Breton Regional Municipality to reach out for even more help.

Enter the Mennonite Disaster Service, a volunteer network through which various groups within the Anabaptist tradition assist people affected by disasters in North America. The network’s Canadian office is based in Winnipeg.

“When there’s a disaster in any of the units, our local volunteers usually step in, but if it gets too big for them to handle, then we’ll then partner together with other provincial units or make it more nationwide,” said Nick Hamm, who chairs the Mennonite Disaster Service unit in Ontario — one of six provincial units from the Atlantic region to B.C. that respond to local disasters in Canada.

Hamm, working in tandem with the service’s Atlantic unit, said volunteers from the Ontario unit as well as from Glace Bay will help out clearing trees from yards and do any temporary home repairs where trees have blown onto residents’ homes.

“Right now, we have about six chainsaw operators with us,” Hamm said. “Basically, we want to help restore some order into people's lives in cases where people are having trouble looking after themselves because of what has happened.”

The Mennonite Disaster Service is also helping out in other Nova Scotia communities affected by Fiona, such as Antigonish.

“We had been invited to work with the municipalities.”

Nick Hamm Chair of the Mennonite Disaster Service unit in Ontario

‘WE HAD BEEN INVITED IN’

“We don’t come in unless we’re invited in,” Hamm said. “And in both Antigonish and Glace Bay’s cases, we had been invited to work with the municipalities. So they will take the calls from residents, especially those who are most vulnerable."

Much of the Mennonite Disaster Service’s involvement with cleanup efforts in Cape Breton was expedited by the United Way of Cape Breton’s executive director, Lynne McCarron, who also met with CBRM staff, the military and others to best co-ordinate additional efforts and resources needed to clear felled trees and debris to the most vulnerable residents.

Although the service had already arrived several days after Fiona tore through much of eastern Nova Scotia, Hamm — along with MDS Atlantic Canada unit chair Benny Penner — brought in some volunteers from a Mennonite community in Elmira, Ont., to begin helping vulnerable residents with tree-cutting and immediate property repairs.

“Even if a home qualifies for disaster financial assistance from the province, we don’t have time to wait for all that paperwork to be processed and money to go through, then have the ability to hire a contractor to be able to go up and fix a roof,” said McCarron. “By the time all that happens, there’ll be mould in the houses.

“So that’s part of what these volunteers will do — looking after the most immediate needs and trying to get these repairs done as quickly as possible.”

FRIDAY POWER RESTORATIONS

Nine days after Fiona, cleanup and power restoration efforts continue largely in Sydney, Glace Bay, Donkin-Port Morien-Mira-Albert Bridge areas and pockets of other rural CBRM locales.

While close to 93 per cent of customers in Cape Breton have had power restored, according to Nova Scotia Power (NSP), as of Monday afternoon, more than 4,400 active outages remain, with fewer than 19,600 customers still without electricity, according to the utility’s power outage map.

Along with NSP crews and contractors, hydro crews from New Brunswick, Quebec, Ontario and Maine have been circulating around CBRM working with military help to get power restored. However, some residents — notably in the Mira, Bateston and Main-a-Dieu corridor, as well as French Road and Grand Mira areas — may not see their electricity come back on until Friday at 11 p.m.

“We know how challenging it is to be without power for this long,” Mark Sidebottom, Cape Breton Emergency Operations Centre lead for Nova Scotia Power, said in a statement on Monday. “We update our estimates based on the information we get from the field and when a change is necessary, we let customers know as soon as possible.”

That may be of some comfort to Bridget Benz, owner of Cape Breton Barn Archers indoor archery facility in French Road.

“Without any power, we can’t go into the facility, there are trees everywhere,” said Benz. “The outage map told us we’d have power back by Wednesday, but you don’t really know what to expect.

“We’re doing OK, though, because we have a generator. But we just have to be patient.”

COTTAGE DAMAGE IN MIRA

For John-Paul Duquette, frustrations have set in — but not so much regarding reestablishing power.

Duquette, an Ontario resident but who has relatives in the Mira area, just purchased a cottage in Mira Gut a year ago and intended to get it fixed up in time to start making summer visits.

However, the Sept. 24 storm wound up severely damaging the roof and nearly bringing the cottage completely to the ground.

“It’s not our primary residence, thankfully, it was still under construction,” said Duquette. “So that wasn’t so much a concern.

“I’m just trying to deal with the insurance company. I was about to fly back to Ontario because I hadn’t heard from them in weeks. But then they called me (Monday) as we started heading to the airport, saying someone will be out (within a day).”

Despite his predicament, Duquette said his circumstances are far less frustrating compared to Cape Bretonarea residents whose homes suffered major structural damage from downed lines and fallen trees.

“I feel more badly for those people who have primary residences that have been seriously damaged, with kids at home, and not knowing how severe things are,” he said.

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2022-10-04T07:00:00.0000000Z

2022-10-04T07:00:00.0000000Z

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