Water levels still high as central Labrador recovers from flooded roads, power outage

The spring melt kept water levels high in Happy Valley-Goose Bay Monday, and the town has shut down the Birch Island road where water can be seen spilling onto the sidejust after the bridge.

Water levels came up as high as some of the boardwalks installed in the protected wetlandarea. The Town saidthe road will remain closed until further notice.

This after a chaotic weekend in which the communities of North West River and Sheshatshiu were cut off from road access and power.

"The highway closure definitely caused the most problems, the power outage just kind of complicated that issue," North West River Mayor Derek Montague told CBC News.

"Given the fact that we were hit with so many situations at once, it went as smooth as you can imagine."

• North West River Road reopened, communities reconnected
• Highway to North West River closed due to flooding

Montague said he was happy with the response from provincial services, getting the clinic open for medical care and using a helicopter foremergencies.

Work was still being done Mondayto repair damage to Route520 Monday, where shoulders of the road had been washed away.

Communication breakdown

All of central Labrador was affected by the power outage which NL Hydro said was caused by a broken cross arm on thetransmissionline fromChurchill Falls to Happy Valley-Goose Bay.

"We are still investigating the cause of why they did fail. Was it vandalism? Was it age?"NL Hyrdro Vice Presidentof Production Jennifer Williams said.

A 25 year old gas turbine backup generatorin Happy Valley-Goose Bay was unavailablebecause of an oil leak.

Williams said the generatoris scheduled to be repaired through the summer and NL Hydro is also applying to the Public Utilities Board to do upgrades this year instead of in twoyears time.

"You are running a risk when you don't have a backup generator or an emergency electrical plan for when the power goes out," Montague said.

"The main way of communicating now is through the Internetand through the computer," he added.

"But if the power's out and people don't have data on their cell phones, they can't be charged and if they can't have access to their Internetor laptops at home then how do you get messages across?"

Montague said the town was able to use generators to power the its water and sewagelifts.