WILTONDALE — A scheduled power outage became a two-day nightmare for residents in Wiltondale, near Gros Morne National Park, this past week.
The initial loss of power to the town last Thursday was required in order to make it safe for Newfoundland and Labrador Hydro to inspect a nearby transformer, said company manager of corporate communications Dawn Dalley.
The power went off at 6 a.m. that day, according to Dalley. The power didn’t return until two days later, at approximately 6 a.m. Saturday morning.
“We were having problems with the transformer that provides power to the Wiltondale substation,” said Dalley. “When we opened it up, we found the damage was more extensive than we thought.”
The damage was so extensive, in fact, that the unit could not remain in service and the company was forced to bring in and install a mobile substation that will be used until the unit is repaired or a new unit is purchased.
The extended power outage resulting from the unexpected discovery was felt by many residents in the area.
One of those residents is Cora Wilton.
“It was supposed to be off two hours and it was off 50,” said Wilton, who has lived in the area since 1945.
Wilton said her personal losses were minor, with only a couple of cartons of milk falling victim to the heat, but the inconvenience was still felt.
“No tea or anything,” said Wilton. “All you could eat was bread or cereal.”
“I wanted coffee so bad — up to the restaurant they have a propane stove,” said Wilton, who knowingly called up. “The girl brought me down a cup.”
Claims forms available
Newfoundland and Labrador Hydro does have a claims process available and, according to Dalley, the company has contacted all its customers in the area to explain what happened and make them aware that should they feel they require some sort of compensation, they will first have to fill out a claims form.
“We are still encouraging our customers to contact us if they have damages,” said Dalley.
Wilton says she has no intention of seeking any kind of compensation for her troubles.
“I can’t go for anything because I didn’t lose anything,” she said.
The same is not being said by every customer in the area.
At Wiltondale Lumber, George Halfyard claims that a power surge that accompanied the blackout caused damages to his equipment.
“I lost some of my equipment,” said Halfyard. “I lost some mortars.”
The lumber mill will be looking for some compensation for those losses, Halfyard added on Thursday.
Coyley Endicott Jr. owns and operates Coyley’s Gas Bar in Wiltondale. He is also filing a claim and is open about his feelings on the outage.
“It was terrible,” said Endicott, adding that for a business like his and many in the area, a power outage is an especially difficult thing to face during the tourist season. We lost a whole bunch of ice cream, cabins with no power, the restaurant and that, in July,” he said.
“So we’re in the process of doing up a claim,” he added. “I don’t know if they’re going to help us out or not, but we’re going to try.”
Meanwhile, Wiltondale residents can expect another planned power outage once their transformer is repaired and returned — or a new transformer is purchased.
It may be some time before that happens, according to Dalley, and no date has yet been set. Even so, the company does expect everything to run smoothly with the service the next time around.
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