Fredericton prepares for severe weather events in 2015

FREDERICTON – Councillor Bruce Grandy says the City of Fredericton will be better prepared for any weather events 2015 may hold, having learned from those in 2014.

Last year started with an ice storm that saw about 50,000 NB Power customers without electricity as ice-laden trees snapped and pulled down power lines across the province.

In July, post-tropical storm Arthur brought high winds and heavy rains which toppled trees, and downed power lines knocking out power to more than 140,000 N.B. Power customers at the height of the storm.

About 52,000 of those customers were in Fredericton.

“The challenges of last year were major for the city of Fredericton, the financial challenges were really astronomical,” said Grandy.

Arthur cost Fredericton $1.8 million while 2014’s many snowstorms cost the city an extra half a million. The city has applied for Disaster Financial Assistance from the province while the province is applying for federal funding.

Provincially, Arthur cost N.B. about $12.6 million.

Now, Fredericton is trying to be proactive.

“We’re fine-tuning our EMO process and our warming centres,” said Grandy. “We’re looking at putting generators strategically throughout the city at major buildings, one particularly downtown so that we can service the downtown, maybe the convention centre, so that we can house people in the downtown should we have a large power outage like we did before.”

The provincial Emergency Measures Organization said they’re also increasing emphasis on severe weather preparedness.

A spokesperson for EMO said they will be working more closely with owners and operators of telecommunications, transportation and health service providers to ensure essential services remain during weather events.

The application deadline for assistance is Feb. 20.