Storm causes havoc in Cape Breton

SYDNEY — The strong winds and torrential rains that pounded Cape Breton Tuesday resulted in part of a roof of a large apartment building in Sydney collapsing and a crane toppling at the construction site of the second cruise ship berth project in Sydney harbour.

On Tuesday afternoon, Cape Breton Regional Police, EHS and the Cape Breton Regional Fire Services were at the 48-apartment building at 297 Rotary Drive, evacuating tenants after strong winds damaged the roof, resulting in some interior flooding and potential damage to the electrical service.

The Cape Breton Regional Municipality ordered the evacuation of the approximately 60 tenants to Centre 200.

Amanender Singh, 21, and his roommate, Abhilash Kondal, were on a CBRM transit bus being transported to Centre 200, worried about the future.

“A little bit worried because we have exams tomorrow (Wednesday) and two more after that and we need to study,” said Amanender.

Basically, he said, everything started at about 6 a.m. when they were awakened by a loud noise.

“It was loud,” Amanender said. “It scared me a little bit.”

Heading to the downstairs area of the building, someone told him the roof had collapsed. Friends in another apartment then showed up at their door, telling them their unit was flooded.

Later on, Amanender said someone came to the door to inform them they had to move out for a couple weeks.

“They said they would provide the shelter and food so there was nothing to worry about.”

Canadian Red Cross volunteers were at Centre 200 registering evacuees and arranging for emergency shelter, feeding and other essentials.

Michael Seth, fire chief of the Cape Breton Regional Municipality Fire Services, at the apartment building Tuesday, said with the damage to the building, there were concerns about structural issues.

“Our biggest concern right now is making sure everyone is safe,” he said.

"We are concerned about the flooding and how it has impacted the electrical system and overall fire protection systems in here.”

Seth said there was water on all of the floors at one end of the building

When they first arrived to assist, the alarms were being activated due to the flooding. As a result, they deduced the fire system was being affected as well as the electrical. If they left tenants behind, the tenants would be utilizing other means to keep themselves warm or cook their food, which would become a fire hazard for them, he said.

“It’s a little bit of a discomfort to be put out of your home but that little bit of a risk is going to be better for them until we can figure out what’s wrong and, how it can be fixed and when they can come back and not have to worry about it anymore.”

However, as things progressed late Tuesday afternoon, residents in units on one side of the building were permitted back into their apartments. Those units were determined to have functioning electricity and were deemed safe for re-entry.

As of Tuesday morning, Saltwire Network meteorologist Cindy Day said wind warnings had been in effect for the Sydney area for 24 hours.

Wind gusts peaked over 80 km/h since 6 a.m. and at 8 a.m. One gust was clocked at 105 km/h at the Sydney airport.

Day said wind gusts between 90 and 110 km/h were expected until about noon Tuesday, dropping off to 60 to 70 km/h during the afternoon.

Andrea Anderson, a spokesperson with Nova Scotia Power, said power outages started in the western portion of the province at about 2:30 a.m. Tuesday. At the peak of the storm, at about 8 a.m., about 52,000 customers were without power across the province. However, by 2 p.m. power was restored to all but 4,500. In Cape Breton, most of the outages occurred in the Sydney area due to 100 km/hr winds in the morning. In Cape Breton at around 10:30 a.m., 7,600 customers were without power and as of 4:30 p.m. there were 310 outages remaining.

Most outages were expected to be restored by the end of the day Tuesday, with the remainder by mid-day today.

Meanwhile, a crane collapsed at the site of the construction of a second cruise ship berth in Sydney harbour.

“I didn’t know anything happened here, I was just out for a drive,” said Tyler Kennedy of Sydney, taking a look at the site.

Kennedy said he often goes down by the harbour for a drive and stopped to see what was going on.

Jillian Moore, spokeswoman for the CBRM, said CBRM’s consultant CBCL has been in contact with Zutphen Contractors Inc. (Zutphen) regarding the crane collapse Tuesday at the construction site of the Second Marine Berth Project in Sydney. Zutphen advised CBCL that the boom on their 80 T crane collapsed at about 7:15 a.m. on Tuesday. Due to the severe weather and high winds at the time of the incident, there was no one working on the site.

Moore said this incident has been reported to the Department of Labour and Advanced Education. Both Labour and Transport Canada are currently investigating the incident. Zutphen is also conducting an internal investigation.

“The $20-million project is expected to be completed by the end of 2019."