Canadian Coast Guard Vessel Sir John Franklin on Central Coast in assist to Bella Bella power outage emergency

The Coast Guard Ship Sir John Franklin has been providing emergency
assistance to Bella Bella today
(photo from CCG)

The Canadian Coast Guard Vessel Sir John Franklin is currently operating in waters near Bella Bella, after the Coast Guard provided an assist to BC Hydro to attend to a power outage in the Heiltsuk Nation community on the Central Coast.

The use of the ship which is an offshore research vessel for the Coast Guard based out of Victoria, was required as weather conditions were such that air resources were not able to be used to move the Hydro team and road conditions on the Central coast were dangerous over the period.

A short clip of a video from BC Hydro shows the nature of the elements that Hydro crews had to deal with over the last two days on the Central Coast.

An update from the Coast guard from earlier this afternoon outlined the scope of the mission, that as BC Hydro arrived to determine the source of the power outage that has affected the community over the last few days.

The Coast Guard vessel transited from Bella Coola to pick up the Hydro crew to transport them to the Bella Bella area to restore the power supply, the situation attributed to equipment failure.  

Temperatures on the Central Coast like those of the North Coast had been impacted by an Arctic Cold Warning, with heavy snow also making for challenging times for the community.

Parts of the community had been working off of a back up generator for a period of time, with the Big House put into use as well as a community warming centre. 

Complicating things somewhat for residents is a current COVID outbreak making for some challenges for community officials to navigate this week.

The travels of the Sir John Franklin today from the Marine Traffic
vessel tracking program

The accounts of the twin emergencies can be explored further through the Heiltsuk Tribal Council Facebook page.

More notes on the work of Emergency Responders can be explored here, while themes related to BC Hydro outages are available here.