Pimicikamak Cree Nation faces a water crisis after frozen pipes and sewage backup forced thousands from their homes, with additional workers and heaters arriving to aid repairs.
More Workers and Heaters Arriving in Pimicikamak Cree Nation
More workers and heaters are coming to a First Nation in northern Manitoba. Thousands have been forced out due to frozen pipes and sewage backup.
A day after politicians visited Pimicikamak Cree Nation to see the damage from a frozen water crisis, the community announced that additional heaters will arrive early next week. Thirty more tradespeople will also come to help.
“We have plumbers, we have electricians, and we also have carpenters that are being brought in,” Chief David Monias said in a Facebook video on Thursday. “We just don’t have enough people that are doing all this work.”
Community Impact and Damage Assessment
Monias has called for more tradespeople to help assess and repair homes in the First Nation, which has 7,000 residents located 530 kilometers north of Winnipeg. Officials are still assessing the damage to over 1,300 homes in Pimicikamak. This comes nearly two weeks after a power outage caused critical infrastructure failure.
On December 28, a 300-meter-long power line broke between two islands in the Nelson River. Manitoba Hydro restored power days later, but the outage occurred during extremely cold weather. When residents returned, they found ruptured pipes.
At least 4,000 people were sent to other communities, including Winnipeg and Thompson. The main issue plumbers are addressing is restoring water flow to homes and buildings.
Efforts to Restore Water Supply
“We’re hoping to just expedite this tenfold just to get everything going,” said Todd McConnell, a plumber brought in to assist. “Right now, a lot of the holding tanks are still frozen. We just don’t have enough heaters, and we’re going house by house. Everyone’s working 12 to 16 hours just trying to get everything online.”
Once the holding tanks are thawed, the water lines will need testing, McConnell added. Crews have surveyed hundreds of homes. In nearly every compromised home, toilets have frozen, and sink taps have burst.
Community Tours and Government Response
Federal, provincial, and First Nations leaders toured the community on Wednesday. They saw flooded homes with buckled ceilings and cracked pipes. One home’s crawl space was half-filled with water before plumbers could shut off water valves. In another home, the basement ceiling collapsed due to water weight, leaving piles of drywall on the floor.
Monias has requested help from the Armed Forces, but this request has not been met. The federal government has committed to restoration efforts. Premier Wab Kinew has asked Manitoba Hydro to review its response to the power outage and consider relocating the community’s power line.
Challenges and Future Plans
This year has been difficult for the First Nation. Several thousand residents were forced out due to wildfires last spring. Many members want to return home from unfamiliar cities.
No timeline has been provided, but Monias hopes to bring families back in small groups as their homes are repaired.
