Marine Atlantic is going to divert its Newfoundland route to Argentia in order to restore our marine link with the destruction of the TCH on the southwest coast.
The first sailing between North Sydney and Argentia leaves Cape Breton at 5:30 p.m. NST today. Customers with reservations will be contacted with additional information as soon as preparations have been finalized. As of yesterday, there were 170 units with goods bound for Newfoundland waiting at the north Sydney ferry terminal.
Darrell Mercer of Marine Atlantic says they are working diligently to prepare the Argentia terminal, which normally operates just in the summer, to accept customers on this emergency basis.
The Blue Puttees and the Highlanders will do the Argentia run, which is about 16 hours, while the Leif Ericson will remain on the Port aux Basques route as people still have to get to the southwest coast.
The Port aux Basques run will leave at 11:45 p.m. tonight but Marine Atlantic is keeping an eye on how many cancellations they will have from customers who can’t get to port aux Basques because of the road washouts—so then they will re-route them through Argentia over the next couple of days.
The threat of immediate flooding has diminished greatly on the southwest coast after the rain stopped overnight but the concern now is access and the supply chain.
Another look at some of the damage near the weigh scales near Port aux Basques. Photos are from this afternoon. #nltraffic pic.twitter.com/19wEgRXLed
— Transportation and Infrastructure NL (@TI_GovNL) November 24, 2021
Rene Roy, Editor-in-Chief of The Wreckhouse, a weekly newspaper, says shelves are running thin after people began stocking up on things such as milk, bread and canned goods. For example, his sister went out yesterday in Port aux Basques to try to find a loaf of bread but couldn’t.
He says it’s leaving other people short as there are no more supplies coming in.
Route 470 from Port aux Basques to Rose Blanche has reopened but Transportation Minister Elvis Loveless says repairing the four washouts on the TCH is not a 48-hour fix.
Mayor Brian Button is urging people to restrict travel only to that which is necessary so that officials can do their work. He says the town had to barricade an ATV trail from the Railway Museum to Humber Ford. There are washouts on the trail and people should stay away, he says.
Photo via RCMP.
RCMP Corporal Colin Helm says some people have been trying to drive around barricades to get to where they’re going, a very dangerous practice.
There has been no loss of life but a man and a woman had to be rescued from the South Branch area by helicopter.
The first helicopter which tried to get in had to turn back to Gander because of rain and wind but a second chopper got to the couple at about 5 p.m. yesterday.
In Deer Lake this morning getting the latest update from @TI_GovNL before heading to the southwest coast to assess the damaged areas. pic.twitter.com/nMsNFRRACQ
— Andrew Furey (@FureyAndrew) November 25, 2021
Premier Andrew Furey is in the region today to assess the damage first-hand. He is tentatively scheduled to be on the VOCM Morning Show tomorrow around 7 to 8 a.m.
Meanwhile, Port aux Basques broke all-time rainfall records with 165 mm over two days, eclipsing the old mark of 134 in April 1982, and the 24-hour rainfall total of 136 mm. The old 24-hour mark was 118 in July 1979.
