After a weekend of high winds damaged infrastructure in parts of the Beaufort Delta, Tuktoyaktuk Mayor Vince Teddy says the community was fortunate the storm surge was short-lived.
Another storm surge was forecast to roll in on Thursday this week.
During last week’s event, the hamlet was warned of strong winds over 90 km/h and gusts exceeding 130 km/h.
Mayor Teddy said the wind damaged fencing along the side of the hamlet’s cemetery facing the ocean and repairs are now being planned, while some private residences also experienced a little damage.
“Thank God for that,” he told Cabin Radio. “We’re just grateful and thankful that the storm surge was just more or less an overnight storm surge, not a lengthy one.”
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Teddy said staff from the NWT’s Department of Municipal and Community Affairs had arrived in the community to inspect the damage, working with hamlet administration to assess affected areas.
More broadly, he said Tuktoyaktuk is still waiting for funding to address damage caused by a much more severe storm surge last August.
The hamlet was initially told to arrange funding for repairs internally, but Maca later determined the community qualified for financial assistance. The federal government has since cleared the way for disaster assistance funding to reach the hamlet.
The amount of funding available and timeline for the payments remain unclear.
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Teddy said the delay has made it difficult for the community to fully address last year’s storm damage.
Although the hamlet and other organizations have requested financial support from the territorial department “numerous times,” he said, no funding has been received to date.
Teddy said damage from the previous storm surge is beyond what the hamlet could handle without outside support and, as a result, only limited repair work has been completed.
According to him, it has also been challenging to assess the weekend’s damage because many of the repairs from 2025 have not been completed.
“We’ll continue to do our best and continue to request the funding from last year’s damages to our community,” he said.
While he could not provide exact figures, he said costs associated with the damage are “very significant.”
In an emailed statement on Thursday, Maca said applications for assistance from Tuktoyaktuk had been received and independent damage assessors are preparing documentation for the department.
“Once those damage assessments are received, MACA will work with eligible applicants to provide funding. It is anticipated that MACA will receive the damage assessments in August,” departmental spokesperson Jay Boast wrote.
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Storm surge season
In the meantime, the mayor said Tuktoyaktuk’s shoreline protection system – funded through the federal Disaster Mitigation and Adaptation Fund – continues to be monitored.
“It’s now the end of July and storm surges in our community normally happen in August and September,” he said.
“We know that last year’s storm surge was so high that we didn’t have one like that in the past 60 years. So, Good Lord willing, we don’t have severe storm surges upcoming in August or September before freeze up.
“We continue to do our best to try and keep our community safe and healthy from storm surges or any other damages or storms that happened in our community.”
Inuvik Mayor Peter Clarkson said his town had also suffered some wind damage in recent days.
Clarkson said several buildings lost roof shingles, requiring repairs to prevent leaks. Strong winds also damaged one of the greenhouse beds.
“People lost some things that were in their yard because they weren’t tied down. The winds were so strong that stuff just blew away and people were looking for barbecue covers and lawn chairs and other things,” he said, adding the most significant impacts were roofs that lost shingles.
“Most of the damage would have been on private buildings, but we haven’t done an assessment of how many private buildings had their shingles blown off,” he said.
“It was high winds for a very short period and then it seemed to settle down.”
