The Road to Nowhere...

The frozen car graveyard..just wait til Spring..oh wait...it's Spring

...it both starts here and ends here in Rankin Inlet. This hamlet received a boatload full of trucks, and vehicles in the last sealift. The numbers are astounding... I've been told that as many as 150 arrived last year alone. That's quite possible...I've also been told that at least1/4 of those are un-useable currently. Cold temps are the contributing factor.

All plugged in during  the blizzard

First the vehicle MUST be equipped with a block heater. In Winnipeg, the hotel parking lot provided an electrical hookup to plug your vehicle in....it's mandatory here, in Rankin Inlet, Nunavut, or your engine block will be frozen solid by the next morning...defrosting here in the midwinter is quite expensive while most embarrassing at the same time.  The normal vehicle operating procedure includes details such as "the vehicle must be started 15-20 mintues BEFORE driving the vehicle."

The new lower level parking lot at the health centre has electrical hookups on the metal barrier just like the upper parking lot.

All vehicles running while the owners are shopping, banking, or visiting Tim's

Be back later with heavier equipment to finish the clearing

Each morning around the apartment complexes, there is a stream of fully outdoor-dressed persons..starting their cars...unplugging the block heaters, then going back inside and finally returning more than a quarter hour later for the 5-8 minute commute to work. At noon, staff at the health centre don their cold winter gear and go outside to start their vehicles about 20 to twelve..it's just the routine you have to do.  You must be fully dressed for the outside...you just can't run and start and run back in...wouldn't be a wise choice, perhaps in the summer and warmer weather, but not now. 

The buses transport the kids morning, noon and night

Here, no one drives their kids to school...if they do, it's a rare occasion...there are school buses for transport...both before school begins in the morning and after school ends. The buses also drive the kids home at lunch and pick them up, thereafter, for their afternoon classes. It keeps them out of the strong winds...and, at certain times of the yea,r safe from animals as well.

There are kids playing outside all the time...Minus temperatures are not a reason to remain inside...unlike the south...they embrace it...it's part of the culture, a large part of their life. Blizzards and high winds are different...and close businesses and offices as well as the schools. They do not take chances with their lives here. They are always aware of the weather and Inuit wireless network (telepathy) is active...and word spreads fast. Last week, when we closed early because of the rolling electric blackouts affecting our communications...landlines, cells and internet...someone asked who declared the building closed....the answer was the name of a clerk in our stores area...not half wrong, it turned out!

Another road temporarily to nowhere

No one locks their car or truck doors....too much power would have to be used to unlock as the locks would have frozen closed overnight...and then the battery might not be strong enough to turn the engine over to start. If the vehicle was stolen...they wouldn't be able to drive it far, as there are no roads south. NONE..NADA...Unlike you see on TV, there is no road that comes north....no Ice Road truckers. There's talk..and it might happen in time...but a connection south would change this place very dramatically....and contribute to losing the charm.

The cars, and trucks are left running all the time, outside stores, banks, the post office and many parking lots. It's a chance to warm the inside...but also to recharge that important battery...and it has to be a heavy duty with arctic extreme cranking power. Never seen a CAA vehicle...but a few jumper cables from time to time.  The service man usually arrives by snow machine..cables in a box on back...and a huge battery also mounted...often it's the neighbour, cousin, or other relative or friend.

RANKIN INLET AIRPORT known as  "CYRT"...busy night and day

The airport is the main link in and out..I'll soon be using its facilities...but my patients have been. Medical evacuation is common...more common than I had ever realized. Whether it's a "hot" appendix, or another surgical intervention that requires emergency surgery, all the communities including ours (the largest medical facility in KIVALLIQ), rely upon the various regional medevac options. Sometimes, due to weather, or flight crews being unavailable or the planes and equipment already in use, the patient awaits transport. Sometimes mere hours turn into days. Last week we had a plane diverted, we swapped the patient ONBOARD for the one at the health centre, providing a temporary home, while our more "critical" was transferred to Winnipeg on that plane. A different plane came in later to finish the initial transfer...such are the ways here, winter and summer.

These "Honda's" are built for all kinds of weather, heavy duty tires, extra light for the dark times...and extra bins for gear.

In the summer months, the "honda's" are the main mode of transport out to the cabins and lakes, rivers and streams for camping, fishing and picnics.Whole families climb aboard...as many as six or seven..all balancing...and did I mention that seat belts are used sparingly.  They are tough here, live a tough life, conquer a tough climate and I have the greatest of admiration for the residents.

The best example I can give is the patient that arrived a few weeks ago...He was a shoulder that I had to xray from an injury sustained a few weeks earlier. The relevant clinical history stated: "Skidoo injury on the land. Comatik/sled landed on chest and body. Sustained head injury from the Comatik travelling at 40 k/hr. Large laceration to scalp bleeding and right eye closed shut. Patient complaining of pain in upper back on the right." 

Many 'Quads' are used sparingly in the winter..they're a warm weather machine

At home, after an ambulance ride to the local hospital, he might have ended up in ICU a day or two, and would have had, at the least, a CT of the head and chest. In Rankin Inlet a few weeks later, he had his shoulder xrayed...at his convenience...since he was out hunting. I've met "tough"a few times now...just another example.