'Unsafe' Fort McMurray apartments evacuated - Calgary - CBC News

'Unsafe' Fort McMurray apartments evacuated - Calgary - CBC News

CBC News

Posted: Mar 12, 2011 7:05 PM MT

Last Updated: Mar 12, 2011 7:05 PM MT

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More than 300 people have been evacuated from the seven apartment buildings in Fort McMurray, Alta. after a structural engineer's report found the buildings unsafe.

The report, commissioned by the Penhorwood Condominium Association, said parts of the buildings could shift and cause a break in gas line, leading to a fire that would be difficult to control.

'Some people were angry, some people were upset, some people were afraid, some people were really concerned.'—Allan Vinni, president of the Penhorwood Condominium Association

Tyran Ault, a spokesperson for the Regional Municipality of Wood Buffalo, said his office received the report Friday and began evacuating the 168 units shortly before midnight under an emergency order pursuant to the Safety Codes Act.

"We were told around 11 o'clock and then we were able to organize our emergency personnel and start the door-knocking at 11:30 last night," Ault said Saturday.

Tenants of the Penhorwood apartments were given 10 minutes to gather some belongings before they had to leave.

'Pretty traumatic'

Allan Vinni, president of the Penhorwood condominium association, said the evacuation was "pretty traumatic" for many of the residents.

"Some people were angry, some people were upset, some people were afraid, some people were really concerned," Vinni said.

"Those are all valid things to feel when you get rousted our of your home at midnight with no understanding of what's going on or when you can go back."

The Regional Municipality of Wood Buffalo set up an information and reception centre across the street from some of the apartment buildings in a gymnasium at the Syncrude Sport and Wellness Centre on Franklin Ave.

Penhorwood Street in Fort McMurray, Alta.,

"We're making sure that all residents have proper lodging for however long they may be affected, as well as food services and personal services should they require it," Ault said.

Approximately 190 people registered with the reception centre, but only two required lodging by Saturday afternoon, he said. Most are staying with friends and family and no one spent the night in the gymnasium Friday night.

Ault said it is now up to the property management association to secure a structural engineer to examine the facilities and recommend or oversee necessary changes.

Knew it was coming

Although the evacuation was sudden, Ault said, "it seemed that a lot of people knew this was coming."

"The condo association has been aware of these structural concerns in the past and this report seems to reaffirm those for them," he said.

For the past few years, the condo association has been engaged in a lawsuit with the developer over deficiencies in the buildings.

Vinni, speaking as a member of the condo board, said the board had engaged the services of "a very experienced" professional structural engineer. The engineer told Vinni and others in a conference call on Friday that he was concerned about the immediate structural integrity of the buildings.

"He saw a lot of fresh failures of load-bearing structural pieces, like beams, rim blocks and mash blocks," Vinni said. "He issued a letter in his capacity as a registered engineer that he didn't think it was safe for people to be in that building — in any of those buildings."

The decision to evacuate was made at 4:30 p.m. MT, Vinni said.

A day later, many of the displaced residents are calmer. "They're better today than they were last night," Vinni said Saturday afternoon.

But the upheaval is not over: "We still don't know, to this minute, when anybody will be able to go back in to retrieve any more personal possessions," he said.

A team of engineers is flying up Sunday morning to determine how to safely let residents back inside to retrieve their belongings.

The Penhorwood apartments are located at Penhorwood Street in the lower townsite of Fort McMurray, Alta.

With files from CBC's Andrea Huncar in Edmonton

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Japanese authorities rush to save lives, avert nuclear crisis - CNN.com

Japanese authorities rush to save lives, avert nuclear crisis - CNN.com

Sendai, Japan (CNN) -- Japanese authorities are operating on the presumption that possible meltdowns are under way at two nuclear reactors, two days after a massive earthquake, a government official said Sunday.

Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano added, however, that there have been no indications yet of hazardous emissions of radioactive material into the atmosphere.

The attempts to avert a possible nuclear crisis, centered on the Fukushima Daiichi facility in northeast Japan, came as rescuers frantically scrambled to find survivors following the country's strongest-ever earthquake and a devastating tsunami that, minutes later, brought crushing walls of water that wiped out nearly everything in their paths.

Edano told reporters there is a "possibility" of a meltdown at the plant's No. 1 reactor, adding, "It is inside the reactor. We can't see." He then said authorities are also "assuming the possibility of a meltdown" at the facility's No. 3 reactor.

A meltdown is a catastrophic failure of the reactor core, with a potential for widespread radiation release.

Edano said only a "minor level" of radiation has been released into the environment -- saying it all came from a controlled release of radioactive steam, insisting there have been no leaks and it is not harmful to human health.

About 180,000 people were being evacuated from within 10 to 20 kilometers (6 to 12 miles) of the Daiichi plant, in addition to the thousands that have already been taken away who live closer by. More than 30,000 more were being evacuated from their homes within 10 kilometers of the Fukushima Daiini nuclear facility located in the same prefecture.

The news of the possible meltdowns came as rescue efforts resumed Sunday morning in areas devastated by the 8.9-magnitude quake and subsequent tsunami, which unleashed a wall of seawater that decimated entire neighborhoods.

Rescuers dug through mud and rubble to find the buried, both alive and dead. Japan's Prime Minister Naoto Kan said more than 3,000 people have been rescued, according to the nation's Kyodo News Agency.

The death toll from the earthquake and tsunami rose to 801, with hundreds more missing, authorities said Sunday.

At least 678 are missing, according to the National Police Agency Emergency Disaster Headquarters. The number of dead is expected to go up as rescuers reach more hard-hit areas

The number is expected to rise as rescuers reach more hard-hit areas. In one coastal town alone -- Minamisanriku, in Myagi Prefecture -- some 9,500 people, half the town's population, were unaccounted for.

With most stores and gas stations closed, a main task for many in the hardest-hit areas Sunday morning was getting by -- and, in some cases, getting out. Scores lined up at the few gas stations, drug stores, and supermarkets that had opened, with the shelves largely empty amid the rush to get food and the difficulty in restocking it.

They also braved an seemingly endless barrage of aftershocks. The U.S. Geological Survey reported more than 140 such quakes -- magnitude 4.5 and higher, including a 6.2-magnitude quake just before 10:30 a.m. Sunday -- in, near, or off of the east coast of the Japanese island.

Friday's quake was centered about 130 kilometers (80 miles) from Sendai, a coastal city with a population of about a million. While there was little visible earthquake damage in that city, the tsunami brought devastation at least several miles inland.

Sunday's sunshine highlighted muddy tsunami debris on every street. The force of the water wiped away houses, stacked cars on top of each other, and left the ground covered in thick, brown mud.

Search-and-rescue helicopters flew over the city to rescue anyone trapped in the rubble. A few hundred people were still unaccounted for in just one neighborhood of Sendai.

Meanwhile, millions more around Japan were dealing with other repercussions of Friday's quake.

About 2.5 million households -- just over 4% of the total in Japan -- were without electricity Sunday, according to Ichiro Fujisaki, the nation's U.S. ambassador. This marks a drop from the previous number, when 6 million households had no power.

A desire to conserve power prompted decisions to turn off lights Saturday at a host of landmarks all around Japan -- some of them hundreds of miles from the main quake's epicenter, like the Tsutenkaku Tower in Osaka, Tokyo Tower and Rainbow Bridge in Tokyo, and Bay Bridge in Yokohama, the Kyodo News Agency reported.

Japan plans to dispatch 100,000 members of its defense forces to the quake-ravaged region -- double the previous number -- Defense Minister Toshimi Kitazawa said Sunday, according to Kyodo.

Japan's government also has made a formal request for U.S. aid, including military support, and full planning for deployment is in effect, with the U.S. military in Japan taking the lead, according to Sgt. Maj. Stephen Valley with U.S. Forces Japan.

The nuclear-powered aircraft carrier USS Ronald Reagan arrived off Japan's coast Sunday morning to support Japanese forces in disaster relief operations, the U.S. Department of Defense said in a statement.

The U.S. Agency for International Development sent two search and rescue teams of about 150 people and 12 rescue dogs trained to find survivors. They were expected to arrive Sunday morning and immediately begin working alongside Japanese and international teams.

At least 48 other countries and the European Union also have offered relief to Japan, and supplies and personnel are already on the way.

Friday's quake is the strongest earthquake in recorded history to hit Japan, according to U.S. Geologic Survey records that date to 1900. The world's largest recorded quake took place in Chile on May 22, 1960, with a magnitude of 9.5, the USGS said.

CNN's Tom Watkins, Anna Coren, Kyung Lah, Paula Hancocks, Brian Walker, Kevin Voigt and Sean Morris contributed to this report.