Coronach -
As the town of Coronach came back to life after over 50 hours without power, news of the damage left behind began to spread.
Losses of frozen food and dairy products were expected at the local Co-o-p grocery story but water breakages were unfortunate finds on Tuesday morning.
When Coronach Sportsplex employee, Dallas Elder, arrived at the building to see how the ice had faired the power outage, he discovered a water break in the roof of the dressing room that had partially flooded the dressing room floor. Recreation board member Troy Bartlett headed for the rink to assist Elder with the break. The first break was located and the fix appeared minimal. A second, much bigger break was discoverd soon after.
Although the rink discovered two breaks, the biggest damage appears to have hit the Poplar River Pharmacy. When Lyle Hancock, manager of Acklands-Grainger, the neighbouring store in the Coronach mall, arrived to the building at 6:00 am Tuesday morning, he discovered water flooding out of the pharmacy.
As the pharmacy owners, Jackie and Clint Marshall, live in the country, Hancock notified employee Elaine Winter who lives in Coronach. She quickly came to the pharmacy. What they discovered was a major water break at the back of the pharmacy over the dispensary. Water flooded all through the store and into the lobby.
Employees spent Tuesday and Wednesday cleaning out the store and accessing the damage. Another power outage on Tuesday afternoon added to the problems when Roger Dionne, who was sucking water out of the carpets, lost power to his equipment.
Haley Smith, pharmacy employee explained that they had to inventory all of the damaged goods, in hopes of insurance coverage.
Clint Marshall, owner, explained that they feared that their insurance would not cover the water damage.
Jackie Marshall, owner and pharmacist, explained that a change in their policy did not appear to have been recorded and they hoped that their insurance would cover the extensive damage.
Clint feared the worst, "If we do not have insurance, it will be the end of the pharmacy."
On Wednesday afternoon, staff member Elaine Winter was pleased with their progress. They had cleaned most of the shelves and replaced the product. She explained that not all of the product was damaged from the water that sprayed from above. "It was hit and miss," she said.
Inventory of all of the frozen food losses kept Kim Boerma, Coronach Coop grocery manager, busy as well on Tuesday morning.
Boerma reported that grocery store staff were able to save all of the frozen meats and expensive frozen goods from the upright freezers. The Co-op would receive insurance for their lost product.
Dianne Hancock, produce manager, explained that the frozen items were good until Monday morning but once they received news that the power could be off for an undetermined time, they had to save what they could of their frozen goods.
Staff filled grocery carts and set them outside. Meanwhile, a small staff supplied grocery items to anyone who arrived at the store looking for food. They wrote down the items to be rung in once power was restored. Hancock was at the store for regular hours on Monday and spent over an hour on Tuesday morning ringing in the purchases from Monday.
Residents in the area dealt with minimal groceries for the week as the grocery and dairy trucks that normally would have arrived on Tuesday had to be cancelled with no expected time for power restoration.
The grocery store closed their doors during the nearly three hour power outage on Tuesday afternoon.
The grocery store and pharmacy remained closed along with most of the Coronach businesses during the planned power outage on Thursday, January 28.
