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TOWER ROAD – It seems that running ultramarathons just isn’t enough for Bruce Barteaux.
The 67-year-old retired Canadian Forces veteran, who has completed a 100-km run in each of the past 24 years, is presently in Cape Breton where he is helping clean up after post-tropical storm Fiona unleashed her devastation across Atlantic Canada.
Barteaux is a volunteer with the Canadian chapter of Team Rubicon, a disaster response organization whose origins began during the international relief effort in the aftermath of the 2010 earthquake that wreaked havoc across the Caribbean island of Haiti.
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On Monday, Barteaux was part of a Team Rubicon crew found cutting and clearing fallen trees from the Birch Grove Road between the communities of Glace Bay and Tower Road. Like the majority of his team, the Lucasville, N.S. native is a retired veteran. He served 42 years.
“I have been blessed with very good health and it would be a shame to waste good health by doing nothing,” said Barteaux.
“So, about three years ago I was down in the Bahamas with World Hope International working on a freshwater production team and bumped into some people with Team Rubicon. Then COVID happened and things got put on hold, but earlier this year I checked out Team Rubicon and realized that everything the organization does aligns with what I like and want to do, so I signed up back in February.
“In April, I was out in Merritt, B.C. helping with the response to the severe flooding they had out there. Then when the hurricane hit us, I made myself available for whatever disaster response work that Rubicon was doing.”
Prior to arriving in Cape Breton on Sunday, Barteaux was in the Antigonish area where, as he put it, he “whacked trees” for a couple of days.
Team Rubicon
Presently, Team Rubicon has two work crews on the ground in the Cape Breton Regional Municipality. Crew lead Jeff Becker, who hails from Port Moody, B.C., is a veteran like most of his teammates.
“Our people in Halifax were monitoring the situation before we received an expression of interest, or a call-to-action, from the Nova Scotia government,” explained Becker.
“Those of our members who were available registered for deployment and once things were organized, people were sent out from across Canada. Our crews here are mainly chainsaw operators and people qualified in reconnaissance and identifying problem areas.
“We’re doing whatever we’re told to do. With that said we’re also keeping an eye out for places and people who might need help but have yet to reach out. We’re here because we care and we want to help.”
As of Monday, there were two eight-person Team Rubicon crews working in the CBRM. But while few in number, their work efficiency is top-notch according to Cody Wilkins, a Nova Scotia Lands and Forest technician who is helping oversee the cleanup work in his position as a task force leader.
“These guys are awesome – they can do a lot of work and they are extremely skilled and efficient,” said Wilkins, who is spending his days on the ground checking on the work of volunteers like Team Rubicon and the 350 or so members of the Canadian military who have been dispatched to assist the Cape Breton recovery operation.
“This is a big job with a lot of logistics. We’ve been working with Nova Scotia Power, the CBRM, the province’s Emergency Management Office, Eastlink, Bell Aliant, Seaside Cable, Team Rubicon, the military and our own department.
“So we oversee all the resources that are coming in, like the military and Team Rubicon. We go around and see how these groups are doing.”
Work continues
Meanwhile, post-storm recovery work is continuing across Cape Breton. Nova Scotia Power reported Monday that fewer than 18,000 customers, including some 5,000 in Cape Breton, were still without electricity. Reparation work is being carried out by Nova Scotia Power and a number of other power companies from across Atlantic Canada, Québec and Maine.
While the power will soon be restored to all customers, it will take a while longer to clear the thousands of fallen trees strewn across the municipality. With the first priorities being to restore power and communications services, the task of removing fallen trees and debris from private properties is likely to take much longer.
The province is reimbursing Nova Scotia households up to $250 for tree removal, but the caveat is that the work must be completed by a certified tree cutter or arborist and that an official receipt must be produced.
On late Monday afternoon, the CBRM issued a press release stating that its 311 service is now registering requests for assistance with tree debris removal from curbside and requests for tree cutting and removal from properties where assistance is required. The municipality, in partnership with the provincial government and the Canadian Forces, is preparing equipment and human resources to work on private property to remove trees if they are on or affecting driveways and/or walkways, out buildings, house and out building access and egress points and other areas that may cause impairment to basic needs.
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