Kings Landing, in New Brunswick, reopens 8 days after Storm Arthur hit

Historical settlement estimates post-tropical storm Arthur-related losses to exceed $100K

By Daniel McHardie, CBC News Posted: Jul 13, 2014 12:01 PM AT Last Updated: Jul 13, 2014 1:25 PM AT

 

The Kings Landing Historical Settlement is open on Sunday for the first time since post-tropical storm Arthur forced it to shut down eight days ago.

Kevin Cormier, the executive director of Kings Landing, said the historical settlement had its power restored late on Friday and staff spent Saturday checking all of the facility's systems in order to guarantee that it could open on Sunday.

"After eight days of being down — eight beautiful days — it is certainly nice to welcome guests back. Staff were eager to get back to what they do best," he said.

"Our programming is back up and running at 100 per cent," Cormier added.

"We have a full day of activities: 22 different things from butter making to rug-hooking and workshops on open-hearth cooking."

 

Kings Landing, which is about 35 kilometres west of Fredericton, estimates the storm cost it more than $100,000 in both clean-up costs and lost revenue.

Cormier said the museum hopes it can make back some of the lost revenue before the end of the tourism season.

"Certainly, making up that loss in additional revenue, we still have some time. I think certainly people who were thinking about coming to Kings Landing should," he said.

"We will be looking at a combination of things, different promotions for the remainder of the season and some adjustments of the budget for the remainder of year."

He said Kings Landing may also request financial assistance from the provincial government to help offset the storm-related losses.

The powerful storm brought 100 km/h winds to the Fredericton area. Kings Landing estimates more than 1,000 trees fell as a result of post-tropical storm Arthur.

Crews will be working again on Monday to clean up the fallen trees.

Even though the historical settlement is staring at a large bill for the post-Arthur clean up, there was very little damage done to the homes and buildings that create the living museum.

Cormier said visitors will notice a few stumps, where there used to be trees. Only one building sustained any damage and Cormier said that house had only two broken panes of glass.

"We had our curators go through on Thursday and do a careful inspection of all of the homes," he said.

"Only two panes of glass were broken. That’s it. We were very fortunate."