Massive Winter storms continue to slam eastern Canada
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Pastor Dale Morgan
Dec 8, 2010, 7:10:49 AM12/8/10
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Perilous Times
Wednesday, December 8, 2010
Massive Winter storms continue to slam eastern Canada
By QMI Agency
Power outages continue across Eastern Canada and schools remain closed in parts of Ontario while more than 1,000 plows worked through the night in Quebec.
But it's not over yet.
“Every time we get ahead of it on the main roads and start on the side streets, we get hit again,” said London, Ont., mayor Joe Fontana
With Environment Canada expecting more heavy winter weather to hit on Wednesday, Fontana is asking the city's younger residents to help the elderly and sick.
“With all the schools closed, it would be nice to see some of these university, college and high school students out there knocking on doors and helping out in their neighbourhoods. There are people out there who may not be able to clear their vents or their sidewalks.”
City officials are also asking local businesses to "do the right thing and let their employees go home early."
Meanwhile, in New Brunswick, electricity remained unavailable for 1,100 customers across 80 separate areas of the province on Tuesday morning. The provincial power authority hopes to have full service restored by Tuesday evening.
Transportation authorities in Quebec, meanwhile, warned motorists that visibility on highways and some roads is minimal after a 15 cm dump of snow buried much of the region on Monday.
Montreal was smacked with 20 cm of snow overnight, shutting down schools, causing hundreds of road collisions and making a normally-frustrating rush hour drive downright disastrous.
Things were even worse in outlying areas, where whiteout conditions and unplowed roads and highways led to at least one fatality. An Econoline van flipped about an hour east of Montreal on Monday evening, killing one person and injuring 11 others.
Several transport trucks and other vehicles left the road across southern Quebec overnight and into Tuesday morning, though there were no other reports of fatalities.
The Orleans Express bus company cancelled all departures between Quebec City and Gaspe, in eastern Quebec near the Maritimes. High winds and blowing snow blanketed regions on the North Shore of the st-Lawrence River, with gusts reaching 93 km/h.
A little further south, Ontario Hydro was reporting no significant outages on Tuesday morning, but Environment Canada is maintaining a snow squall warning for much of southern Ontario.
Sgt. Dave Rektor of the Ontario Provincial Police said the most dangerous part of the storm are the roads. OPP have responded to more than 300 service calls since the storm began.
“We’ve seen a lot of close calls but nothing too serious that I’m aware of,” said Rektor.
“But the way people are driving it’s only a matter of time before we see a tragedy.”
Emergency services are also having trouble, as ambulances get stuck in drifts and fire trucks find hydrants hidden under snowbanks.
"We've had 15 instances where our ambulance got stuck and in 12 of those the local citizens came along and helped them get out," said Thames EMS president Randy Denning.
The Weather Network expects another 20 cm of snow to fall on southern Ontario before Wednesday evening. Montreal is expected to get another 3 cm.
Cleanup costs are already climbing into the millions of dollars.
Wednesday, December 8, 2010
Massive Winter storms continue to slam eastern Canada
By QMI Agency
Power outages continue across Eastern Canada and schools remain closed in parts of Ontario while more than 1,000 plows worked through the night in Quebec.
But it's not over yet.
“Every time we get ahead of it on the main roads and start on the side streets, we get hit again,” said London, Ont., mayor Joe Fontana
With Environment Canada expecting more heavy winter weather to hit on Wednesday, Fontana is asking the city's younger residents to help the elderly and sick.
“With all the schools closed, it would be nice to see some of these university, college and high school students out there knocking on doors and helping out in their neighbourhoods. There are people out there who may not be able to clear their vents or their sidewalks.”
City officials are also asking local businesses to "do the right thing and let their employees go home early."
Meanwhile, in New Brunswick, electricity remained unavailable for 1,100 customers across 80 separate areas of the province on Tuesday morning. The provincial power authority hopes to have full service restored by Tuesday evening.
Transportation authorities in Quebec, meanwhile, warned motorists that visibility on highways and some roads is minimal after a 15 cm dump of snow buried much of the region on Monday.
Montreal was smacked with 20 cm of snow overnight, shutting down schools, causing hundreds of road collisions and making a normally-frustrating rush hour drive downright disastrous.
Things were even worse in outlying areas, where whiteout conditions and unplowed roads and highways led to at least one fatality. An Econoline van flipped about an hour east of Montreal on Monday evening, killing one person and injuring 11 others.
Several transport trucks and other vehicles left the road across southern Quebec overnight and into Tuesday morning, though there were no other reports of fatalities.
The Orleans Express bus company cancelled all departures between Quebec City and Gaspe, in eastern Quebec near the Maritimes. High winds and blowing snow blanketed regions on the North Shore of the st-Lawrence River, with gusts reaching 93 km/h.
A little further south, Ontario Hydro was reporting no significant outages on Tuesday morning, but Environment Canada is maintaining a snow squall warning for much of southern Ontario.
Sgt. Dave Rektor of the Ontario Provincial Police said the most dangerous part of the storm are the roads. OPP have responded to more than 300 service calls since the storm began.
“We’ve seen a lot of close calls but nothing too serious that I’m aware of,” said Rektor.
“But the way people are driving it’s only a matter of time before we see a tragedy.”
Emergency services are also having trouble, as ambulances get stuck in drifts and fire trucks find hydrants hidden under snowbanks.
"We've had 15 instances where our ambulance got stuck and in 12 of those the local citizens came along and helped them get out," said Thames EMS president Randy Denning.
The Weather Network expects another 20 cm of snow to fall on southern Ontario before Wednesday evening. Montreal is expected to get another 3 cm.
Cleanup costs are already climbing into the millions of dollars.
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