(Atlantic Canada is getting blasted by a mid-February storm. More is expected through the course of the week. Photo: Trina Roache/APTN)
Trina Roache
APTN National News
It’s a snow day for much of the Maritimes as a blizzard is in the process of dumping up to 70 cm of snow in some parts of the region.
The list of cancellations is long, with schools, public transportation, and businesses all shutting down for the day.
Most people are hunkered down as high winds whip snow and making white out conditions.
The RCMP warned drivers across the region to stay off the roads, public transit was shut down in several communities, and government offices were closed in Nova Scotia and in southern New Brunswick. Schools were shuttered and air travel also ground to a halt.
In Nova Scotia, Environment Canada meteorologist Tracey Talbot said winds were gusting to 110 kilometres per hour just outside of Halifax.
The storm was expected to keep pounding the region until Tuesday.
“This is definitely a very intense storm for this winter and even for last winter,” said Talbot.
Snowfall totals across Nova Scotia were expected to range from 20 to 60 centimetres. However, some areas could be buried under as much as 75 centimetres amid higher drifts. Storm surges were also expected along much of the Atlantic coast.
New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island were expected to get between 25 and 40 centimetres of snow, with wind gusts up to 100 km/h.
Nova Scotia’s Emergency Measures Office issued a statement saying higher-than-normal water levels combined with the high tide on Monday could produce localized flooding along parts of the Atlantic coast.
“The storm surge and strong winds can make the shoreline dangerous very quickly,” said Zach Churchill, the minister responsible for Emergency Management Office.
“I urge Nova Scotians to stay away from the coast during this storm.”
Nova Scotia Power, the province’s privately owned electric utility, said the storm had knocked out power to about 13,000 customers, with many of them in the Lunenburg area.
“It will take time to get to sites as the storm progresses,” spokesman Matt Drover said in a statement. “We expect restoration efforts will be hampered.”
He said it’s not safe for work crews to use bucket boom trucks when winds are over 80 kilometres per hour.
The blizzard moved into southern New Bruswick around 10 p.m. Transit buses were pulled from the roads in Fredericton, Saint John and Moncton.
“Public safety is the number one priority for everyone, and the less people we have on the street, the less chance there is of an accident,” said Isabelle LeBlanc, spokeswoman for the City of Moncton.
In Saint John, N.B., city officials asked parents to keep children from playing in the streets and tunnelling in snowbanks while the snowplows were still at work.
NB Power added 20 extra work crews to deal with outages. By noon, there were roughly 775 NB Power customers without power, mainly in the southwest and northeastern parts of the province.
Utility spokeswoman Marie-Andree Bolduc said there may be delays getting to the affected areas.
“Whiteout conditions are obviously a concern. If the roads are too dangerous for the crews to head out then we will have to wait a little while until the storm passes,” she said.
Bolduc stressed that people should be prepared with emergency kits and not to use generators inside garages or homes.
During the recent ice storm in New Brunswick, two people died of carbon monoxide poisoning while 34 others were hospitalized.
Around 1,000 homes have lost power so far, and according to NS Power, it won’t be restored until Tuesday evening. Nova Scotia hospitals have cancelled elective surgeries and outside of emergencies, most health centers in the region are closed.
Environment Canada says the storm will taper off this evening as it moves eastward, but that blizzard conditions will last through to Tuesday morning.
And just in time for everyone to get shoveled out, the forecast is calling for another 20 cm of snow Wednesday evening and into Thursday.
— with files from the Canadian Press
