Atlantic Canada’s utilities and municipalities are dealing with another day of snow and strong winds, while weather-weary residents are out for yet more shovelling.
Eastern Newfoundland has been hammered by back-to-back storms that together have dumped more than 110 centimetres of snow on the provincial capital in the past week, according to Environment Canada. Paradise, a suburb of St. John’s, has seen more than 150 cm.
St. John’s residents posted on social media Sunday night looking for help digging out as massive drifts covered doors to homes and basement apartments. The City of St. John’s issued a news release that night urging people to stay home, but stopping short of declaring a state of emergency.
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“If travel cannot be avoided, drivers are asked to use extreme caution and allow extra time to reach their destination,” the city said. “We will continue to monitor conditions closely and will take additional measures if necessary.”
Flights were cancelled Monday morning at the St. John’s International Airport, which asked passengers to verify flights with their airlines.
“Operations at YYT continue to be impacted by the recent significant snowfall,” the airport said on social media. “In order to safely resume operations, we need time to remove and manage snow from critical areas of the airport.”
The nasty weather is expected to roar into the rest of the region on Monday. Most of the Maritimes are under winter storm and snowfall warnings, with Environment Canada calling for totals of between 15-25 cm across much of P.E.I., Nova Scotia and southern and eastern New Brunswick.
Between 30-50 cm are in the forecast for the southeast region of Nova Scotia by dawn on Tuesday. Nova Scotia Power activated its Emergency Operations Centre at 8 a.m. Monday, saying crews were positioned across the province to respond to outages. The wind and snow can weigh down trees and pull branches onto power lines, the utility said.
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