It’s been more than one week since Winnipeg was hit with 22 cm of snow and some say the city has been slow to clean it all up.
Dorothy Wigmore had knee surgery in June. She uses two canes to help her walk and has difficulty on the slick sidewalks.
“I’m terrified of falling,” she said. “People breaking limbs and stuff like that is what I worry about.”
Wigmore has added picks to the bottom of her canes to help her, but sometimes the ice is still too thick.
“I’ve hardly been walking this last little while because it’s dangerous to do so,” she said. “It’d be nice if there was more sand and less ice.”
The city said crews started working on the sidewalks as soon as the snow started falling last week, but the work isn’t done yet.
“We’ve made one pass trough the entire sidewalk network right now. Because of the heavy amounts of snow we received, there are a number of sidewalk deficiencies that need to be addressed,” Communications Officer for the Public Works Department Ken Allen said.
Allen said the city has to clear 2,900 km of sidewalks. Since the snowfall, the city has received 145 complaints to clear sidewalks.
“For sure we’re going to be working through the week to address those deficiencies, clearing sidewalk ends, inspecting sidewalks to make sure they’re cleared properly,” he said. “We do sanding of sidewalks on our main routes so that sanding operation has been going on throughout the week and will be continuing.”
For the last three weeks Ulyana Mizyk has been using crutches since a ski accident. She said the sand isn’t doing enough.
“I mean yes there’s sand but actually it doesn’t help because it’s still icy underneath it. You’re walking and you could slip pretty fast,” she said.
“You have to put pressure on the crutches and if it slips you can actually fall and make more injuries to yourself.”
Comments