The Final Tally
The storm ended over a week ago, but it seems like we here in Southern Ontario's Southern Georgian Bay region finished digging out just in time for Christmas.
The snow squalls started on Dec 3rd, and lasted almost non-stop until Dec 15th. A final snowfall total is next to impossible to discern because of the heavy winds and localized nature of snow squalls.
We likely received something on the order of close to 200 cm of snow. A season's worth of snow (actually, more than last season's total snowfall) in 12 days.
School busses were cancelled for 6 days total - schools in the area were even closed twice, which is unheard of. My wife's high school nordic ski team, which is a power in the province of Ontario, couldn't get out on skis to enjoy the record snowfall because of bus cancellations.
The dramatic rescue of stranded motorists on Hwy 402 near Sarnia received much more media attention than the hammering that the communities of Collingwood and Wasaga Beach took.
Now, that may be because we here in the Southern Georgian Bay region are used to such storms. We also don't have a major thoroughfare like Hwy 402 in our region. To get here, you need to take two-lane highways which wisely close during such adverse weather, because since they cross long stretches of farm land, they're impossible to keep clear. And maybe we're more used to driving in such conditions - we have the vehicles and the tires to help stay out of trouble. I would love to know how many of the stranded drivers had snow tires. It concerns me that while this type of weather was unusual for that area, given its proximity to Lake Huron, it's not unheard of, yet local officials had little in the way of an emergency plan ready for one of the busiest stretches of road in the country.
Also, we might just be a little bit wiser when it comes to heading out in such weather: if the weather's bad, we stay off the roads. If it's ok when we start, but then conditions deteriorate, we turn around. And we take our time. If we do get stuck, we have the patience of mind to call CAA, grab the blanket from the back seat, and sit back and wait for a tow. I was horrified to hear about the driver who got stuck in a drift on the 402, then unwisely decided to strike out in search of help. His body was found in a drift less than 100m from his car two days later.
This is not to diminish the difficult situation these travellers (many of whom were commuters) found themselves in. In this day and age, I find it hard to believe that most of them had to spend the night in their vehicles in sub-freezing temperatures before an armada of snowmobiles came out to rescue them. Some had run out of gas, or were about to, after a night of running the car to get warm, shutting it off, then repeating. I can't help but think, however, that the majority of these people were ill-prepared for the wall of snow that met them. Or maybe they felt that there was no other option - they had to get to work.
When Toronto got nailed with about a quarter of the amount we received 10 years ago, then Mayor Mel Lastman desperately called in the Canadian Forces to help. Here, we relied on an army of private snow plow and backhoe operators to help clear the many clogged side streets, with no fanfare.
Here, it snows, you dig yourself out, then get back to life.
The bonus: perfect conditions for the area's alpine and nordic ski facilities. Highlands Nordic hosted the first Ontario Cup race of the season, and there was almost too much snow. Grooming efforts had to focus on the race course, so some of the more remote trails had received little or not attention until late last week.
We should be skiing on both types of skis until Easter at least. If we have an early spring, Blue Mountain offers a special where you can ski their slopes in the morning, then golf their hillside course in the afternoon. Count me in !
A story: I gave a ride home to a colleague one day because her wiper blade motor had died. I barely made it into work taking my usual back road route (Local Airport Rd), so we opted for Nottawa Sideroad, for reasons which made sense at the time. Taking an east-west road in the middle of 70 km/hr north winds made sense at the time, but in hindsight was a foolish choice.
We had to pass through a short (maybe 1 km) section of open, flat farmland. With a little Toyota Tercel, that's a recipe for disaster. Most people in this area drive larger vehicles, and to be sure our second car fits that description, but with two sets of post-secondary tuition coming up starting next year, a replacement vehicle isn't in the cards at the moment. I know I'm kidding myself, but I like to say that my Tercel has 25 kg of fertilizer in the back and 25 yrs of winter driving behind he wheel, but neither of those was any help to us on this occasion.
We drove along with the road rapidly shrinking in front of us due to drifting. I made it through the first drift, then we hit a whiteout and the car just stopped. We had hit a drift that was up past our knees, but I couldn't see it at first because of the blowing snow.
We were stuck. No going ahead, no going back. Meeg called her partner Andrew, who is in the plowing/towing business in the winter, but couldn't reach him. So, after another survey of the situation, I was about to call CAA and wait. Suddenly, a flatbed truck pulled up on the other side of the drift to the west of it. Inside was a former student, who asked, "Need me to pull you out, Mr Fox ?". Kyle had his chains at the ready, and sure enough yanked us out of the drift. Turns out that Kyle lives on that road, and we likely were not the first nor the last victims he had pulled out that day.
Freed from the snow, we turned around and drove into Collingwood, and then on to Nottawa - the way we should have gone in the first place !
Postscript: I'm strongly considering replacing my Tercel with a Jeep Patriot. Having two teenaged drivers in the house is a factor.
posted by Foxco at
2:04 PM
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