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Dufferin County hit with snow storm, municipalities weather winter woes

February 28, 2019   ·   0 Comments

By James Matthews

Dufferin County residents began the week with a dire warning to stay off local roads and highways because of inclement weather.

High winds and blowing snow howled through the region Sunday night (Feb. 24) and Monday (Feb. 25).

The County Emergency Operations Centre was activated Feb. 25 and shelters were opened at the Honeywood Fire Hall on County Road 21 and Community Living Dufferin on County Road 3. The shelters were opened to accommodate motorists stranded after roads and highways were closed.

Other commuters weren’t so lucky and found themselves stranded on roads by the blizzard. Tow truck operators and Dufferin OPP worked to remove abandoned vehicles from closed snow-drifted roads. And provincial police brought snowmobiles from Bracebridge to be used to rescue stranded motorists from their vehicles.

Social media channels were festooned with images and accounts of thoroughfares littered with vehicles and snow drifts that reached as high as eight feet in places.

County emergency officials issued updates throughout Feb. 25 that described continuously dangerous road conditions due to blowing and drifting snow. Snow removal operations were hindered by white-out conditions and abandoned vehicles.

People were asked to stay off roads as police, snow clearing crews, and tow truck operators cleared highways.

Within Orangeville, the town’s Department of Public Works pressed on despite the meteorological melee.

John Lackey, the town’s Public Works’ operations manager, said crews continued working after roads were closed and schools and some businesses were shut down for the day.

“We continued to work through it with five plows, one loader, and five sidewalk machines,” he said. “We continued to operate because we felt it would make the clean-up easier on Tuesday.”

Mr. Lackey said the drifting snow was more troublesome than the sheer volume of the white stuff.

“It was a windy one,” he said of the storm. “One we got through fairly well.”

Tom Reid, the chief at Dufferin County Paramedic Service, said the weather presented many challenges throughout the day. Every ambulance had gotten stuck at some point, he said, either on a highway or in somebody’s driveway during a call for assistance.

“People need to be reminded to stay off roads closed by weather,” he said. “And people should stay inside their cars until help arrives when stranded on a highway in poor visibility.”

Mr. Reid commended the County’s public works staff and their counterparts at municipalities across the tiers for striving to ensure paramedics’ accessibility to areas in which they were needed.

“I can’t say enough about our team and all the emergency services crews,” said Reid.

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