Winter storm pounds Saskatchewan

Stay off the roads, that’s the word from city police, RCMP and the Highway Hotline. The Trans Canada is still closed between Regina and Rush Lake, just east of Swift Current. Highway 11 has reopened, but travel is still not advised on the main route between Regina and Saskatoon. Meanwhile, all highways in the Moose Jaw area remain closed. The Department of Highways is saying that they will not be clearing any roads until after this storm has passed.

RCMP officials have reported several traffic accidents along the open stretches of Saskatchewan highways, but no fatalities.

Saskatoon police have responded to numerous fender benders around the city and are advising motorists to slow down and use caution. They advise everyone to stay home and not to travel unless it is absolutely necessary.

Saskatoon Transit has pulled most of their buses from the streets and is only running limited service between the downtown bus mall and some suburban malls. A decision on bus service for Monday will be made in the morning, but Global News has learned that there will only be limited service if the buses are out tomorrow.

MD Ambulance is also having troubles dealing with these road conditions. “Today’s weather has caused us a lot of grief,” says Troy Davies, going on to state that even ambulances have been getting stuck on city streets responding to calls. The Health Bus did not run today because of the conditions.

The city of Saskatoon has issued a temporary parking ban on all designated snow routes. The ban starts at 5:00 p.m. Monday and lasts until 5:00 p.m. Thursday. Any vehicles parked in these routes will be ticketed and either towed to a nearby street or impounded. The city also announced that there will be no garbage pickup on Monday and both public and separate school buses will not be running as well.

In Regina, Mayor Pat Fiacco held a special news conference to address the situation there. The city has every piece of equipment out to clear the streets and has also contracted out some of the snow removal. The price tag for the clean up there is estimated to be between five and six hundred thousand dollars.

At John G. Diefenbaker Airport in Saskatoon, there have been some delays but most flights are arriving and departing on time. In Regina, there were numerous delays or cancellations due to the severe weather conditions.

STC has cancelled several buses and most others were arriving late at their destinations, including Greyhound buses.

More than 1,000 SaskPower customers in rural southern Saskatchewan were without power on Sunday, with some outages expected to be lengthy, officials said.

Meanwhile, officials with SaskTel also reported cellphone and Internet outages affecting some rural residents.

The strong storm system that pushed in from the United States has brought widespread snow throughout the southern portions of the province. Between 20 and 30 centimetres of snow has fallen in the region and strong winds gusting up to 80 kilometres/hour are creating blizzard conditions in the southern regions, especially along the Trans Canada highway down to the international border. All southern regions, including Regina, Moose Jaw and Swift Current remain under a blizzard warning.

Environment Canada is saying that the snow should taper off Sunday evening but the strong northerly winds will be bringing in a cold air mass. The winds are expected to diminish on Monday.

And a word of caution from MD Ambulance before heading out to shovel all this snow. “We are asking everyone to take their time shoveling this snow; we had one individual yesterday go into cardiac arrest after shoveling.”

With reports from Global Regina and the Leader Post.