After a couple of years of relatively mild winters with little snow, Estevan has felt the brunt of winter twice in an eight-day span.
The first storm arrived around noon on Nov. 28, and proceeded to dump more than a foot of snow on Estevan over the next few days. And just when the city was nearly finished digging out from that system, an even stronger storm, with high winds and heavy snowfall, walloped the city on Monday.
A blizzard warning was issued by Environment Canada on Monday afternoon at 3:25 p.m., and it remained in effect until just after 7 a.m. on Tuesday morning. The Estevan Police Service asked the public to avoid all non-essential travel within the city, due to the storm and the efforts to keep the streets clear.
The Saskatchewan Ministry of Highways and Infrastructure closed several highways in the region on Monday evening an early Tuesday, including Highway 39 from Estevan to the U.S. border, Highway 47 from the U.S. border to Stoughton, and Highway 361 from the junction with Highway 47 to the junction with Highway 9.
The closures were lifted on Tuesday morning, but travel not recommended advisories remained in place. Several other highways in the area had similar advisories.
Highway 39 from Estevan to Midale was closed briefly on Monday evening as well, but the closure was quickly replaced with a travel not recommended advisory.
Two area highways – Highway 18 from Estevan to Oungre, and Highway 350 from Torquay to the U.S. border – were still closed on Tuesday morning.
Bus routes in and around Estevan for the South East Cornerstone Public School Division and the Holy Family Roman Catholic Separate School Division were cancelled, and the Southeast College cancelled classes at its Estevan campus on Tuesday.
A number of facilities, including Affinity Place and the Estevan Leisure Centre, were closed early on Monday night.
Monday’s storm also created challenges for the City of Estevan’s snow clearing efforts. Norm Mack, the director of roads and drainage for the public works division, told the Mercury that they had completed about 70 to 80 per cent of the snow clearing efforts from the late November storm when Monday’s blizzard struck.
Priority 1 and 2 routes had been cleared last week, and they were in the midst of clearing the Priority 3 routes.
“We worked really hard, because I saw the forecast for this freak storm coming from North Dakota, so we decided to work Saturday and Sunday to try to keep ahead and get as many streets done as possible, just so we weren’t facing a situation in which we had 30 centimetres of snow on top of the 30 centimetres we already had,” said Mack.
Once Monday’s blizzard hit, city crews and contractors started working to keep the arterial roads clear as much as possible. They also had a grader at St. Joseph’s Hospital to maintain access to the building, and another grader to ensure the Estevan Fire Rescue Service and the Estevan Police Service could access their facilities.
“We’re going down our main arteries with graders, just building windrows, putting the snow in the middle for now so that traffic can pass,” said Mack.
Mack noted crews were ready to start clearing roads at 2:30 a.m. on Tuesday morning. Their priority was to keep the main arterial roads as clear as possible, and to clear up the snowed-in roads. The north and the northwest areas of the city were hit the hardest by Monday’s storm.
He has “no doubt” they will need to clear all the roads in the city after the blizzard, and so snow removal efforts will have to continue well into next week.
“We have a multitude of contractors working for us right now, with blowers and Caterpillars pushing snow,” said Mack. “We have every piece of equipment that we own out working for us.”
Those tasked with snow clearing have worked tirelessly since last week. They were often up at 3 a.m. on weekdays, and 6 a.m. on weekends, to clear the roads. City crews were also working on sidewalks and pathways prior to Monday’s storm.
Mack said after the November snowstorm that they wouldn’t have to tweak the snow removal policy.
“We want to be pro-active. We want to be on top of things. My fear is you have one large accumulation, and then another storm comes, and then it really hampers snow removal efforts,” he said last week.
Despite the storm, Estevan city council proceeded with their meeting on Monday night. Mayor Roy Ludwig told the Mercury that they discussed the possibility of cancelling the meeting, but ultimately decided to proceed due to time sensitive matters, including contracts for the new residuals management project and the water intake project at Rafferty Dam.
“We have such a tight time frame with some of these things that we’re doing,” said Ludwig.
The city doesn’t have an estimate for the snow removal costs. They had spent approximately $50,000 of the $250,000 in the 2016 budget prior to Nov. 28, but a large snow event can cost $50,000 to $100,000, and so the two events will prove costly.
