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Two-day blizzard hammers Estevan

The latest winter storm to batter the Estevan area brought the city to a virtual standstill for more than 48 hours. The system began in the early morning hours of March 6, with a light layer of freezing rain coating the city’s roads.
Josh Biggs helped clear snow from a residence on Wellock Road on March 8, one day after a blizzard h
Josh Biggs helped clear snow from a residence on Wellock Road on March 8, one day after a blizzard hammered Estevan with powerful winds and more than 20 centimetres of snow. Photo by Brian Zinchuk

The latest winter storm to batter the Estevan area brought the city to a virtual standstill for more than 48 hours. The system began in the early morning hours of March 6, with a light layer of freezing rain coating the city’s roads. The rain eventually turned to snow, and by the afternoon, heavy winds were whipping the snow around the city. When the snow let up in the evening, more than 20 centimetres had fallen on the Energy City. But the winds didn’t let up, and the wind gusts exceeded 100 kilometres per hour on March 7, creating near-zero visibility for much of the day. “It was likely one of the highest and longest blizzards that I’ve ever seen in my 30 years here,” said Norm Mack, the roads and drainage manager for the City of Estevan’s public works division. Mack said they wrapped up snow clearing efforts from the blizzard on March 11 at noon. The Priority 1 and 2 roads were finished by March 10, and then they shifted their attention to the residential roads.

They had to make roads in the Dominion Heights, Pleasantdale and Royal Heights areas a priority, because those were the areas that were hit the hardest. “There was just so much snow there,” said Mack. “During the storm there were people unable to get out of their homes.” The Estevan Police Service posted a photo on 

their Twitter feed of a fivefoot snow drift on Gibbs Road. “At the beginning of the storm, we thought we would get away with not having to do Priority 3 residential roads, but as the big winds came on the last day, it became obvious we would have to do Priority 3s,” said Mack. Mack said city crews 

and contractors worked through the storm to keep the roads passable. They weren’t sure whether they should have been working at times on March 7, because of the near-zero visibility, but they wanted to keep arterial roads and access to St. Joseph’s Hospital open. “It was questionable if we could even see to work,” said Mack. “There were 

times when the equipment had to stop just until visibility would come back to us.” Snow removal efforts started as early as 2 a.m. on March 7 and 8. “It’s hard to go to sleep knowing that some roads are plugged around the hospital and with major arteries,” said Mack. Crews dropped down to 12-hour days on March 

9 and 10. “Our way of thinking is the first 48 hours, we’re going to be really aggressive on these storms, and try to get … the roads open ASAP,” said Mack. “I think that seems to work, and that’s what people like, when they’re going to work in the morning, the roads are open and they’re not getting stuck.” Contractors had to be called in to help remove the snow because Mack said the city crews couldn’t do it by themselves. The EPS urged motorists to stay off the roads during the storm. They reported a number of accidents on March 6, but none of them resulted in injuries. Officers helped a number of motorists who were stuck in the snow, and reported they were dealing with abandoned vehicles as late as March 11. Blowing snow on March 12 forced the city to grade and windrow some of the arterial roads and they were finished on March 13. Mack doesn’t have an estimate for how much it will cost to clear the snow from latest storm, but he expects it will eat up a significant portion of the city’s snow removal budget. 

The storm also forced the closure of a number of highways in the area, including Highway 39 between Estevan and Midale. More than 30 motorists were stranded on Highway 39, and members of the EPS brought food, coffee and water to them via snowmobile on March 8. Highway 47 from Stoughton to the junction with Highway 361 was also shut down. The Ministry of Highways and Infrastructure reported motorists were stranded on that highway as well. Highway 18 from Bienfait to Carnduff, Highway 361 between Highways 47 and 9, and Highway 47 north of Stoughton were closed. Five highways that served as access points to the Canada-U.S. border 
– Highways 350, 47, 39, 8 and 9 – were closed as well. However, all of the border crossings remained open, expect for the Port of Torquay, whose access is Highway 350. The Canada Border Services Agency sent out a notice of service interruption for the North Portal border crossing on March 9. While Highway 39 was open at that point, Highway 52 in North Dakota was still closed. Regular traffic was diverted to the Estevan and Northgate border cross
ings, but commercial traffic was delayed. SaskPower handled numerous power outages due to the storm. There was an outage reported south of Estevan early in the morning of March 7. Crews weren’t able to restore power for several hours, since they had to wait for conditions to improve. Prolonged power outages were also reported in the Carlyle, Redvers, Alida, Carievale and Storthoaks areas due to the severe weather