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Roads reopening, blizzard cleanup continuing in Grey-Bruce

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Grey-Bruce continued to dig out on Monday from the weekend’s blizzard that left area roads treacherous, stranded numerous motorists and knocked out power to thousands.

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After heavy snow and driving winds closed roads across the two counties and knocked out power for thousands on Friday and Saturday, improvements were seen in some areas on Sunday.

Grey County reopened all its roads at 3:30 p.m. on Christmas Day, while in Bruce County roads started to open up, but as of Monday morning several still remained closed. Most provincial highways in the region, which had closed during the height of the storm, including highways 6, 9, 10, 21 and 26, had partially reopened. As of Monday morning at 8 a.m., highways in Grey-Bruce still closed included Highway 21 from Southampton to Goderich and Highway 9 from the Kincardine-Kinloss Townline Road to County Road 12.

After widespread outages that kept thousands of people in the dark and without heat for hours at a time, many had their power restored by Monday. The Hydro One storm centre outage map was still reporting some smaller outages including in the Sauble Beach and Walters Falls area, with more around Williamsford, Dornoch, Chesley, Inverhuron and through southern Bruce County. Estimated restoration times varied from noon to 11 p.m. on Boxing Day. Westario Power reported Monday that it had restored power to all customers impacted by the storm.

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“As our crews were working in unfavourable wintry conditions, often with zero visibility, many customers waited patiently with their Christmas plans in jeopardy and homes getting cold,” the company said in a post on its website. “Westario Power extends our sincere gratitude to our valued customers for their ongoing patience and support and to our team as they worked through their Christmas dinners to help our communities.”

During the height of the storm on Friday and Saturday, county and municipal plows were pulled off the roads due to conditions that included nil visibility from the blowing snow caused by wind gusts up to 100 km/h. The weather led to the closure of countless businesses and municipal facilities like arenas and town halls and the cancellation of transit services. The afternoon GOST bus run was cancelled again Monday due to road closures.

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The Barclay Room at the Owen Sound police station was open from 2 to 6 p.m. on Christmas Day and Boxing day as a warming centre. The United Way of Bruce Grey had provided a snack bin for the centre.

On Saturday, police and emergency services were dealing with stranded motorists throughout the two counties – from Northern Bruce Peninsula, through Meaford, Grey Highlands and Southgate – with many being forced to wait out the worst of the storm because help couldn’t get to them.

“Our officers were out throughout the evening using our snowmobiles and other means to try and get to stranded motorists to make sure everybody had gas and everybody was warm and so far everybody is,” Grey Bruce OPP Nick Wilson said Saturday. “There are still people stuck in their vehicles, but we just can’t get tow trucks to them and we have no means to take them anywhere.”

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Police were making contact with those stranded and making sure they had what they needed to stay warm and well, including gasoline and appropriate clothing.

“We are triaging in terms of priority,” Wilson said Saturday. “If there are people stranded that is a dire situation, we are obviously making arrangements and efforts and utilizing other resources to get to them.”

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Early Saturday afternoon Grey Bruce OPP put out an advisory about reports of motorists passing and driving around snow removal crews in an unsafe manner, sometimes in whiteout conditions. Wilson said there were still many vehicles on the roads despite the closures and weather conditions.

Wilson said Monday morning that roads were continuing to open with motorists advised to check Ontario 511 and Municipal 511 for updates.

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“Day shift is continuing to clear abandoned vehicles that got stuck in the storm,” Wilson said Monday via e-mail. “Cleanup crews have been working around the clock.”

Wilson said no injuries had been reported.

Saugeen Shores Police Service shared images on social media of incidents they were dealing with on Christmas Day. In one, a car is hung up on snow on Bruce Road 3 near Doll Sideroad. A man from Scarborough was charged with driving on a closed highway, the post said.

Another post showed a car on its roof on Bruce Road 40 and listed the resources utilized in the Christmas Day collision, including two police officers and cruisers, four paramedics, two ambulances, Saugeen Shores Fire Department, a tow truck and several good Samaritans living nearby. Police said there were no injuries as a result of the crash.

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A snowsquall warning was in place for the Bruce Peninsula including Sauble Beach with additional snowfall amounts of 30 to 50 centimetres possible by Tuesday afternoon. Visibility was expected to be significantly reduced due to heavy and blowing snow.

A snowsquall watch remained in effect for northern Grey County including Owen Sound and the Blue Mountains on Monday with 15 to 25 centimetres more snow possible in some areas. And there was still the chance of reduced visibility with heavy and blowing snow. A winter weather travel advisory was in effect for other areas, including southern Grey-Bruce, with another 10 cm of lake effect snow possible. Motorists were being advised that travel may be hazardous with sudden changes in the weather and to be prepared to adjust their driving.

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Steve Hardman of Owen Sound stopped in at Walmart early Monday morning to grab a few essentials for a scaled-down and delayed Christmas dinner.

“We knew on Saturday that our Christmas dinner was going to be killed, so we decided to wait and we are hopefully going to have it today,” said Hardman. “Part of the family still won’t be able to make it and they are from the Kitchener and Fergus area.”

Hardman said they get nominated to hold the Christmas dinner every year because his wife Liz is an excellent cook.

“It was kind of weird getting up Christmas morning and it was just my wife, my stepson and I,” said Hardman. “It was way different than what we are used to.”

Hardman, who rode out the storm at home, couldn’t remember a blizzard of the magnitude of the one on the weekend for quite some time.

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“Back when I was a kid we had them, and we have had a few since, but it was wild,” he said. “We live down below the hill and are kind of sheltered a bit but you still couldn’t see.”

Judy Rioual, who was grabbing items like milk and coffee, said her Christmas was cancelled on Sunday because nobody could get there. Instead she had a quiet day at home and took her dog to the dog park for a play.

“It was beautiful and she seen her friends and played in the fresh snow,” Rioual said. “We had to make the best of it.”

Rioual, who works serving meals at the new Southbridge long-term care home in Owen Sound, was scheduled to be off for four days, but headed into work on the weekend when other staff from out of town couldn’t make it.

Her small car got stuck a couple of times in snowdrifts, but she was fortunate that others were close by to help.

“I have good neighbours and Owen Sound has good neighbours,” Rioual said. “People are always helping everybody out.”

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