Sask. cleaning up after blizzard roars through province

Saskatchewan highways affected by an overnight blizzard have reopened, as conditions improved on Tuesday afternoon.

Some areas experienced limited visibility overnight, as an Alberta clipper brought strong winds and snow to the province on Monday.

Rebecca Thiessen lives south of Blaine Lake on highway 12. She runs the Facebook page “Petrofka Highway Report” to update motorists of the road conditions in the North Saskatchewan River valley.

“There were vehicles everywhere, there were snow drifts everywhere. It was a complete whiteout,” said Thiessen. “When my husband home, he hopped got the tractor and pulled five cars out of the ditch.”

Winds gusts in Regina were between 87 and 91 km/h according to CTV Regina Meteorologist Bradlyn Oakes. She said Mankoda weather station saw the highest winds at 106 km/h.

“When you have these decreased visibilities because of these winds, coupled with the fresh snow,” said Oakes. “You can’t see the road. It makes any kind of travel hazardous.”

Between 4 p.m. on Monday and 10 a.m. on Tuesday, the Saskatchewan RCMP Communications Centre dealt with over 2,100 calls and created over 500 weather-related files.

The Regina Police Service responded to almost 90 storm-related calls including 19 multivehicle collisions.

This morning, multiple cars were still stuck in ditches and under snow. CAA Saskatchewan said there were 82 calls for service made between the start of Monday night’s blizzard and Tuesday morning. Twenty-three of those calls required a winch to pull a vehicle out of a ditch or snowbank.

“For most of the areas of the province that were hit [by the blizzard],” said CAA Saskatchewan director of communications Christine Neimczyk. “We are not able to provide an expected time of arrival.

“What we’re dealing with is: people who required service [Monday], found themselves stuck but they weren’t able to travel. Now, as highways are reopening, there is higher demand for that service.”

Neimczyk also said in centres like Lloydminster, Yorkton, Prince Albert and Moose Jaw, they could not provide an estimated wait time due to the high volume of requests.