State of emergency officially over in St. John's

After eight days, the state of emergency in St. John's came to an end Saturday morning.

The state of emergency was lifted at 6 a.m., allowing people out of their homes and businesses to open for the first time since a powerful blizzard hit eastern Newfoundland on Jan. 17.

Mayor Danny Breen says the city is continuing to work toward getting things back to normal.

"We now move into a transition where we get the city back to normal operations," Breen told CBC News.

"We have a lot of snow removal left to do."

Although the state of emergency is lifted, a 24-hour a day parking ban remains in place outside the city's designated downtown.

The city is continuing to to work on widening roads and sidewalks in order to help pedestrians get around. Work is also continuing in school zones, with the hope schools will be able to reopen Monday.

Metrobus and GoBus are offering free rides until Feb. 7, encouraging people to leave their vehicles at home, although some delays are expected and several detours are in effect.

A case of cabin fever

People from across the city are eager to get out of their homes for the first time since the state of emergency was put in place. Anne Hughes says she quickly found cabin fever setting in.

"For the first couple of days I felt a bit cooped up in the house," Hughes said. "Not to be able to get out, it was really hard."

But thanks to some help from her neighbours, Hughes said she was eventually able to get out of her home and get some fresh air.

"I was able to walk down the street and up the street, and it was really good," Hughes said. "That was wonderful."

Nancy Garland, owner of Clothes Minded Boutique, is happy to be open after the extended state of emergency.

"We were down quite a long time, and everyday we're without any sales we are majorly impacted," Garland said. "So we are certainly happy to be back up and running today." 

Garland credits the city for all the work done over the past eight days.

"I feel the city has done an amazing job," she said. "Every profession, the health care, the people out clearing our roads to make everything safe. I feel they did a fantastic job."

The eight days weren't a total loss for Shawn Dawson, a gardener at Barking Kettle, a local farm in Torbay. 

"It gave me time to make some new sauces … and come up with some new ideas,"  Dawson said.

Barking Kettle usually sells their sauces at the St. John's Farmers Market, but worked with Simply for Life, a health food store in Torbay, to sell products while the Farmers Market was postponed.

He said he came up with several recipes over the state of emergency, including a partridgeberry ketchup and a blackcurrant barbecue sauce.

Dawson said missing days at the Farmers Market can be tough for business, but he hopes businesses can work together to rebound from the storm.

"I think you'll see a lot of people, a lot of small businesses working together to try to get back on track."

Everybody needs to be careful.- Danny Breen

With the added hustle and bustle back on city streets, Breen said there is still much work to be done and advises the public to exercise caution.

"Everybody needs to be careful," Breen said.

"Everybody knows that they have to be responsible for each other, as we always are."

Downtown snow removal will continue today on Harbour Drive, New Gower Street, Water Street east of Prescott Street and Waterford Bridge Road, among other areas.

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