Gravenhurst still digging out after storm, Hwy 11 starting to reopen
Hydro lines and downed trees complicating cleanup, town says, but reinforcements are arriving
Downed hydro lines, trees and abandoned vehicles are hampering snow-clearing efforts in Gravenhurst, Ont. Monday, officials with the town say, after intense snow squalls battered parts of Ontario over the weekend.
In an update posted on Gravenhurst's website, officials said that since Saturday, workers have cleared more than 50 trees that had fallen across roadways.
"Work on this continues but it is slow," the statement reads. "Getting tree removal resources to these locations takes time."
Downed hydro lines are also posing a challenge — the town says though it doesn't have an exact count of how many have fallen, there have been "dozens of instances" where hydro lines draped across roads have slowed snow removal. In each of those cases, utility workers have to be called in to remove them.
The town in Muskoka, which is roughly 176 kilometres north of Toronto, was hit with around 140 centimetres of snow over the weekend and subsequently declared a state of emergency early Sunday.
"I've been here for 27 years, and I've never seen anything like it in such a short period of time," Gravenhurst Mayor Heidi Lorenz told CBC News Monday.
Ontario Provincial Police say Highway 11 northbound at West Street is now open, while the southbound lanes of the highway from Highway 60 in Huntsville are expected to reopen around 4 p.m. Monday. This comes after officials were forced to close nearly 100 kilometres of the roadway after the storm rendered it impassable.
"I can't remember … in my life ever experiencing a highway closure of this magnitude," Lorenz said.
Buried in snow
Dustin Soares and his family were one of the many trudging through snow with shovels in the region Monday. He and five other people have been staying at a cottage on Lake Muskoka built by his mother and father-in-law, as part of an annual get together around U.S. Thanksgiving.
Things were looking good in the middle of last week, he told CBC News in an interview — but everything "escalated pretty quickly" as the weekend approached.
"This is the first time we've been stuck in effectively 30 years, which just tells you the scope of how bad the storm really was up here," he said.
Digging out has proven to be an endeavour for the group, who luckily have a generator and enough supplies to get by. But from their cottage to where their cars are is a kilometre, and from their cars to a roadway that's plowed is another kilometre — which effectively left them two kilometres from a plowed road.
The path from their cottage to their cars is all uphill, and the group's snowmobile got stuck because of the depth of the snow. In the end, they ended up packing the snowmobile's trailer to drag the group's bags up to their cars, which they were able to clean off.
Then, he said Monday morning, the group was waiting for a plow to dig out their cars so they could again walk the kilometre back to them and hopefully drive home to other parts of the province.
People should always be cognizant of the sheer power the elements in the area can have, Soares said.
"Never underestimate it," he said.
Other municipalities helping out
Gravenhurst officials say other municipalities have been pitching in to help dig out — resources from Peel and Simcoe are already on scene, while others from Vaughan will arrive Monday.
"Additional resources are expected, and we will share more on this later," the post on the town's website reads. "The intent is to get roads open to at least one lane."
Power outages are still an issue in the region because the main Hydro One line that connects the south end of the community is still without power, the town says.
"There are downed lines throughout the community and utility workers are doing their best to get to them. It takes time," the update reads. "Navigating snow covered roads and obstacles is limiting response efforts."
Town workers and contractors are working on cleanup, the statement continues, but people have been going beyond the hours they are safely allowed to work and have had to stop to rest at times.
Lorenz says while this has been a difficult situation, it has also shown that Gravenhurst is a community with a "huge heart," as so many people are pitching in to help out.
"I call it 'the little town that could.' Any time there's a crisis, big or small, the community always seems to chip in," she said. "People are just kind here. Everybody is checking on their neighbours."
The town says it is working with relief agencies to provide support for residents and is reminding people to keep snow away from furnace vents and avoid removing snow from roofs, unless you face "a critical situation.
"You risk injuring yourself and requiring medical assistance," the update reads. "We might not be able to get to you."
Intense snow squalls are now moving across parts of southwestern Ontario, forcing the Thames Valley District School Board in the London, Ont., region to close five schools after school bus service was cancelled.
London, Parkhill and Eastern Middlesex County are now under a snow squall warning, with up to 30 more centimetres of snow expected, especially near the shores of Lake Huron, according to Environment Canada. Snow squalls are forecast to return Monday night and end Tuesday morning.
With files from The Canadian Press