Most of northeastern Alberta was swept under a blanket of blowing snow on Wednesday afternoon that resulted in stranded motorists, travel advisories, closed highways and school bus cancellations.
The wind and snow blew into the Lac La Biche area with sustained gusts in the mid-afternoon, reducing visibility to just a few metres for motorists and pedestrians.
In the first hour of the storm, Lac La Biche RCMP responded to a dozen complaints of single vehicle and multi-car crashes on area highways and on local streets.
“Hunker down,” was the plain advice given by Lac La Biche RCMP Sgt. Henry Van Dorland when contacted by the POST. “If you don’ t have to go anywhere ... don’ t.”
No serious injuries were reported in any of the crashes, that included a four-vehicle chain-reaction collision along Lac La Biche’ s Main Street and a family in an SUV being forced into the ditch along Highway 36 after they say a large semi-truck was driving in the wrong lane.
During the height of the storm, some motorists called the POST to say that a portion of Highway 881 near Conklin had been shut down to traffic due to icy road conditions, blowing snow and virtually no visibility.
In Lac La Biche area and Plamondon schools, students were held inside the buildings while school bus operators waited out the worst part of the storm. Northern Lights Public Schools spokesperson Nicole Garner said school officials discussed several strategies during the storm to prepare for the end-of-school plan.
In the end, they informed parents that students could remain at the schools until bus drivers were able to safely drive their routes. At Kikino School and Amisk School at the Beaver Lake Cree Nation, buses were at the schools early to shuttle children home during a brief break in the blizzard.
At Lac La Biche’ s Light of Christ Catholic School, officials with the Lakeland Catholic School Board said that buses would be running on time, but the going would be slow.
Weather and travel advisories, as well as school bus delays, took place across the Northern Lights Public Schools district, including all schools in the Bonnyville area. RCMP from the Sherwood Park and Fort Saskatchewan areas also issued travel advisories for all roads within their jurisdiction.
The storm was so severe that it didn’ t only affect outdoor travel, but also indoor recreation. Staff at the Stuart MacPherson Public Library at the Bold Center contacted the POST to say they would be closing the facility for the day due to the poor weather.
According to Environment Canada, the storm cell stretched as far east as the Bonnyville and Cold Lake areas and as far west as Athabasca. As winds subsided in the Lac La Biche area at about 5 pm, some POST readers on the newspaper’ s facebook site and website in the Edmonton area commented that the winds were beginning to start blowing stronger in the capital city.
Initial weather reports showed the windy weather easing up by 8 pm in the Lac La Biche and Plamondon areas.
Van Dorland reminded motorists to take every precaution if they had to travel overnight and into Thursday morning, saying the storm serves as a reminder that winter weather is always unpredictable.
