The Rural Voice, 2006-03, Page 39hopelessly paralyzed when Monday's
unprecedented blizzard struck. High
winds and mounting snow banks tied
up transportation in no time and
highway and railroad snow clearance
crews, already strained to the
breaking point by long hours, staged
a determined but futile fight against
winter's unparalleled onslaught.
Tuesday night presented a chaotic
picture of blocked, snow -swept
roads, stranded cars and trucks,
people marooned in hotels, farm
houses and railway stations."
This storm was widespread,
afflicting much of southern
Ontario. My husband
remembers a similar storm in the
Bruce -Grey snow belt when the
Formosa brewery workers turned out
to help clear the road between
Formosa and the highway to
Walkerton.
The sun finally came out after the
storm, illuminating gigantic banks of
glistening white crystals under
brilliant blue skies. School was still
closed, so we spent many days skiing
or sledding, only driven in eventually
by wet feet or cold hands to warm
ourselves with hot chocolate, cuddled
up to the kitchen woodstove, while
wet woolen socks and mittens were
spread to dry on the open warming
oven.
When school opened again that
winter, the snow was so deep that we
could ski to school through the fields
without having to heed the fences
that usually blocked our path. They
were all buried in snow, and
remained so for many weeks. This
route was far safer, for when the
roads did open, the narrow roadways
with the giant snow banks on either
side were unsafe for walking.
When spring did come, there was
major flooding in some parts of the
province.
Oddly enough, exactly 30 years
later came the second big snow storm
of my lifetime, the Niagara blizzard
of '77. That story has been well
documented by Erno Rossi in his
book White Death. The Niagara
Peninsula has its own micro climate,
and weather can change drastically
within a few miles. Typically,
Niagara gets much less snow than the
rest of the province, and St.
Catharines, situated on the shore of
Lake Ontario below the Niagara
Escarpment gets less than the
southern part of the peninsula above
the escarpment. Fort Erie
experiences the storms that blow off
Lake Erie. That was true on January
28, 1977 when the southern part of
the peninsula bore the brunt of the
brutal storm, bitter cold and high
winds that made driving a nightmare.
I was in Niagara Falls that
morning with my teacher colleagues
at a Professional Development day.
No one had paid much attention to
storm warnings. People in Niagara
tended to be a bit blase about snow.
Our meeting was interrupted to tell
us of the worsening blizzard. We did
make it home to St. Catharines that
day, through a near perpetual white-
out.
Just after having inched our way
through the Thorold tunnel under the
Welland Canal we heard on our car
radio that the tunnel was closed.
Many of our colleagues did not make
it to their homes and holed up in
hotels in Niagara Falls, sitting most
of the night in the bar eating peanuts
because the rooms were not heated
during winter months.
My husband and children made it
safely home too that day, although
our oldest son had walked a couple
of miles to the shopping center and
back to get his brother a birthday
present. Although our cul-de-sac
was not ploughed for many days
after, we were safe and warm as had
been my experience 30 years before.
The snowmobiles and their
drivers, not horses, were the heroes
of the day that time, and we listened
avidly toour radio for reports of the
rescue operations they performed.
As I write this in early
February, we have little snow
after one of the warmest
Januarys on record. This is true of
most of southern Ontario. However,
through conversations with relatives
in Teeswater and Formosa this past
weekend, we learned that they were
in the grip of a heavy storm, with
some roads closed.
In 2007 it will be again be 30
years since the last really big blizzard
of my life. Hmmm, I wonder if it's
too early to start stocking the
pantry?0
Attention:
SHEEP FARMERS
Atlas Tanning
is accepting
Wool
as usual
CaII 519-523-4595
Atlas Tanning
1 mi. south of Blyth on
Hwy. 4 behind
The Old Mill
Leather & Woolen
Specialist
Custom Tanning
Available
SCHMIDT'S
FARM DRAINAGE
1990 LTD.
• FARM DRAINAGE
• EROSION CONTROL
• BACKHOEING & EXCAVATIONS
• GPS MAPPING
Frank Fischer, Harriston
519-338-3484
"We install( j- drainage tubing."
MARCH 2006 35