Crews are nonetheless working to reopen Freeway 11 north of Toronto after components of Ontario’s cottage nation have been hit with upwards of 140 centimetres of snowfall over the weekend.
Ontario Provincial Police Sgt. Kerry Schmidt advised CP24 on Monday that crews hope to reopen the freeway, which is at present closed between Orillia and Huntsville, by midday at this time.
“Road crews and cleanup crews, (the Ministry of Transportation), are working diligently. The vehicles, hundreds of vehicles, that were stranded there because of impassable roads have been removed,” he mentioned.
“There is still significant amounts of ice accumulation. We are waiting for the salt to really start engaging in that ice to melt it off and get that down to an asphalt service.”
A state of emergency was declared for Gravenhurst, a city situated within the Muskoka space, this weekend following a winter storm that dumped greater than 100 centimetres of snowfall on the area.
Emergency crews have been compelled to drag folks from their automobiles after they have been stranded on space roadways.
“It is a pretty scary situation. You may be in blowing snow, limited visibility. You may be on a live lane and there is traffic coming behind you,” Schmidt mentioned.
He famous that motorists in that state of affairs ought to “make themselves as visible as possible.”
“(Keep) your full headlighting system on, your four-way flashing lights on,” he famous.
The variety of prospects with out energy surpassed 60,000 on the peak of the storm, Hydro One confirmed.
Schmidt mentioned snow removing tools from Toronto Pearson Worldwide Airport is getting used to assist clear Freeway 11.
“We don’t want to have an intermittent type of reopening or just small sections because that would just overwhelm some of the side roads,” he mentioned, including that each one obtainable sources are getting used to get the freeway again up and operating.
Gravenhurst Mayor Heidi Lorenz urged residents to remain off the roads if potential.
“We want residents to stay home. We know people are concerned about their neighbours and we want them to check on their neighbours, however if you can, stay home,” she mentioned Monday.
“The roads that we are able to access, there is abandoned cars on them, there are fallen trees on them, there’s branches. We have hydro out in some places… If you have hydro and you are safe and warm, please do your very best to keep your travel to a minimum.”
With recordsdata from The Canadian Press
