Comparing Wednesday's highway conditions to a skating rink was no exaggeration. Photo taken near Big River First Nation. (submitted photo/Rita Keen)

By Nigel Maxwell

Public safety

Saskatchewan recovers from Mother Nature’s icy storm

Jan 14, 2021 | 11:24 AM

The combination of high winds, freezing rain and snow Wednesday and early Thursday morning had many people across the province questioning what they did to put Mother Nature in such a foul mood.

Despite warnings to stay off the icy roads, some drivers still attempted the near impossible feat only to regret it later. Danny Goodwin, owner of Gateway North Towing, spoke with paNOW around 9:30 a.m.Thursday and by then he received nearly 40 calls over the past 12 hours. He explained the adverse weather conditions make his job very challenging.

“You know when the highways are coated in an inch of ice and there’s somebody in the ditch with a heavy vehicle, as soon as you hook the cables on and start winching there’s no traction. The tow truck wants to get pulled into the ditch with the vehicle,” he said.

A photo taken Wednesday afternoon between White Fox and Love. (Facebook)

Goodwin explained all the calls were for vehicles in the ditch, and came from all over the region including Highway 55 toward Candle Lake, Highway 11 to Saskatoon, and Highway 2 out by Northside.

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“It didn’t really matter what highway you were on. A lot of people were in the ditch,” he said.

On top of the already challenging work conditions, Goodwin added it’s extra stressful for him seeing how fast people are going when passing him.

“It’s not real fun in those conditions when you are standing on a highway that you can’t really stand on and there’s people whizzing by you,” he said.

Prince Albert’s Roadways Manager Brent Kennedy assured paNOW sanding trucks would be out all day, with graders in the areas where slush built up. He added by having crews get a head start Wednesday ahead of the snowfall, they were able to minimize the impact.

“The temperature didn’t get that cold during the night so the material that we actually had out worked through the night,” he said.

Some of the aftermath of Wednesday nights storm includes a fallen tree in Kinsmen Park. (Ian Gustafson/paNOW Staff)

According to a statement Thursday morning from Parkland Ambulance, paramedics responded to a few slip and fall incidents, but there were no reports of vehicle collisions.

Power outages

The winter storm that gripped the province also caused problems with respect to keeping the lights on.

Power outages were reported in the areas north of Prince Albert including Spruce Home, Wahpeton First Nation, Anglin Lake, Emma Lake, and Christopher Lake areas.

Customers in the Buffalo Narrows, La Loche, Turnor Lake, Dillon, Île-à-la-Crosse and Rabbit Lake areas also endured a number of hours without power.

However conditions in the southern part of the province were much worse with wind speeds, south of Regina, topping 143 km/h.

A photo taken of a tree tied up in a power line in Regina. (Facebook)

A photo taken of the wind damage in Saskatoon. (submitted photo/Ray Pilon)

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nigel.maxwell@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @nigelmaxwell