Just as the forecasters predicted, though a bit late in arriving, Mother Nature walloped Ontario with a giant pillow of snow yesterday. It fell lightly overnight Saturday, but by Sunday morning the city was seeing near-whiteout conditions.
People walked along tire tracks in the middle of streets because sidewalks were impassable. At least one person was spotted skiing to church. By noon, thunder and lightning added a note of menace.
While most of Toronto followed officials' advice to stay home, hundreds of city workers had no choice. Many were out by 3 a.m. yesterday clearing snow from the main expressways. At 8 a.m. more crews began plowing all the roads and were to continue well into today.
"We just wish the snow would stop," said Myles Currie, a director with transportation services who was guiding the city's snow battle yesterday. "But if there's a silver lining in this snowstorm, it's that it happened on the weekend instead of a weekday when all our equipment would be bogged down in morning traffic."
In offices across the city's four districts, coordination efforts were underway. In each office, data such as weather forecasts and police accident reports were being relayed to workers in the field.
Currie says it was the worst storm since 2001. "But that wasn't as bad as this one; we got about 15 to 20 centimetres."
Toronto Star
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