Biggest storm in a decade blankets Kings County with snow
More than 50 centimetres of snow fell in Kings County in what’s been called the biggest storm since White Juan hit in 2004.
The storm left hundreds of county residents without power due to snow and blowing snow on Feb. 15 and 16. At the highest point, there were over 770 customers in the dark, with some outages spanning more than 24 hours.
At one point, plows were pulled off the roads Feb. 15 due to poor visibility. Highway 101 between Windsor and Greenwich was closed to traffic late afternoon on Feb. 15 and did not reopen until midday on Feb. 16. Several vehicles were abandoned on the highway due to the snow, while Hantsport firefighters had to rescue a family of four that went off the road at Exit 8A around 3:30 p.m. on Feb. 15. The family was travelling from their home in Yarmouth to the Halifax airport.
“Basically, we’re being asked by the RCMP to go out on the highway and rescue stranded motorists,” said Paul Maynard, the co-ordinator for Hants County’s Regional Emergency Management Organization (REMO) and a Hantsport deputy fire chief, shortly after the rescue.
“The conditions are extremely poor right now. There’s significant drifting and the roads are virtually impassable. We’re still finding a lot of people on the highway.”
Kentville firefighters were also called out to rescue stranded motorists – including one pregnant mother on her way to Valley Regional Hospital to deliver her baby.
Around 8:20 p.m. on Feb. 15, Kentville firefighters were paged to render assistance to a vehicle in distress on Gary Pearl Drive near the KCA school. Paramedics and Kentville Police were also dispatched to the scene.
The woman, who was in labour, was being driven to hospital by her partner when their vehicle became stranded in the snow. The couple’s other child, a oneyear-old, was also in the vehicle.
The woman ended up being transported to hospital by Kentville Police, and according to Deputy Chief Jeff Martin, arrived at hospital in time.
“(It was) a new one for us,” Martin said. “Everything turned out OK.”
Martin described it as “a busy day,” but also “to be expected” given the weather. Most of the calls were weather-related, beginning at 2:30 p.m. in Feb. 15 when firefighters were paged to render assistance to paramedics at a medical emergency in Brooklyn Corner. Just a few minutes later, at 2:38, firefighters were paged for a fire alarm sounding at the Kentville’s town hall.
At 6:20 p.m., Kentville firefighters responded to render assistance to a person in a vehicle in distress on Belcher Street, east of the lights at Middle Dyke Road. Martin confirmed there ended up being three vehicles in distress, all stuck in the snow. One individual ended up being driven home by Fire Chief Ryan MacEachern.
At 7:39 p.m., firefighters responded to a report of live power lines down and across a vehicle in a driveway on Loretta Avenue in Coldbrook. At 7:53 p.m., MacEachern checked out a carbon monoxide alarm sounding in a residence.
“We will host community workshops and presentations about well water health, (create) a courier service to get residential water samples to urban labs and hold follow up workshops to help families understand their water results,” she added.
While seeking funding sources to back the project, West said the centre is partnering with Dalhousie University’s Atlantic Partnership for Tomorrow’s Health (PATH) program.
West, who is a resident of Berwick, is hopeful a central community booth can be established where residents can pick up water testing kits and resources. Home water samples could then be dropped off for delivery to the lab at the QEII Health Sciences Centre.
West said the Berwick pilot, which she has been working on for a year, is envisioned as a framework for drinking water improvement across Nova Scotia.
In response to a question, West said factory farming does have an impact on ground water supplies. She added that, for example, “there are more mink than people in Nova Scotia. And they clearly release waste.”
A graduate of Dalhousie University with a Master’s in Earth Science and a professional geologist, West joined the Ecology Action Centre as geoscience co-ordinator in 2010. She is actively involved with the Coastal and Water Issues Committee, especially the Groundswell Project’s communitybased groundwater monitoring, and with the Nova Scotia Fracking Resource and Action Coalition.