Flurries aside, temperatures on the rise
Most schools to decide this morning on reopening, travel advisories continue and rain is the next worry
After three days of storms, Greater Victoria can expect a reprieve as temperatures start to warm and begin melting the blanket of snow covering the city, Environment Canada says.
The daytime high is forecast to reach 3 C today, with a chance of flurries, before climbing to 5 C on Thursday and 7 C Friday.
The Cowichan Valley School District announced Tuesday night that it would remain closed for a third straight day today due to weather conditions.
However, most schools — many of which were closed the past two days due to weather — planned to decide early this morning whether to reopen. Parents and students were advised to check district websites: • Alberni — sd70.bc.ca • Campbell River — sd72.bc.ca • Comox Valley — comoxvalleyschools.ca • Greater Victoria — sd61.bc.ca • Gulf Islands — sd64.bc.ca • Nanaimo-Ladysmith — sd68.bc.ca • Qualicum — sd69.bc.ca • Saanich — sd63.bc.ca • Sooke — sd62.bc.ca
Across Greater Victoria, people spent much of Tuesday digging out from a storm that dumped more than 20 centimetres of snow on some parts of the region (26.4 centimetres of snow at Victoria International Airport on Monday). That was on top of the 16 cm that fell Sunday.
Rick Gill, general manager for Mainroad South Island Contracting, said it has been difficult to keep roads bare.
“You just can’t do it. You keep them plowed and you keep them in the best travelling conditions as possible, but they are going to be snow covered,” he said. “It’s cold temperatures and we haven’t really had a break with sun in a few days, so this is the challenge we face.”
Gill said crews are working 12-hour shifts around the clock. Mainroad is using sub-contractors to get to some side roads.
In Saanich, a snowplow became stuck on Highway 17 just below Quadra Street Tuesday morning, causing southbound traffic on the highway to come to a near standstill, said Saanich police Sgt. Julie Fast.
“This caused backup for southbound traffic as they were being extricated,” Fast said. “Then buses became stuck by the Royal Oak overpass, which required more tows and caused more traffic backup.”
The B.C. Transportation Ministry, meanwhile, continued its travel advisories for Highway 17 from Victoria to the Swartz Bay ferry terminal, and Highway 1 and the Malahat from Victoria to the Chemainus area.
Sidney/North Saanich RCMP Const. Meagan de Pass said the Patricia Bay Highway was covered with compacted snow with some slushy areas.
On Highway 14, fallen trees, downed power lines and hazardous road conditions continued to affect the stretch from Otter Point Road to Port Renfrew. Depending on weather, that section of road could remain closed for several more days.
Thousands of people lost power — including about 3,000 in the Qualicum Beach area — but B.C. Hydro spokesman Ted Olynyk said the worst might be yet to come.
“The challenge will be what happens when it warms up and it rains,” he said. “All that white fluffy snow will become a big slurpee. It will put a lot of added weight on to the branches and trees. Some may be very close to failure because of the previous storms.”
The worst-case scenario is if the snow absorbs all that rain and everything becomes a lot heavier and then it freezes, Olynyk said.
“A lot of branches would come down and put weight on the lines.”
B.C. Transit had cancelled about 10 routes by 11 a.m. Tuesday and advised users to prepare for delays. By evening, the list had grown to 13 routes, and dozens more had been re-routed to avoid hills and blocked streets.
“It’s all about safety,” said B.C. Transit spokesman Jonathon Dyck. “We’re trying to operate and we’re trying to provide as much service as we possibly can, but we have to do that in a safe manner.”
Dyck said most of the cancellations were on local-area routes in places like Langford and the Saanich Peninsula.
He said medium- and heavy-duty buses run on mud- and snow-rated tires all year round. “They just run with them on and we then replace them as we need to.”
Double-deckers get a different treatment. “With the double-deckers, we monitor the weather and we make a decision [about] when we put on the studded tires,” Dyck said. “All of our double-deckers do have studded tires on them at this time.”
Having to cancel buses is frustrating, Dyck said.
“We would rather be providing full service that’s on time to customers,” he said. “We know that people have places to go.”