Huge storm continues slow march east after paralyzing Maritimes

HALIFAX — Parts of Atlantic Canada remains under a blizzard warning Tuesday after a massive storm descended on the region, dumping heavy loads of snow and unleashing potent winds.

Environment Canada has issued the warnings for northern Nova Scotia, the east and south coasts of Newfoundland and all of Prince Edward Island as the slow moving, but storm continued its track east.

In Newfoundland, the English School District closed schools in the St. John’s region with the forecast calling for up to 60 centimetres of snow.

Schools and government offices were also closed for a second day throughout Nova Scotia, P.E.I. and New Brunswick, while travel by air and water was again stalled by cancellations and delays.

Vast areas of the Maritimes were snowed under Monday due to the blizzard that also brought more than 70 cm of snow in Fredericton and powerful gusts of wind that reached 120 kilometres per hour along the coast near Halifax.

Public transit ground to a halt in several cities Monday and the resumption of operations was delayed until later Tuesday, while Nova Scotia Power was reporting outages affecting about 5,300 customers and NB Power said there were about 470 customers without electricity this morning.

Environment Canada meteorologist Tracey Talbot says the storm was one of the biggest and strongest to hit the Maritimes in years, but she was not aware of any significant damage.