Snow, ice bombs wreak havoc, with more to come
Metro Vancouver residents digging themselves out after Monday’s snowfall can look forward to two days of sub-zero temperatures and an even bigger snowstorm headed for the coast Thursday.
The first snowfall of the season created traffic snarls and transit delays across the region, and gave a few commuters crossing the Port Mann and Alex Fraser bridges a nasty shock after ice bombs smashed into their windshields.
“(Monday) was a good kind of a test event, perhaps, for what’s to come later in the week, so if you haven’t got your snow tires on yet, please do so and get the rest of the winter gear ready,” said Environment Canada meteorologist Matt MacDonald.
A cold-air mass over Metro will bring sunny, but sub-zero, weather to the region Tuesday and Wednesday, MacDonald said. The mercury will dip as low as -7 C overnight Tuesday.
“It’s going to be the coldest temperatures we’ve seen in a long time here,” said MacDonald, adding the daytime high Wednesday will only be minus-1 C.
The Ministry of Transportation is now investigating after several people reported ice bombs falling and smashing into their vehicles while they were driving across the Alex Fraser and Port Mann bridges. There has been at least one incident on the Alex Fraser and a couple on the Port Mann, but “we are still trying to determine how many,” said assistant deputy minister Patrick Livolsi, adding drivers who have had slush bombs hit their vehicles should contact the ministry.
Officials appeared puzzled as to what is causing the ice bombs to fall. When crews went up the bridge towers on the Alex Fraser to investigate, they found, “there was not much accumulation of snow, and we couldn’t really find any source for that snowfall,” said Livolsi. And there shouldn’t be any ice bombs on the Port Mann similar to those that fell in 2012 and damaged hundreds of vehicles, he added, as cable collars installed in 2013 are supposed to prevent snow and ice accumulation.
But that wasn’t the experience of Dave Strobel. The Langley man’s car was just under the first set of cables heading east on the Port Mann when he and his friends heard a loud bang and a large chunk of ice crashed onto the front windshield.
“It hit right in front of the passenger side,” said Strobel. “That whole area is shattered, and little pieces of glass fell on the dashboard.”
Derek Thorp of Langley is on the hook for a $300 deductible after an ice bomb smashed into his windshield, leaving a large crack in the glass and a dent on the top of his car.
“It really scared me,” he said of the experience, which has left him nervous to cross the bridge again. “It seems very unsafe.”
There were widespread delays on buses throughout the region Monday, with transit vehicles unable to get up Burnaby Mountain. The Simon Fraser University campus there was closed all day, with BCIT following suit later in the day.
Commuters reported bus delays of up to an hour during the morning commute. There were also system-wide delays on Sky Train in the morning due to snow accumulation on the tracks, said Trans Link spokeswoman Anne Drennan.
At the Union Gospel Mission shelter in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside, spokesman Jeremy Hunka said they’ll be providing 20 additional emergency-shelter spaces, in addition to the 72 shelter beds they already offer.
“It’s a critical time. The cold like this is hitting and it’s hitting hard. It’s hitting people who aren’t prepared for this. We haven’t had snow like this in more than two years ... so this is catching an already vulnerable population off-guard.”
As of Monday afternoon, B.C. Housing had opened four extreme-weather shelters in downtown Vancouver and one in Kitsilano. Outside Vancouver, additional shelters were open in Burnaby, New Westminster, Coquitlam and Surrey.