‘STAY AT HOME.’ THAT’S MESSAGE FROM GRAVENHURST MAYOR AS TOWN DECLARES STATE OF EMERGENCY DAY 3 OF MASSIVE SNOWSTORM

Mark Clairmont | MuskokaTODAY.com

GRAVENHURST — Day 3 of a massive winter storm has led Gravenhurst to declare a state of emergency overnight.

More than a metre of snow since Friday that led to Hwy. 11 south of town being closed and travellers rescued off the road prompted the move, said Mayor Heidi Lorenz in a media Zoom call Sunday morning at 11 a.m.

She said all town plows, firefighters and emergency management personnel have been “tirelessly working around the clock.”

Especially with the help of the province and surrounding municipalities like Severn which is trying to get their equipment through the blockage.

Lorenz said the town had to house nine groups of people in hotels including a family of seven.

And that several vehicles and people remain stuck on the road.

She said she’s “never seen anything like it” since moving here in 1997.

Hopefully by Tuesday, she said, things should be back to normal.

As of Sunday 2,200 people are still without power after it being off and on for days.

Watch here for more to come throughout the day.

Well over a metre of snow has fallen since early Friday in Gravenhurst, prompting the town to declare a state of emergency as 2 a.m. Sunday. This photo shows the accumulation in our reporter Lois Cooper’s backyard. Photo Lois Cooper MuskokaTODAY.com

S-NOTES:

Church services were also impacted.

MichelleDesmarais-Hodgkinson, administrative assistant at the Catholic church in Gravenhurst, emailed parishioners: “Please be aware that due to massive, unprecedented snow fall in Gravenhurst leading to town-wide hydro outages, unplowed roads and Gravenhurst declaring a state of emergency Sunday morning mass at 10:30 a.m. is cancelled. I cannot get to the church to access phone list so PLEASE pass this message on and reach out to anyone you know that may be trying to attend.”

Garbage collection slowed or closed

The District of Muskoka says its anticipates the following sites will be closed Sunday:

South Gibson Depot (Georgian Bay)

Housey’s Rapids Depot (Gravenhurst)

Baxter Transfer Station (Georgian Bay)

Beiers Transfer Station (Gravenhurst)

Eveleigh Transfer Station (Muskoka Lakes)

Ridout Transfer Station (Lake of Bays)

Saturday it had said garbage, green box and blue bin pickups would also be slowed.

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