WELCOME BACK TO WHITEOUT 0.2 AS MUSKOKA WAKES UP TO FLURRIOUS FLURRIES
Mark Clairmont | MuskokaTODAY.com
MUSKOKA — The morning commute was a whiteout today as snow squalls blew back in wiping out cars and delaying deliveries.
You could hear groans from drivers stuck lamenting while nursing a latte after waking up to more white.
“Not again!” their bodies shouted.
Gravenhurst was again hit hardest from west winds off Georgian Bay that brought at least 20 cms — enough to overflow a Bailey’s extra large double double.
This after a day or two of respite — sufficient time to clean off your shovels.
It was 10 x what was called for. And a lot more in early forecasts is expected the next 24 hours before Saturday (20-30 cms).
As well a minus-12 cold spell Thursday night.
Luckily for everyone it was the light powdery stuff like tourists falsely believe we always get — save for last week.
Hwy. 11 was once more an epicentre of the latest storm as it suffered the brunt of howling wind at sunrise.
Image having to take your son from Bracebridge to Gravenhurst for a 7 a.m. as dad and coach Dr. Michael Mason did. Then get home and in to work two hours later.
He said the highway was particularly bad — but thankfully was passable.
Some called going out: “Brave.” Heartier Muskokans said it was just a return to “regular winter” after last week.
Snow banks are taking a pounding since this all began with drivers piling in bumper deep.
Two SUVs hit the banks a couple hundred metres apart just before 9 a.m. going into Bracebridge off Hwy. 11 on Ecclestone Drive.
Plows, too, are working overtime and dominate the road and highway landscape. And operators are keep most of the roads open — even if a little too roughly so in some neighbourhood streets in overwhelmed Gravenhurst despite the continued appreciative help of state of emergency support crews down south.
Mind you others are getting through — slow but sure.
Meanwhile school buses weren’t running throughout TLDSB for the third day this week.
Their website said: Due to inclement weather with heavy snow fall, poor visibility, and road conditions, transportation to schools is not operating in the City of Kawartha Lakes, Haliburton, and Muskoka today, Thursday, December 12.
Schools remain open and learning opportunities will continue for students who are able to safely attend in-person.
Parents/guardians are responsible for transportation of their student(s) to and from school on inclement weather days. Drop-off and pick-up must occur in alignment with the regular school day start and end times.
If you have any questions, please contact your child’s school.
It was the same across Muskoka and Haliburton.
Amazingly — but not surprisingly — life went on and by 10 a.m. there was a break in the weather.
However, by noon snowfall had resumed with those visitor-like post cards scenes.
Delivery drivers who normally would make more than a dozen stops an hour were reduced to that many in two hours with prospects not looking good for roads and driveway access.
Still life goes on with Yen Salvis out checking gas levels at the Shell in Bracebridge down in the flats where Chris Corbeil was trudging through snow in the plaza parking lot pushing carloads of milk into the Circle K.
He comes from North Bay and lives in Corbeil — where his family helped settle — and said he was forced off the highway and stuck in Gravenhurst a week ago.
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