Students stranded in Kenora overnight as spring snowstorm closes Trans-Canada east of Manitoba

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Around 18 students from Sioux Narrows, Ont., are having an expected sleepover in Kenora thanks to a spring snowstorm that closed the Trans-Canada east of Manitoba from the Ontario border to Vermilion Bay.

Heavy snow from the Dakotas arrived Monday morning and the winter weather was expected to continue to bluster into evening, Environment Canada said.

For students in the Kenora Catholic District School Board, that meant school buses drove some kids home early due to rapidly deteriorating road conditions, and others who don't live in town didn't get home at all.

"You know, I have been with with the board since 1985, and I don't remember ever having to keep kids in Kenora because of the weather," said Phyllis Eikre, the director of education for the school board.

"They seem to be OK. They're just taking it in their stride and it's just another adventure in life for them."

So apparently this is my hometown today. <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Kenora?src=hash">#Kenora</a> <a href="https://t.co/4dsSfucyR7">pic.twitter.com/4dsSfucyR7</a>

&mdash;@coolbyrne

The students live in Sioux Narrows but go to school in Kenora, about an hour northwest of their home community. Eikre wasn't sure of the exact age range of the group, but said it included students from St. Thomas Aquinas High School and two elementary schools, Pope John Paul II School, École Ste-Marguerite Bourgeoys.

All the affected students were able to stay with family or close friends in town, Eikre said.

The school will open as normal on Tuesday morning, she added, but officials are keeping an eye on the weather to see if they'll send out buses to pick up students.

"We always prefer to err on the side of caution, and we always prefer with our kids to overreact rather than underreact," she said.

The Trans-Canada is still open across Manitoba but the province warns the roadway is snow covered. Highways 12, 15 and 44 east of Winnipeg are partially covered with snow.

Environment Canada has issued a snowfall warning for Whiteshell Provincial Park, Steinbach, Emerson, Sprague and the surrounding areas, which are expected to get hit with 15 to 20 centimetres of snow.

A slightly less severe special weather advisory was issued for Beausejour, Grand Beach, Morden, Winkler, Altona, Morris and Winnipeg. Those areas are expected to receive five to 10 cm of snow by Monday night.

"They're all pretty bitter about it down here," Carlie Trippier said of her Niverville neighbours' displeasure at the spring forecast.

"You can see tons of snowflakes coming down; it's going to get a lot worse," Trippier said at about 8:30 a.m. from the southern Manitoba town, which is about 30 kilometres south of Winnipeg. "It's coming down lightly, but we're getting some wind with it, too, so visibility on the highway may be decreased soon."

High waters could hang around

Wind gusts of up to 40 kilometres an hour in the Interlake will force ice floes ashore on Lake Winnipeg and Lake Manitoba on Monday night and Tuesday, the province said.

Concerns were raised April 16 after huge chunks of ice piled up along the shore near Gimli and other lakefront communities on Manitoba's big lakes.

A spokesperson with the province said officials are monitoring precipitation levels closely on Manitoba's rivers, but the extra snow could keep high waters around longer than usual.

• 60 more flood evacuees return home, 380 still displaced province-wide

"As the Red River and its tributaries, or rivers and streams that flow into the Red, are on the decline, the precipitation could prolong the return to seasonal levels on major rivers," the spokesperson wrote in a statement. 

"The province has an ice pile-up alert for large lakes. Property owners should take precautions and remove valuables close to shorelines."

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