St. John's cleaning up from biggest storm of the year
The man who oversees snowclearing operations in St. John's said Monday's blizzard was the worst that the city has had to deal with this winter.
The storm affected most of Newfoundland, with the eastern region of the island seeing heavy snow and strong winds that shut down many businesses and services. Police were advising drivers throughout the day to stay off most of the island's road and highways.
Deputy city manager Paul Mackey said the fact that so much snow fell in a relatively short period of time created some challenges for snowclearing.
"We were getting five, six, seven centimetres an hour of snow," he said.
"Combined with the high winds, blizzard conditions, whiteouts — the plowing was was difficult to keep up there for several hours."
He said crews started to make headway after the snow stopped in the afternoon.
By Monday evening, St. John's airport had 31 centimetres of snow while 48 centimetres had been recorded in the west end of St. John's.
Mackey said the challenge now for the city is tackling the side roads.
"We do have all the streets open, but there's a lot of work to be done," he told CBC News.
"A lot of the intersections have to be cleaned up so we're going to work around the clock to get that done as quickly as possible."
Crews won't get much of a break after cleaning up from Monday's system - another storm is approaching Wednesday evening and Thursday.