Schools closed Tuesday as P.E.I. cleans up from snowstorm

Public schools on P.E.I. have already made the call that they will not open Tuesday as the province attempts to deal with a record dump of snow.

Provincial civil service offices will also be closed Tuesday. Islanders are being urged to remain off the roads to allow for the cleanup.

“Plows will be on the roads as conditions allow; however, a significant amount of snow has fallen and it will take time for crews to clean up and clear the roads,” said Transportation Minister Robert Vessey in a news release.

“The combination of significant snowfall and high winds created zero visibility conditions, creating safety hazards for our plow operators.”

Plows were off the roads due to poor visibility for most of Monday, but were back out across the province by late afternoon.

Emergency services limited

Emergency services at hospitals are limited even for people who can get there. Health PEI has closed the emergency room at Kings County Memorial in Montague due to lack of staff able to get to work. Emergency departments at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Charlottetown, West Prince Hospital in Summerside, and Western Hospital in Alberton are operating with reduced staff.

Health PEI said people with life-threatening or limb-threatening emergencies should call 911 for transport to hospital. Emergency medical advice is available by calling 811.

Firefighters with the North River Department took two hours to drive through the snow to get to a house fire in Winsloe.

Electricity crews unable to get to power outages

Road conditions meant Maritime Electric crews could not get out to assist about 1,600 people who lost electricity during the storm, mostly in West Prince and near Georgetown.

"The crews have to be safe in order to do their work," said Kris Jackson of Maritime Electric.

"As long as the plows aren't out there we made the decision to not be out there as well, and once they return we'll be out there trying to restore power to everybody that we can."

Maritime Electric says it does not expect to have power back on for everyone by the end of the day.

CBC meteorologist Kalin Mitchell reports 80 centimetres of snow fell. That breaks the single storm record of 74.4 centimetres that fell during White Juan in February, 2004.

The storm comes on Islander Day, when many offices and businesses were already scheduled to be closed, but festivities were cancelled.

A storm earlier this month came close to beating the White Juan record. On Feb. 2-3 a storm dumped 65.2 centimetres.

Winter started quietly on P.E.I., with the biggest snowfalls of the season happening in November until Jan. 27. There was no snow on the ground when a storm dropped 29.2 centimetres that day. Since that time 220.4 centimetres of snow has been recorded at Charlottetown Airport, and there has been very little melting.