A winter wallop for the Maritimes in 1984
CBC Archives | Posted: January 10, 2020 1:30 PM | Last Updated: January 10, 2024
Schools were shut due to the storm, as was much of downtown Charlottetown
Some parts of the Maritimes got snow, others got rain.
In either case, Maritimers had a mess to deal with when a winter storm hit the region in January 37 years ago.
From what Michael Vaughan told viewers on The National on Jan. 10, 1984, Mother Nature dropped enough snow on P.E.I. to shut down all the schools in the province.
Much of downtown Charlottetown was shut down by the storm, as motorists were told to stay off the roads.
The kids who were off school had a chance to make some money, if they were willing to spend their bonus free day shovelling somebody else's driveway.
"You wouldn't want to do it if you didn't get paid," a boy in a snow-covered tuque admitted to CBC News.
'The worst of it'
Over in New Brunswick, a hefty 37-centimetre accumulation left people in Fredericton breaking out their snowblowers (and, in some cases, skis).
Vaughan said that Fredericton "got the worst of it," but the city was prepared.
"They knew it was coming, people were ready for it," Vaughan said, noting "the day passed with a few accidents, but no serious ones."
'No shovelling' needed in Halifax
In Halifax, it was rain that arrived, creating a slushy mess on sidewalks and roads.
But as Vaughan pointed out, there was an obvious upside to the day's weather.
"Slippery streets, but no shovelling," he noted, as viewers saw an image of a person in a red snowsuit cycling through the slush.