The news-wires are reporting that the lastest deep-freeze is likely to be with us for at least a week. Here's The Calgary Herald news story:
The blustery weather that pummelled Calgary on Friday, December 4, turning the streets into a sloppy, slippery mess and shutting down several major highways throughout the day, is just the first salvo in a forecasted weeklong wintry walloping.
Blizzard-like conditions created havoc on Calgary streets for much of Friday, with authorities urging motorists to make only essential journeys. Calgary police responded to at least 172 crashes, including 26 injury collisions by 4:30 p.m., and closed a number of roads throughout the day amid numerous fender-benders as driving conditions deteriorated.
Several highways, including Highway 2 north and south of the city, and the Trans-Canada Highway at Highway 22, were closed for several hours due to collisions or treacherous driving conditions.
A crash on a stretch of southbound Deerfoot Trail near Highway 22X involved about 50 cars, many strewn in the ditch.
The above picture is from the Calgary Herald, and shows McLeod Trail near Heritage Drive. More photos and news-reports can be found at The Calgary Herald website.
Arta here:
ReplyDeleteMy life was spared tonight.
I came back from Penbrooke at 6:30 pm, since I heard the temperature was dropping to minus 25 and I didn't know if my car would start tomorrow without being plugged in.
The 3 lane major highway along McKnight was a one-laner just west of Barlow Trail. The snow was gusting from the north. There was a drift at least 10 feet high in the north lane of the highway, and I could see a car buried in it, only the roof showing.
The far lane, the other of the 3 lanes on my side of the road, was also impassable. One lane of us in the middle was behind a big trucker who was inching his way along.
I was in first gear and barely moving along. I could feel the snow on the bottom of the car and I was going so slowly. For some reason, I have been practicing that smooth changing of gears for the past few months, and I am getting both good and confident, gearing up and gearing down. I had no confidence tonight.
I was using all of my driving savy, besides tying to stay calm.
The storm has been so bad for 2 days that I have stayed at Penbrooke overnight. Calgary is on the national news over the weather. I had only heard on the news about the 5 houses that burned up in Citadel, due to the high winds and that fact that the emergency vehicles got stuck in the snow and couldn’t get there.
I made two passes by my house, figuring out where I could park: in the front or in the back alley was the question. We are like Doral, on the south side of the street and there is not as much snow there as on the north side, where the drifts are higher. When I finally turned off the ignition in my own driveway, I heard myself say out loud, "I am not going to do that again, soon." No one else was in the car with me, so I don’t know who I was trying to reassure.