The winter storm that battered western Canada this week and caused havoc for travellers is being blamed for at least three deaths in Saskatchewan and B.C. as temperatures plummeted across the regions.
A 32-year-old woman was killed after four vehicles collided in icy conditions on Lougheed Highway in Maple Ridge, B.C.
In Saskatchewan, two people were found frozen to death on the side of the road north of Lloydminster after they left their stranded vehicle.
Snow warnings from Environment Canada were dropped Thursday for much of B.C., just in time for icy Arctic air to move south over the province after blizzard conditions buffeted the Lower Mainland Wednesday.
Arctic outflow warnings have been issued for the North and Central B.C. coast, with windchills predicted to reach down to -20 C by Thursday night.
Emergency crews — including patrols on snowmobiles — rescued 45 people Wednesday who were trapped by the blizzard in the Dawson Creek area.
Some people waited 16 hours in the bitter cold to be rescued, but the RCMP said late Wednesday that everyone was safe.
Residents in Edmonton were faced with another day of bitter cold on Thursday as temperatures stayed below -30 C, which prompted warnings from physicians to bundle up properly.
Dr. Matthew Rose of Edmonton's Boyle MacAuley Health Centre says layers are the best protection from cold weather and windchill, but that's not always an option for homeless people.
"A T-shirt, sweatshirt, sweater and a reasonable winter jacket is probably the ideal combination," Rose told CBC News Wednesday. "The inner city population does not have access to that kind of apparel choice, so they do the best they can with what's available and really rely on clothing donations."
Snowmobiles used in rescues
In Saskatoon, city firefighters and ambulance crews were forced to use snowmobiles borrowed from a local dealership to get to people trapped in snowbound vehicles in one of the worst blizzards to hit the city in years.
The storm left about 350 people marooned for several hours Wednesday at Saskatoon's airport.
Gord Lacoursiere drove to the airport to pick up a stranded friend and take him home, but his four-wheel-drive truck got stuck in a drift only a few hundred metres from the terminal building.
Lacoursiere said he could see nothing around him but swirling snow until another truck drove past his vehicle. He then found his way to the building by walking in the tire tracks and realized he might have to stay the night.
"We gotta find a bar with beds I think," he told CBC News at the time.
One woman was stranded in the airport's parking lot and called on her cell phone to be rescued, said Bill Restall, the airport's manager.
Two staff members went out and found her by the sound of her beeping horn, then led her back to the building, he said.
Source:http://www.cbc.ca/canada/story/2007/01/11/weather-wrap.html#skip300x250
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