Timmins storm cleanup expected to continue for another month, city says
More than a week after a major storm hit Timmins and surrounding communities in northern Ontario, crews are continuing to clean up.
Timmins city council heard Tuesday night that it could be weeks before all the streets are cleared.
“The reality of our situation is that we’re going to be digging out from this storm for easily another month, if not longer” said chief administrative officer Dave Landers.
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“The significant weather event that was declared by public works is in place and it’s going to remain in place for the foreseeable future. We are expecting another 10 centimetres of snow next week. We can hope for the best, but we’ll plan for the worst. It’s been tough on everybody.”
On Dec. 27, the city received 15 cm of snow, followed on Dec. 29, by 60 cm of snow, as well as high winds and extreme cold.
Since then, city crews and Timmins citizens have been digging out. The city called in all existing contractors and put out a call for more.
School zones are being cleared and the goal is to have that done by next week. In the meantime, school buses have not been running in Timmins so far this week.
Landers said while it's been difficult to clear snow in all areas of the city, one neighbourhood got hit particularly hard.
“Schumacher was a special case,” he said. “There was so much snow, it just needed its own plan of attack and it couldn't be treated like other parts of the community. So the patience of the residents there was appreciated.”
Municipal parking lots are now cleared in the city’s downtown, but work is still being done to plow out on-street parking.
Timmins Garage Incorporated is a Chevrolet, GMC, Buick, Cadillac and Optimum used vehicle dealership, shown here after the Dec. 29 storm (Timmins Garage Inc.)
Timmins city councillor Andrew Marks said a situation like this showcases how people step up to help others.
“I know an emergency like this demonstrated, I think, the very best in Timmins residents,” he said.
“We all witnessed neighbours helping neighbours, neighbours helping shovel out neighbours and that continuing.”
Councillor Bill Gvozdanovic said this storm should be a lesson for the future.
“One thing we have to do is is make sure that we learn from this,” he said.
“Any information that we're gathering, any different things we tried to do that we have that somewhere in a template somewhere so that when, if something like this happens in the future, that that be able to be referred to and and implement.”
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This article, written by Martha Dillman, was originally published for CBC News.