Still digging out from under about 62 cm of snow that was dumped on Sylvan Lake last month, the community and Central Alberta got walloped with another 22 cm on Monday.
On top of that gusty winds created drifts that snarled traffic, left people stuck on roads and forced many to stay home.
School buses were cancelled Monday, then again Tuesday and Wednesday, however schools remained open for those students and teachers who could get there.
Several meetings and events, including Municipal Planning Commission on Monday night, have been cancelled due to the weather. The band concert at École Fox Run School Wednesday night was cancelled since buses weren’t running.
The Town of Sylvan Lake was quick to react to the impact of the most recent snowfall. They doubled their snow clearing work force by hiring the services of two additional graders, a contract loader to clear alleys and a contract dozer.
The additional equipment has already stretched to town’s budget and councillors held a special meeting Wednesday night (after press time) to hear from public works staff about the impact and how snow clearing was progressing.
Residents are encouraged to follow the town’s Facebook page or visit www.sylvanlake.ca and click on ‘What’s Happening’ for daily updates on the snow removal progress, said Joanne Gaudet, the town’s communications officer.
On Monday the town’s Facebook page stated they would be “moving into residential collector routes to haul snow ASAP. Concurrent to that, we will be going into residential and alleys. We will be working around the clock to get our roads back into shape as soon as humanly possible!”
The storm was certainly on the minds of Sylvan Lake News Facebook readers as well.
Our ‘likes’ jumped over the 1,000 mark on Monday and a picture we posted showing drifts in front of Spotted Gecko on 50th Street, looking north towards the lake, had been viewed by 3,796 people by press time. That was considerably higher than other pictures posted in the past week. The Scouts’ prize winning float in last Friday night’s Santa Claus parade was viewed by 1,020 people, a fireworks picture by 585 people and another blizzard picture, showing the work of Jack Frost by 660 people.
Check our Facebook page for an update from the special council meeting and other snow related information.