Big snowstorm–no problem

Residents were digging out Sunday after about 15 cm (6.1 inches) of snow blanketed the area over the weekend.
Fort Frances OPP said there were few incidents to report. “It was busy but just a lot of minor accidents,” OPP Cst. Al MacDonald noted Monday morning.
The Fort Frances Fire Department also reported a relatively quiet weekend.
But the storm forced the closure of Highway 11 between Atikokan and Thunder Bay and the stretch of Highway 17 from Ignace to Thunder Bay shortly after midnight Saturday, leaving a number of college and university students trapped in town.
“I got snowed in,” said Neil Martin, a student at Confederation College in Thunder Bay, who was home for the weekend.
“I’m not leaving until [Monday] afternoon, I guess. The roads got closed yesterday and no one left from here,” he added. “It was treacherous I guess.”
The Fort Frances Airport also was closed early Sunday morning.
Residents were out in force armed with shovels and snow-blowers Sunday but few got into trouble because of the heavy dump of the white stuff.
“Not really. People kind of stayed in until it was clear,” said Bill Derendorf of Bett-Will Towing, adding although there were a few more calls than usual, the company wasn’t swamped by stranded motorists over the weekend.
Meanwhile, snow removal vehicles tackled the snow and drifts on town streets. Crews were able to plow every one by the end of the day.
“We started at six o’clock [a.m.] and we had the whole town plowed before we quit Sunday night,” said Bruce Spottiswood, the town’s superintendent of Public Works. “Tonight [Monday] we’ll start removing the piles of snow downtown.”
“It’s been a while since we saw that big a storm but we’ve had way bigger. We were on top of it real fast,” he added.
Until the roads were clear, most people appeared to have opted to either stay home or call a cab.
“It was pretty busy,” said Paul Bock, owner of North Air Services here. “Yeah, we had an extra driver on for the night shift.”