The wicked winter weather that descended on Thompson and much of the rest of Manitoba early last week and didn’t relent for the better part of three days shut down businesses and forced essential services to rely on unconventional equipment and deal with staff shortages until roads were clear and people could once again begin to go about their regular daily routines.
The blizzard had a significant effect on Thompson’s municipal government, which shut down recreation facilities such as the Vale Regional Community Centre and Norplex Pool from March 7-9 and also saw transit operations suspended over those same three days and garbage and recycling collection suspended March 7 for the rest of the week before resuming their regular schedule March 13. City Hall itself was closed March 8.
The provision of vital services such as ambulance transport continued throughout the blizzard with the help of two Bombardier snowcats that were loaned to Thompson Fire & Emergency Services (TFES) by Manitoba Hydro’s Thompson operations and helped firefighter/paramedics make 35 trips, including emergencies, at least one of which was a mater of life and death.
“Without the snowcats, at least one person wouldn’t be alive today,” said city communications officer Kacper Antoszewski in an email March 13.
To return roads to driveable condition as quickly as possible, the city had 15 to 20 pieces of equipment on the job, including some provided by Smook Contractors, and crews were out clearing roads until 5:30 a.m. from Tuesday night to Wednesday morning and out again until midnight on Wednesday.
For the Northern Regional Health Authority (NRHA), the main impact of the blizzard was on staffing levels at the Thompson General Hospital.
“We had a lot of staff that were unable to make it to work,” said NRHA communications co-ordinator Twyla Storey. “Wednesday was the worst day.”
Despite the challenges, however, managers made do by reassigning staff from areas with more workers to those with less and employees with vehicles that were able to navigate through the deep snow provided transportation to other employees who do not. There were also nurses and doctors who stayed overnight in the hospital after their shifts had ended to ensure that there would be adequate staff on site for the morning shift.
“The team in Thompson is fantastic at the hospital for pulling together,” said Storey.
The Thompson RCMP detachment had a full complement of members on duty during the blizzard and made use of their trucks and other equipment like snowmobiles to respond to calls and to help other people who were stuck on snow-covered roadways.
“The key for us was it didn’t have a huge effect in responding to calls because the call volume was low,” said Cpl. Glenn Stuckless, the detachment’s acting NCO March 13.
Air transportation shut down Tuesday and Wednesday, says Thompson Airport Authority CEO Curtis Ross, not only due to hazardous flying conditions with strong crosswinds and poor visibility, but also because equipment operators responsible for tasks like clearing snow from runways and parking lots couldn’t operate safely because they couldn’t see each other through the blowing snow. The airport reopened at 7 a.m. March 9 and operations were back on schedule and back to normal by later that day. Blizzards and freezing rain are the only two things that usually shut the airport down, said Ross, who can’t recall similar weather in his 26 years in Thompson. By suspending operations, the airport also helped ensure that peopel wouldn’t be attempting to drive out to make their flights, getting stuck and create more situations for emergency responders to attend to. Since the winter storm affected most of the province, including other northern airports in Gillam and Churchill and other places that many of the flights from Thompson head to or come from, there wasn’t much point in remaining open during the severe weather.
Manitoba Hydro public affairs director Scott Powell said it is common practice for the Crown corporation to help out in potential emergency situations by lending equipment to emergency services, as it did in this case. He also said that the conditions in Northern Manitoba meant that the region didn’t experience the power outages that affected the western part of the province.
“I think it was cold enough that we didn’t get the icing there,” he said, noting that ice on the lines and poles is a frequent cause of power outages during winter storms.
