A spring snowstorm brought two highways in Alberta, Canada, to a standstill and left 300 vehicles stranded overnight into Friday as the authorities mobilized to bring them provisions, an official said.<\/p>\n
Two highways, 63 and 881, were closed because of the weather, according to the Royal Canadian Mounted Police.<\/p>\n
An emergency helicopter service that flew over the highways had estimated that 300 vehicles were stranded, according to a news release from the R.C.M.P.<\/p>\n
On Friday, Highway 63 was closed around 1 a.m. and Highway 881 was closed around 9 a.m. As of Friday evening, Highway 63 remained closed and parts of 881 were open, though travel was not recommended.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve had dozens of calls from stranded motorists,\u201d said Cpl. Teri-Ann Bakker, a spokeswoman for the R.C.M.P.<\/p>\n
The storm, which stretched from the Northwest Territories through Alberta and part of Saskatchewan, had created rapid whiteout conditions and dropped more than a foot of snow, Corporal Bakker said.<\/p>\n
Snowdrifts of two to three feet covered the highways in some areas, delaying the snow removal process, the R.C.M.P. said.<\/p>\n
Many drivers had already removed their snow tires, thinking the winter was over, Corporal Bakker said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn Alberta, we have storms that decide to show up at any time,\u201d she said, noting the winter weather is expected to continue until Sunday.<\/p>\n
The storm had brought high winds that created whiteout conditions, she said.<\/p>\n
Environment Canada said the regions affected would get between six inches and two feet of snow before the storm ends.<\/p>\n
Corporal Bakker said that emergency authorities were trying to reach people who were stranded and bring food, water, fuel and medicine.<\/p>\n
Because of the snowbanks and cars in ditches, the R.C.M.P. does not know the number of people who were stranded, she said. No fatalities have been reported, she said.<\/p>\n
In Facebook groups dedicated to regional highway conditions, drivers and passengers reported being stuck in their cars for more than 12 hours.<\/p>\n
Some coordinated the sharing of food and supplies, or invited strangers to hop in their vehicles once they had run out of gas.<\/p>\n
Corporal Bakker said that those stranded should stay in their vehicles. If someone is in a ditch they should run their vehicle for 15 minutes at the most to prevent carbon monoxide poisoning.<\/p>\n
The R.C.M.P. was also moving south in a northbound lane of one of the highways with tow trucks to recover vehicles, she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn Alberta we never know what to expect with the weather,\u201d Corporal Bakker said.<\/p>\n
Erin McCann contributed reporting.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A spring snowstorm brought two highways in Alberta, Canada, to a standstill and left 300 vehicles stranded overnight…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":627609,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[235194,49,48,44,149408,235193,38687,214352,1133],"class_list":["post-627608","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-canada","tag-alberta-canada","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-news","tag-rescues","tag-roads-and-traffic","tag-royal-canadian-mounted-police","tag-snow-and-snowstorms","tag-weather"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/627608","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=627608"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/627608\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/627609"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=627608"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=627608"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=627608"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}