Regina man helps more than a dozen people stranded in the city

A lot of people were left in dangerous situations on Wednesday night as they sat stranded in their vehicles.

Cory Graf, along with other members of a Facebook group called Recover 306, made it their duty to help people who found themselves in trouble.

“I was able to take roughly 10 people home personally in my truck while also helping push out about four people who had their vehicles stuck,” Graf said Thursday. “I found out some people were stuck for over two hours with no one coming to help them.

“No one should have to be sitting in their vehicle overnight in a storm.”

Helping people in tricky situations is not something that’s new to Graf. He said he would do it all over again in a heartbeat.

“I’ve been doing this for four years since I got my truck,” he said. “A lot of people’s vehicles can’t get out of certain situations, and these people were 100 per cent hopeless.

“I think there needs to be more generosity and decency in this world. I wanted to make sure I could help as many people as I could.”

Wednesday night’s storm resulted in more than 160 calls reporting damage or other issues related to the storm. That doesn’t include the calls for service that the Regina Police Service had to respond to during Wednesday night.

The executive director of citizen services for the city, Kim Onrait, said he was thankful that people have been stepping up for one another.

“I’ve just heard some comments throughout the day that people don’t believe we’ve seen winds this extreme in the city in recent memory,” Onrait said. “People have been understanding, patient and supportive of one another.”

Certain areas in the city are still in dire conditions, according to Onrait.

Courtney Street and Parliament Avenue are being labelled as “troubled” areas as Onrait told people to avoid these areas until at least Thursday evening.

In a media release, the city said Courtney is closed from Sherwood Drive to Rochdale Boulevard, but it’s expected to reopen Friday at 10 a.m. The intersection at Ninth Avenue North is to remain open.

Parliament is closed from Lewvan Drive to James Hill Road until Friday morning. The city said vehicles stuck in the snow in that area will be towed and left “as close as possible to their current location, within a block or two.”

Just after 5 p.m. Thursday, the Highway Hotline issued a “travel not recommended” advisory on the Regina Bypass due to blowing and drifting snow.

As well, 11th Avenue remains closed to vehicles and pedestrians after the extensive damage done by the wind to the pedway. The area is closed until crews determine it’s safe.

In the meantime, buses will continue to detour around 11th Avenue.

“I would anticipate by end of day on Thursday that a lot of things will be back to normal, in terms of having roads fully cleared,” Onrait said. “We have moved a lot of our crews to isolated areas to ensure we’re getting intersections opened up sooner.

“It’s been very busy. Regina police and fire service responded to a lot of people that needed help getting out of their vehicles and getting to safety in a timely manner.”