Parts of southern Saskatchewan still digging out of weekend snowstorm

Communities across southern Saskatchewan continue to dig themselves out in the wake of Sunday’s snowstorm.

Highways and roads were covered, which caused delays for drivers on Sunday and Monday. By Tuesday afternoon, only one stretch of road — Highway 363 between Shamrock and Hodgeville — remained closed.

Moose Jaw was one of the cities that saw one of the biggest impacts. Mayor Clive Tolley says it was a challenge for crews who worked at all hours in order to clear streets.

“The (problem was the) volume of snow that came in the period of time that it did … Most of our main arteries are clear. People are getting back out onto the highways to get back and forth to work,” he said.

Tolley says there isn’t much people can do about the weather and how bad it’s going to hit, even though Environment Canada issued a special weather statement and snowfall warnings for parts of the province.

He says there were challenges, but was very happy with how everyone responded.

“Everyone has been out there trying to clear the roads. I think they’ve done an admirable job. People have worked many hours of overtime in trying to get roads cleared so that people can move about,” Tolley said in reference to the response from his city and the province.

But workers could get some relief as the forecast for the coming days has temperatures above 0 C.

“Mother Nature dropped snow on us and hopefully the sun is going to come out and melt it and we’ll go into winter without an accumulation of snow,” he added.

While most main streets are clear from heavy snow, Tolley was glad people were helping others who were stuck.