This is what Ontario’s snowstorm was like for one Toronto snow plow operator
One snow plow operator said he hasn’t had a full night’s sleep since heaps of snow began to plummet onto Toronto’s streets Sunday night.
“Four hours one night and another four this morning,'' Larry Richards, president of East-West Disposal Services Co. Ltd., told CTV News Toronto.
While Richards saw the forecast for the city a week in advance, the amount of snow was difficult to judge until it arrived. Then, overnight, “boom,” Richards said, describing the sudden snowfall.
“It’s something a snow plow [operator] has to deal with,” Richards said. “The uncertainty.”
On Monday morning at 3 a.m., Richards drove out onto the snow blanketed city as the forecast escalated from five centimeters to a full blown blizzard, accumulating to nearly 60 centimetres of snow in Toronto.
“It came down too fast,” he said.
By around 5 a.m., before the sun rose, Richards said he had zero visibility on the roads. Meanwhile, he watched pedestrians venture onto the streets to find pathways to walk on and 20 streetcars lined-up lodged in the snow on King Street.
Now, three days since the onset of the historic storm, Richards still sees weeks of work ahead.
“It’s not melting,” he said. “It’s not going away.”
As a solution, he has been collecting and carrying snow to an empty yard where a pile has mounted. But, even when the snow is primarily out of sight in the city, Richards said, “There are a lot of hidden issues.”
“What happens when it starts to melt?” he said. “Flooding.”
For the time being, clearing the snow is the priority. After that, “ you gotta wait and see what mother nature leaves behind,” he said.
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
Quebec nurse had to clean up after husband's death in Montreal hospital
On a night she should have been mourning, a nurse from Quebec's Laurentians region says she was forced to clean up her husband after he died at a hospital in Montreal.
Northern Ont. lawyer who abandoned clients in child protection cases disbarred
A North Bay, Ont., lawyer who abandoned 15 clients – many of them child protection cases – has lost his licence to practise law.
Bank of Canada officials split on when to start cutting interest rates
Members of the Bank of Canada's governing council were split on how long the central bank should wait before it starts cutting interest rates when they met earlier this month.
Maple Leafs fall to Bruins in Game 3, trail series 2-1
Brad Marchand scored twice, including the winner in the third period, and added an assist as the Boston Bruins downed the Toronto Maple Leafs 4-2 to take a 2-1 lead in their first-round playoff series Wednesday
Cuban government apologizes to Montreal-area family after delivering wrong body
Cuba's foreign affairs minister has apologized to a Montreal-area family after they were sent the wrong body following the death of a loved one.
'It was instant karma': Viral video captures failed theft attempt in Nanaimo, B.C.
Mounties in Nanaimo, B.C., say two late-night revellers are lucky their allegedly drunken antics weren't reported to police after security cameras captured the men trying to steal a heavy sign from a downtown business.
What is changing about Canada's capital gains tax and how does it impact me?
The federal government's proposed change to capital gains taxation is expected to increase taxes on investments and mainly affect wealthy Canadians and businesses. Here's what you need to know about the move.
New Indigenous loan guarantee program a 'really big deal,' Freeland says at Toronto conference
Canada's Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland was among the 1,700 delegates attending the two-day First Nations Major Projects Coalition (FNMPC) conference that concluded Tuesday in Toronto.
'Life was not fair to him': Daughter of N.B. man exonerated of murder remembers him as a kind soul
The daughter of a New Brunswick man recently exonerated from murder, is remembering her father as somebody who, despite a wrongful conviction, never became bitter or angry.