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
Bodies found by U.S. authorities searching for missing B.C. kayakers
United States authorities who have been searching for a pair of missing kayakers from British Columbia since the weekend have recovered two bodies in the nearby San Juan Islands of Washington state.
Amid concerns over 'collateral damage' Trudeau, Freeland defend capital gains tax change
Facing pushback from physicians and businesspeople over the coming increase to the capital gains inclusion rate, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and his deputy Chrystia Freeland are standing by their plan to target Canada's highest earners.
'It's discriminatory': Individuals refused entry to Ontario legislature for wearing keffiyeh
Individuals being barred from entering Ontario’s legislature while wearing a keffiyeh say the garment is part of their cultural identity— and the only ones making it political are the politicians banning it.
Tom Mulcair: Park littered with trash after 'pilot project' is perfect symbol of Trudeau governance
Former NDP leader Tom Mulcair says that what's happening now in a trash-littered federal park in Quebec is a perfect metaphor for how the Trudeau government runs things.
Saskatchewan households will continue to receive carbon tax rebate: Trudeau
Households in Saskatchewan will continue to receive Canada Carbon Rebate payments, despite the province refusing to remit the federal carbon price on natural gas, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Tuesday.
'It's just so hard to let it go': Umar Zameer still haunted by death of Toronto police officer
'We hoped for this day, but we were scared that it would not never ever come because it took so long.' That’s what Umar Zameer, the man recently acquitted in the death of a Toronto police officer, told CTV News Toronto in a sit-down interview on Tuesday.
Senate expenses climbed to $7.2 million in 2023, up nearly 30%
Senators in Canada claimed $7.2 million in expenses in 2023, a nearly 30 per cent increase over the previous year.
Canucks goalie Thatcher Demko won't play in Game 2
The Vancouver Canucks will be without all-star goalie Thatcher Demko when they face the Nashville Predators in Game 2 of their first-round playoff series.
Pedestrian, baby injured after stroller struck and dragged by vehicle in Squamish, B.C.
Police say a baby and a pedestrian suffered non-life-threatening injuries after a vehicle struck a baby stroller and dragged it for two blocks before stopping in Squamish, B.C.