Nobody in central Labrador can complain that they didn’t have a white Christmas. But Mother Nature seemed to enjoy dumping the snow at the most festive times this season, causing people work and inconvenience when they’d rather be relaxing.
It all started on Christmas Eve, when residents were hit with snow in the early morning. Instead of the nice, light, fluffy snow, they were hit with heavy, wet stuff. Instead of building snowmen or doing something else festive, people had their snow blowers and shovels going at full speed.
The snow and the wind didn’t let up after Christmas either. More snow came down on new year’s eve and new year’s day, interrupting more holiday activities.
Carl Sonnichsen of Happy Valley-Goose Bay faced multiple hiccups due to the snowfall over the holidays. Instead of relaxing on his day of on January first, he was clamoring on his roof to shovel off the snow.
“I don’t care about winters as much as I used to,” says Sonnichsen. “When you’re over 50 it’s more of a pain. When I was younger I dreamed about weather like this.”
Sonnichsen is a driving instructor and one of his students had a test on New Year’s Eve. She failed because the snow covered up two stop signs that she drove past. So Sonnichsen went around town the next day and cleared snow off of stop signs that were covered. The effort paid off, and the student passed her test when she retook it.
The snow also caused safety hazards over the holiday season, especially on Route 520, the road that connects Northwest River and Goose Bay. Several vehicles went off the road during the holiday season and landed in the heavy snow.
Kenny Russell and his girlfriend, Ashley Lynch, live in Northwest River and frequently drive to Goose Bay. Over the holiday season, they counted at least six different vehicles that were off the road. Lynch says a lot of people are not driving safe enough for the conditions.
“I’ve got people passing me going over 100 km/h,” says Lynch.
Lynch was surprised, one day, when she saw a vehicle flipped onto its roof.
“How fast do you have to be going to flip your car on Northwest River Road?” she asked.
Many cars had an easy time getting towed out of the snow. But one vehicle wasn’t so lucky. Russell and Lynch saw one car getting towed out of a snow bank on Route 520. The towing process didn’t seem to go well for the car.
“The vehicle started moving…all of a sudden it (the cable) snapped,” says Russell. “And it looked like something was hauled off the car.”
