A familiar scene in northeast Saskatchewan as people dig out. (Ben Tompkins/northeastNOW Staff)

By Doug Lett

Northeast Snow Day 2

Northeast Saskatchewan digs out of more snow

Nov 8, 2022 | 2:25 PM

Businesses in the northeast were busy as they dealt with another dump of snow.

The owner of Tisdale Towing said heavy snow in the last few days has kept his company extremely busy.

“Sixteen-hour days, 17, 18-hour days, 5 in the morning till 10:30 or 11 at night,” Joe Guidotti said. “Super grateful [for the business], but it’s honestly crazy to see, so early in the season.”

Guidotti said Sunday was his busiest day, following Saturday’s snowstorm, but even the additional snow overnight on Monday added to the workload. He pointed to a call southeast of Tisdale Monday night.

“The snow hit probably around 8 o’clock last night and it was bad, by the time we got back to Tisdale around 9:30 p.m. there was zero visibility, we were going about 40 km/h,” Guidotti said.

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The story was much the same in the town of Tisdale. Guidotti said while crews had the main streets cleared, people are still getting stuck on many side streets.

“The main arteries have all been cleared but some of these side roads, you’re fishing them off from three blocks away, and pulling them out to Main Street,” he said.

He said Tisdale and area received roughly a foot of snow in the last few days. And while plows are working hard, it takes time to get all the streets cleared.

“We got hit so bad they couldn’t get the snow off the streets fast enough. Everybody still has to go to work, everybody still has appointments to make,” Guidotti said.

Carrot River received similar amounts of snow over the weekend, and a little more overnight on Monday.

However, Brent Patton with BTKK Towing in Carrot River said his workload is slowing down a little.

“Last night it was just fluff, it’s not all that serious,” Patton said. However, he said there are still people in the area getting stuck.

“The phone just keeps ringing,” he said.

Cities and towns in the region are doing their best to dig out. But having repeated snowfalls over several days is making the job more challenging.

Melfort City Manager Adam Homes said the city received over 25 cm of snow, including the weekend and Monday night.

“Right now we’re busy removing snow from the downtown centralized area,” Homes said. “We’re working on the priority ones. We’re also working on other streets to make them passable.”

“We’ll go down there with a loader and try to clear a lane. Same thing with the back lanes.”

Homes said the plan is to make all the streets passable as soon as possible and then get back to them later with a grader.

“Right now our mission is to make the downtown clear of snow, and make all the other routes passable,” he noted.

In a notice on its Facebook page, the City of Humboldt said “city crews and Brockmans have been working diligently since the snowfall this past weekend.”

The notice goes on to say crews are working on priority two and three streets, including school zones.

Humboldt’s policy is to clear priority one and two streets within two days of a major snowfall.

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doug.lett@pattisonmedia.com

Twitter: @DougLettSK