Ambulance strike a ‘paramount concern’ for mayor as Newfoundland digs out of storm

Advice to stay off the roads was particularly pressing in Conception Bay South where an ongoing ambulance strike had reduced services.

People in parts of Eastern Newfoundland got a good workout Sunday morning shoveling out from knee-deep snow.

A winter storm set in Friday night and dumped up to 50 centimetres of wet, heavy snow onto parts of the island’s Avalon Peninsula.

Though it was the first big storm to hit the area in two years, Conception Bay South Mayor Darrin Bent said people in his community had the gear to get through it.

“You can hear snow blowers in stereo pretty much everywhere you go,” Bent said in an interview from the town, which is about 30 kilometres west of St. John’s.

Besides, he said, in true Newfoundland fashion, there are two days of rain forecast to begin on Monday afternoon.

“We’ll dig out, persevere and we’ll all be back to work on Monday to wait to see how bad the rain will be on Tuesday.”

Snow began on Friday night and let up on Saturday morning, only to start again Saturday afternoon and intensify overnight. Strong winds in downtown St. John’s had the flurries blowing every which way, and the city’s rowhouses were coated in streaks of pasted-on snow as the sun came up on Sunday.

The LSPU Hall, which is the city’s main downtown theatre, announced on Facebook it was cancelling its Sunday evening show “due to the enormous pile of snow dumped in all our driveways and roads.”