Toronto digs out: Cleanup from Monday's major snowstorm may take days, residents warned
CBC
The Toronto area is digging itself out after a major snowstorm that crippled roadways and delayed the much-anticipated return to in-person schooling Monday, but it may still be several days before things are cleaned up.
For many school-aged children in Toronto, Tuesday marked a second snow day.
While classes went ahead virtually on Monday, the Toronto District School Board (TDSB) said there would be no live remote or virtual learning Tuesday. Schools will reopen to in-person learning on Wednesday.
At other boards in the Toronto area — like the Dufferin-Peel Catholic District School Board, the Toronto Catholic District School Board and the York Region District School Board — Tuesday's classes were online.
Meanwhile, the cleanup on the 400-series highways continued through much of Tuesday, with cars abandoned cars in some areas according to Ontario Provincial Police spokesperson Sgt. Kerry Schmidt.
By 5:15 p.m. ET, the Ministry of Transportation told CBC News all stuck vehicles had been cleared.
Schmidt said there were more collisions on Tuesday than Monday because more people were out on the still-slippery roads, driving at higher speeds with the worst of the weather over.
That also complicated the cleanup, he said.
"I wish we could have had one more day of people staying home and allowing these operators to get these roads cleared," Schmidt said.
Airport taxi driver Sukhi Sidhu was stuck on Highway 401 for some nine and half hours on Monday. He says the 401 should have been shut down, like the city's Don Valley Parkway and Gardiner Expressway.
Closing those routes was "a brilliant idea," he said. "They should have done it for the 401."
By Tuesday morning, some 600 road plows, 200 salt trucks and 360 sidewalk plows had completed 11 rounds of plowing on expressways and 14 rounds on major roadways, Toronto Mayor John Tory said, with the work continuing around the clock.
But with the sheer amount of snow and many abandoned vehicles, digging out won't be easy.
"It's going to take a big cleanup effort and that's going to take some time," said Tory, warning it could take several more days before city streets are completely cleared.
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