The wrath of Old Man Winter
Posted Jan 9, 2011 9:07 am.
This article is more than 5 years old.
RCMP say they have now begun looking for stranded highway travelers.
Hundreds of drivers are stuck on highways east of Calgary, with 660News receiving calls from drivers who have spent the night in their vehicles.
“We are somewhere between Bassano and Gleichen,” Erin tells 660News, after spending the night in a car with five members of a youth hockey team, clad in their snowsuits, along Highway 1. “We got stopped about 4 o’clock yesterday afternoon. We were on our way home from a hockey tournament, trying to get home early in the daylight.”
Erin adds, her vehicle is about to run out of gas and they’re getting desperate. And she describes the weather conditions as a white tornado.
Another man tells 660News he has snow up to the hood of his truck about 46 kilometres east of Strathmore on Highway 1. Despite calls to the RCMP, he says he seen no sign of help.
“We’ve just been abandoned here on the highway,” he tells 660News. “There has nobody even come up and ask if we’re ok. I’m afraid for the people in front of us, because I haven’t seen their car start all night.”
Calgary Police and RCMP were warning drivers not to head out on highways or city streets, Sunday morning, unless it was absolutely necessary.
Conditions are so terrible on the highways, that it’s forced officials to completely shut down the Trans Canada east of Calgary.
RCMP report as many as two-hundred vehicles stranded out in the Strathmore-Gleichen area.
City police have a roadblock up at Stoney Trail and Highway One, to make sure no one ventures out on the highway.
