Stranded motorists, truck drivers dealt with wicked winter blast

The Alberta Clipper that blew through Saskatchewan on Monday left many people around the province stranded, waiting out the storm as they sat in their vehicles.

As highways started to reopen Tuesday morning, people were slowly able to start driving to their intended destinations.

One of those people was Jean-Francois Palasti, who ended up hunkering down on the side of the Trans-Canada Highway about an hour west of Moose Jaw.

“We just couldn’t see anything. We just decided to just stay here,” Palasti said. “There’s nothing to do. What else can you do, right? We just have to sit and wait.”

Palasti said his destination is in British Columbia, somewhere he doesn’t anticipate getting to anytime soon.

“We’re moving to Kelowna. This is what we are dealing with right now,” he said. “Hopefully we will have smooth sailing after Saskatchewan.”

As of Tuesday afternoon, the Highway Hotline showed most highways around the province had reopened. That wasn’t the case Monday night, as this screenshot from just after 8 p.m. shows.

Despite the change, dozens of warnings involving either collisions or stranded vehicles could be seen all over the map Tuesday morning.

Truck driver Richard Brown says he was more than happy to wait out the storm in Regina before continuing his route.

“It was pretty wicked. It was going pretty hard there last night,” he said.

Another trucker who was happy to wait things out was Guri Singh, who described conditions as “scary.”

“It’s my first winter over here. (It was) very scary. I never want to come here again,” Singh said as he chuckled. “My truck was like shuffling on the road (because it was) so windy. The visibility was zero.”

According to Environment Canada, wind gusts reached up to 100 kilometres per hour in parts of the southeast during the storm.

— With files from 980 CJME’s Dom Lucyk