As Terrace and Kitimat begin the Big Dig, Northwest Storm sideswipes Prince Rupert shoppers, motorists

Heavy snow and near whiteout 
conditions  were found across  
NW BC over the last 48 hours

Considering the situation facing Terrace, Kitimat and other Northwest communities this weekend, Prince Rupert fared quite well in the wake of the monster snow storm that has delivered some historical snow levels to the Northwest.

However, there has been one small, understandable side effect of the Thursday and Friday snowfall that took place further inland.

As motorists looking to fill up their vehicles on Saturday were finding some of the local stations have suffered supply issues as a result of the storm, and were waiting for shipments to resume to the North Coast.

Motorists pulling into Prince Rupert's downtown gas stations today were finding that the pumps were closed, the reservoirs dry, with station attendants hopeful for word on the next arrival shortly.

As well, those making their trips to the local Grocery stores probably were finding a number of the weekly specials as advertised in the flyers not available, as store clerks also anticipated the arrival of delayed trucks for the region.

For Terrace and Kitimat, what will no doubt become the snowfall of legend has passed, leaving for a gigantic clean up to get started, something that city crews in both locations were already working on as Saturday morning dawned.

According to the Environment Canada  Daily Review the most recent update on the snowfall totals  for theTerrace / Kitimat over the last 2 days had reached 151 centimetres, a number that is sure to be increased as the final calculations are provided.

(Updated figures from Saturday afternoon courtesy of News 1130 peg the snowfall at 168 cm in Kitimat, 159 cm in Terrace)

Power outages in some areas continued into the morning and motorists were still being advised to leave their cars in the driveway, allowing for city crews to tackle the monumental job ahead of removing the volume of snow that has fallen in the last 48 hours.

City officials in both communities issued statements this morning providing background on how their communities were approaching the situation into the weekend.

Kitimat

Terrace

The Terrace Standard provided the first of the day's coverage of the clean up that is now underway

Some of the media review of the last few days can be found from our Weather Event Archive page.