Schools closed for 3rd day as P.E.I. continues storm clean up
More wintry weather to come Sunday into Monday, warns Environment Canada
P.E.I. residents are still feeling the effects of this week's record-setting storm, which brought nearly 54 centimetres of snow and wind gusts of up to 143 km/h to the Island.
Both English and French school boards cancelled classes Friday for the third day in a row.
And with the wind now subsided, people are now able to get out to assess the damage.
At Kathy Kiley's Cornwall home, the entire roof of her backyard shed now sits in her driveway. It was ripped off during the height of the storm.
"We got a phone call from call from my neighbour. They said the roof of your shed just flew off and slammed into our back deck, so you might want to come get it and we'll help you."
House shaking
Kiley said it took six people to keep the roof from crashing into anything else.
She said she's just happy her shed was the only thing damaged.
"The house was shaking all night and I thought that I might wake up with some screens missing or some shingles gone, but I was surprised we fared so well."
In Charlottetown, the wind also ripped a third of the roof off a building on Mount Edward Road.
Owner Carey Wood said they have likely lost everything inside.
"At this point in time, I think we have, unless we got some snow cover over it and it has been protected from the cold winds," she said.
It will be a week or so before they know the actual losses.
Wood and her family decided to use the generator to keep the greenhouses warm when the power went out for more than 24 hours.
"The greenhouses, we hooked the generator up. For in the house, we tried to stay warm. We don't have any backup heat or anything like that. We just all had a family camp-out in the living room and tried to make the best of it."
Wood said they received plenty of help from neighbours including hot meals and fuel for the generator.
More bad weather to come
A wind warning remained in effect for much of Thursday making it hard for plow operators to keep up with drifting snow.
As of Friday morning, power had been restored to all customers except 38 scattered individual outages.
Two Maritime Electric linesmen were stuck in their vehicle for 12 hours overnight Wednesday on the Blue Shank Road. Two snowplows tried but failed to get the crew out.
"This has been an incredible storm. It's been very, very challenging with these high winds," said Kim Griffin, Maritime Electric spokeswoman.
Maritime Electric reports power restored to all customers except 38 scattered individual outages
And P.E.I. is not clear of winter's grip yet.
Environment Canada has issued a special weather statement for all three counties for Sunday and Monday.
The federal forecaster is calling for a wintry mix of weather Sunday, as a low-pressure system will bring snow, ice pellets and freezing rain before possibly changing to rain later in the day.
On Monday, temperatures will drop and the rain and freezing rain will change to snow, which is forecast to end later in the afternoon.
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