As of 2 p.m. Saturday, the only provinces or territories not affected by an Environment Canada weather warning or statement were Nunavut and Nova Scotia.
Ferocious winter weather grounded flights and stranded nine Via Rail trains between Ontario and Quebec on Saturday as snow, freezing rain, high winds and rain hammered much of the country and plunged holiday travel plans into chaos.
As of 2 p.m., the only provinces or territories not affected by an Environment Canada weather warning or statement were Nunavut and Nova Scotia.
Vee Grunda was one of many passengers stranded without food or water aboard a Via Rail train in Cobourg, Ont. She said the train came to a halt “in the middle of nowhere” around 11 p.m. on Friday, and by noon the next day many were still on board and seeking answers about what to do next.
“We’ve had some panic attacks and then we have some people with diabetes. We have a two-month-old baby, we have a bunch of elderly people,” Grunda said in a telephone interview. “They haven’t turned the lights off… so no one slept. Everything’s just tense.”
Some passengers have been jumping off the train and venturing into the snow, she said.
“They were climbing through people’s backyards, trying to get to a street,” she added.
Police and paramedic services are on board as they wait for an emergency train to arrive, she said.
Via Rail issued a statement saying nine trains running between Quebec City and Windsor were immobilized due to extreme weather conditions that caused power outages and downed trees. Some passengers said on social media Saturday that they were stuck on board for more than 18 hours without food or water.
Seven more trains were cancelled entirely on Saturday morning, the rail company said.
“Throughout the night, our efforts have been focused on keeping our customers as comfortable as possible in the current circumstances and on bringing them to their final destinations as quickly and as safely as possible, while making every effort to find alternative solutions to reach the trains that are immobilized,” the statement said.
“We are continuing to work with our teams and the infrastructure owner to either get those trains moving as quickly as possible, or bring them to their final destination with new equipment.”
Environment Canada said snow squalls, winter storms and blizzards would persist in Ontario and Quebec throughout the day. Hydro One said 69,853 customers were without power around noon, while Hydro-Quebec reported 279,525 customers in the dark.
The fierce winter storms also put a damper on holiday travel plans, with flights cancelled at major airports in Ontario, Quebec and B.C., and police closing sections of provincial highways due to hazardous driving conditions. WestJet cancelled 60 of its 500 scheduled flights Saturday, according to an email. The company has cancelled 1,307 flights since Dec. 18.
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In Ontario, staff at a pet boarding service in the Oro-Medonte township near Barrie were fielding calls from owners who couldn’t get home to retrieve their furry family members.
“We have some owners who aren’t going to make it back, but they’re happy their pets are safe here for Christmas with us,” said Tallis Kostuik, operations manager at Royal Pets Hotel and Enrichment.
Kostuik said staff had stepped up to work over the holidays to care for those extra pets. Though calls were still coming in Saturday afternoon, Kostuik said at least a dozen dogs and cats would be unexpectedly spending Christmas at Royal Pets because their owners’ plans had been sidelined by weather delays.
Environment Canada also forecast rain and powerful gusts through Christmas Eve in the Maritimes, with the storm projected to move into Newfoundland and Labrador on Saturday night. Communities along New Brunswick’s northern shores were also bracing for storm surge, especially during high tide later Saturday afternoon.
More than 48,700 customers in the Maritimes were without power early Saturday afternoon, down from more than 90,000 earlier in the day.
In southwestern Newfoundland, a town still recovering from post-tropical storm Fiona was grappling with flooding caused by storm surge. Brian Button, the mayor of Port aux Basques, said roads, playgrounds and a community park were all under water after high tide on Saturday morning.
Fiona destroyed about 100 homes in Port aux Basques when it came it barrelling through eastern Canada in September. The historic storm also crumbled much of the community’s coastline into the sea.
“So now, when you have seas that are pounding in, they’re pounding in closer to homes,” Button said in an interview. “The water today, it’s just unbelievable.”
In Metro Vancouver, icy buildup halted transit trains and threatened to fall from the cables on the Port Mann and Alex Fraser bridges, while heavy snow mixed with freezing rain prompted “moderate to high” avalanche warnings for two provincial highways.
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