Hazardous winter storm with high winds paralyzes Timmins area

The first winter storm this fall has Timmins and the surrounding region at its mercy. Environment Canada predicts 30 to 60 centimetres of snow to fall between Wednesday and Friday.

Ontario Provincial Police closed several highways on Wednesday morning, including Highway 11 between Kapuskasing and Cochrane, Highway 655 between Driftwood and Kidd Creek Mine Road and Highway 144 between Timmins and the Gogama area.

“We’re getting a high volume of snow in addition to high winds and it’s affecting a large area of our region… It’s creating very hazardous conditions on the highway,” said acting OPP Sgt. Kyler Brouwer, a regional media coordinator for the provincial police force.

Brouwer advises people to avoid all non-essential travel.

“Driving on a closed highway is an offence that will fetch a ticket and a fine and the possibility that if you get in a collision while driving on a closed highway that insurance might not cover them,” he said.

Brouwer said the best source for updates on highway conditions is the Ontario 511 website.

Environment Canada also asks people to take note of the new weather alerts it’s implementing as of today.

Gerald Cheng is a warning preparedness meteorologist and said the colours: yellow, orange and red indicate the weather’s risk level. Cheng said this method is recommended by the World Meteorological Organization and used by many other countries.

“They find it very effective in communicating risks to the population, risk from weather hazards and that’s why we are implementing it,” said Cheng.

“It just so happens that we are right on time for this winter storm and so we hope that the colour-coded weather alerts will allow the public to understand better the risk from this winter storm.”

Timmins and the Cochrane District currently fall under an orange warning which suggests severe weather likely to cause significant damage, disruption or health impacts.

Environment Canada plans to release a seasonal forecast in a few weeks.