It was quite an adventure for emergency crews in Athabsasca Nov. 8, with freezing rain hitting the area.
The Town of Athabasca had all their resources out by about 6:30 a.m. struggling to get the roads usable again.
Interim chief administrative officer Rachel Ramey said they had a staff member checking the roads at 3:30 in the morning.
"The roads were fine at that time," Ramey said. "But between then and 6:30 is when all the rain came down. In some cases, the roads were covered with ice once again after we sanded the road, so we had to sand it once again."
She said after personally watching the sander backing up the hill on 48 Street, it only made it up to the veterinarian's office.
"It was a very challenging time for our crews to get the work done," Ramey continued. "Most of the downtown core was sanded by 10:30 a.m. We did have some staff doing intersections by hand with five-gallon pails. The fire department were a great help assisting with collisions, icy patches and closing roads."
Athabasca Fire Chief Travis Shalapay said after many years of working with public works, the roads have never been this bad.
"We've dealt with freezing rain before, but not this much," Shalapay said. "I wish I had a helmet camera on, because I was a first-hand witness to likely a dozen collisions. There was a government vehicle who pulled out of the youth centre and it ended up going sideways and slid right into a light pole in front of the 49th Street Grill. I witnessed this as my own vehicle was stuck at the curb in front of Venture Place."
He added while he did not personally bring his skates, he has heard of some people using the ice to get some skating time in.
"I actually have video of a group of people skating down the streets in the Cornwall neighbourhood," Shalapay said. "For the most part, we did not have any reports of injuries. All of the calls we received were due to property damage as a result of all the accidents. We had too many fender benders to respond to, so our job was mostly to deal with future collisions and prevent them."
He added going up or down the hills at the west end of the community was next to impossible.
"A couple of our primary corridors were very dangerous," Shalapay continued. "Fifty-third Street, 49 Street, University Drive - all were impassible. We had about six streets closed to give the trucks time to sand. Our sand trucks were unable to move forward up the hill due to the icy conditions, so they had to travel over their own sand moving backwards in order to get the job done."
But he said once the sand was down, traction was added very quickly.
"It's amazing how fast we were able to get back on the road once the sand was in place," Shalapay said.
He added he wants to thank the public for their support and understanding during this icy day.
"At one point, one of our fire department vehicles had slid up against a curb, and it was too icy even with four-wheel drive to get off the curb," Shalapay said. "We had local residents coming out with ice melt in order to get mobile again, and around town I witnessed all kinds of Good Samaritanism. There were people out all over the place helping each other out. It was really the spirit of the season that day."
