Atlantic business, truckers dig out of snowstorm

HALIFAX, (Feb. 24, 2004) — The record-setting blizzard that blasted much of Atlantic Canada late last week has long subsided, but some businesses and trucking companies are still recovering and looking to get rolling again.

The state of emergency and curfew issued for parts of Nova Scotia and PEI have been recently lifted. But residents and businesses are still trying to dig out of 95 centimetres of snow that all but shut down PEI and Nova Scotia, especially near Halifax. Cleanup in the city is expected to cost much as $3 million, officials in Halifax say.

The storm forced the closure of the TransCanada Highway, and the 13-km Confederation Bridge, which connects Prince Edward Island to the mainland was impassable. Snow levels on many other roadways are still unsafe for most vehicles.

About 15,000 people in both provinces were without power. The storm’s reach, originally expected to hold in the East, stretched as far north as Moncton and Saint John, before heading east, hitting Newfoundland.

Kevin Fyfe, dispatcher at general hauler S&M Trucking in Edwardsville, N.S., said his company is just beginning to recover despite describing the problems as relatively minor as compared to businesses closer to Halifax. “Anything I had — especially heading near the city — I just held back,” he told Today’s Trucking. “We’re still playing catch-up, but things are just now starting to get back to normal.”

While he wouldn’t describe the storm as financially crippling, Fyfe was pretty sure the company would incur some degree of economic loss. “The actual loss is difficult to determine until the end of the year, when you determine the utilization of your trailers of when they were empty or couldn’t get loaded,” he said. “It’s always a dollars and cents thing with these types of (events).”

Although the company anticipated and prepared for a heavy storm for much of Nova Scotia and PEI, it, like many others, was caught off guard by the storm’s reach across the rest of the Maritimes. “I had quite a few (trucks) parked in Moncton and other places that could go any further. That was about it for them for at least 24 hours,” says Fyfe, adding the company compensated the drivers for the lost time.

He said most customers, at least the regional ones “who were still answering their phones,” were understanding about the delayed freight. “There was no problem, ” he said. “Half of them couldn’t get to work anyway.”