A historic snowstorm made our first snow experience unforgettable.
Since we landed in Canada, which happened last September 17th, 2019, we were eager and looking forward to seeing our very first snow. Little did we know that Manitoba would welcome us in big time!
While planning was going on for the long weekend to celebrate Thanksgiving, there was this scary weather forecast on the news about a huge storm landing south of Manitoba.
As Brazilians, we didn’t quite know what to expect from this. We just knew that would snow and we were happy about it, oh poor souls.
Snow started to fall…a lot!
I woke up on Thursday the 10th of October with the first snow falling! It was my day off of work (yes, I got a job 11 days after landing which I will tell more about it on another post) so we headed to Regional Connections where Gabi is having English classes as part of the Settlement Program for Newcomers provided for FREE by the Canadian government (which it will be another topic to cover in a new post as well).
As I sit at the reception, the snow started to fall badly accompanied by strong wind gusts. Of course, we enjoyed the first hours of it making ourselves children again taking pictures and posting on our social profiles as the event of the year!
Everything started coming into white, rooftops, trees, cars…oh yes, cars. PLE-A-SE, if you are moving here, do consider having an SUV or any model with a 4×4 driving system, otherwise, you will be in bad shape during wintertime.
We got a Chevrolet Equinox with all-season tires which we need to change to winter tires asap, but it allowed us to drive without major problems around. At least during the first day of the storm.
After hours had passed, the wet and heavy snow accumulated begun to show its personality. Many trees fell with the weight of snow and damaged the electrical cables in the streets. This led to a power shortage in thousands of homes throughout the south of Manitoba.
State of Emergency
All roads closed to avoid major accidents so many people couldn’t travel back and forth from Morden, Winkler, Winnipeg, etc.
Having this whole situation going on, I was unable to go to work for 2 days straight and all we did was rushed to replenish our pantry to last a few more days.
Even the Premier of our province declared a state of emergency after 3 days of consistent snowfall.
We tried to enjoy the snowpocalypse days as best as we could. So we took Valentina, our Sheltie dog, to have her first experience with the snow! It was fun to watch her tasting and licking the snow, jumping around happily.
Netflix was a great companion as always. We watched the movie Fractured which just after days, I found out it was filmed in Winnipeg. What a nice surprise!
Just around Saturday afternoon, the plow machines were able to start cleaning some main streets. Hydro crews and emergency staff such as hospitals and firefighters could finally move to deliver help. Our building also had the parking lot cleared by two of the machines so we could move our car without trouble.
Morden had a 64cm of snow accumulated!
To Be Admired
I confess I was very surprised in a positive way by how Canadians work well as a community. During all the time I was following their postings inside Facebook groups, how they were making themselves helpful for the ones in need, detecting urgent problems, making suggestions to ease any stress caused by the storm, etc.
Their organization and most of all infrastructure to deal with major nature caused situations are admirable.
We were blessed to be in a place that kept us safe all times, hydro and heating working normally.
We got to know our first snow while Canadians showed their best moral values. We learned that a community that works together is a strong one and leave no one behind!
Thank you, Canada!
To see more pictures of the snowpocalypse, check what Pembina Valley Online posted.
