School busses were cancelled for a week during 1950 snow storm

 In Opinion

This week’s weather inspired Colleen Stamp to bring in a copy of Reminiscing by Addie Speare, printed in The Creemore Star in January 1991, a reprinting from Feb. 20, 1950. 

“The wind she blew from the north, east, west, and the south wind she blew too,” a quote from Drummond’s poem to describe the snow storm which raged over Ontario from Sunday evening until Tuesday evening. 

Creemore was completely isolated for two days as highways in all districts were blocked. There was no mail service and the local public school remained closed Monday and Tuesday as only a handful of the nearly 200 pupils reported. The civil service employees who commute to Camp Borden daily from Creemore were unable to report for duty and several Toronto people in Creemore for the weekend were stranded and had to stay in town. 

The storm developed about 4 p.m. Sunday and by 6 p.m. motorists were getting stranded on the highways. The temperature was falling and north-by-west winds raged at 25 to 40 mph. At 6 a.m. Monday it was 20 below zero in Creemore and not a wheel turned. The local dairy was unable to make the usual home delivery service but by using horses and sleigh managed to keep the grocery stores supplied. The local bakery had things all their own way as city bread trucks couldn’t get into town, a good famine accordingly was averted. 

Several Creemore homes had trouble with frozen pipes and local plumbers were very much in demand. Evidently fuel oil supplies were getting low at some places in the village but one of the first trucks into town on Tuesday forenoon was Hamilton Bros. B-A oil truck from Glen Huron. The driver reported he made it via Riverside Drive but no private cars could get through at that time.

In the meantime, snow ploughs were bucking the six to 10-foot drifts on the main roads. A big elm tree fell across the road to New Lowell and had to be removed before the snow plough could get through. Some of the worst drifting was between Creemore and Cashtown. The snow ploughs were breaking down and had to be held up for repairs. Then, after a mild spell there were three weekend blizzards. Snow ploughing equipment was taxed to capacity. Some sideroads in Nottawasaga were not open for a week. The River Road in Glen Huron was first opened with equipment of Hamilton Bros. High school busses did not operate for a week and Creemore was blocked off in all directions. The one-mile stretch between Creemore and Cashtown was a big bottleneck with several vehicles, including a snow plough, stranded there. Eventually there was a drop in the wind velocity, which allowed some progress clearing the roads.  

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