Snow storm triggers special weather statement for Metro Vancouver, Fraser Valley

SURREY, B.C. -

A winter storm is arriving on B.C.’s South Coast, bringing snow, frigid temperatures and poor visibility in some areas.

Municipalities across the Lower Mainland have crews out in full force prepping roads trying to avoid a repeat of the traffic nightmare commuters experienced two weeks ago.

But some local politicians say the region's patchwork response to a snow event is not working.

Coun. Linda Annis of Surrey noted that the last major snowfall event at the end of November brought “the whole region” to a standstill.

“People were stranded for hours on end, including myself. I was stranded for almost 10 hours. This is not acceptable,” said Annis.

“Probably hundreds of thousands of people were impacted, caught on the roads. Some of them took up to 12 hours to get home. And we’re a couple weeks beyond that now and we really don’t know what happened,” said New Westminster Coun. Daniel Fontaine.

“Our main provincial arterials, the on ramps, the off ramps simply did not work." 

Environment Canada has issued a special weather statement for Metro Vancouver and the Fraser Valley, with light flurries expected to start Saturday.

“In general, 2 up to 4 cm of snow can be expected across the region. For Metro Vancouver, snowfall accumulations are mainly expected over higher terrain,” the weather agency wrote in a bulletin Friday afternoon.

An arctic front from the Interior is forecast to move across the South Coast and bring a period of heavy flurries to the region Saturday night through Sunday.

“Currently, there is still large uncertainty associated with the timing of this system. Recent model guidance indicates total snowfall amounts near 10 cm are likely for the Fraser Valley, Howe Sound, Whistler, and the Sea to Sky Highway. Near 5 cm of snow are possible over Metro Vancouver,” wrote Environment Canada.

It’s warning people to be prepared for changing road conditions and cold temperatures.

“With the passage of the arctic front on Sunday, strong outflow winds will bring in cold arctic air and temperatures falling 5 to 10 degrees below seasonal average,” wrote Environment Canada.

Salting and brining trucks have already been deployed across the region, but despite the disaster we saw a few weeks ago, the response from most cities remains the same.

“The equipment that we had out for that storm will be the same as the equipment that we had up for this storm. I think the biggest difference is going to be the timing of the storm. Unfortunately, that one came in at evening rush hour, everybody was on the road, having issues, our plow trucks got stuck in the same traffic as everybody else,” said Ray Kerr, manager of engineering operations for the City of Surrey.

He says his crews have been working around the clock to get ready for this next storm.

“All week we've been running brine on all of our roads and we'll continue to do that until the end of today. In anticipation of the storm that's possibly coming in the weekend,” said Kerr.

An expected, but sudden dump of snow during rush hour brought the Lower Mainland to a standstill on Nov. 29.

Nearly every bridge, tunnel and highway was gridlocked.

Some drivers were stuck on the Alex Fraser Bridge for more than eight hours.

“That's completely unacceptable in Vancouver, where our winters aren't that severe, that people were stuck in their cars. We absolutely need to be proactive about ensuring that our snow … is removed in a proactive way, that it's done before the snow gets too deep, (that) we’re properly salted and sanded,” said Annis.

She’s one of several local politicians calling on municipalities, TransLink, contractors and the province to hold a snow summit.

She wants accountability and to find out what went so wrong that day and how officials plan to prevent it from happening again.

However, so far she says her calls for action have gone unanswered.

“We need to get on it right away. You know, we're just starting to get really into our snowy season this year,” said Annis.

It wasn’t just the roads that were an issue.

Many sidewalks were not cleared, creating icy, dangerous conditions.

The City of Vancouver says it had about 900 complaints about unshoveled sidewalks, but not a single ticket was issued.

“We will focus more on enforcement, as the season progresses, we tend to focus on, you know, repeat offenders. When we do get complaints, we'll send enforcement officers to deliver a notice to remind people what their obligations are, we will escalate to fines when you know when folks aren't consistently clearing their blocks,” said Eric Mital, director of streets for the city.

Mital is urging people to sign up through the city’s website to volunteer as a “snow angel” to help those unable to shovel their sidewalks.

With files from CTV News Vancouver's Michele Brunoro 

The fine for not shoveling your sidewalk in the City of Vancouver is $250, but in Surrey it’s just $55 a day for residents.