Certain areas in Cape Breton are still cleaning up from the nearly 50 centimetres of snow that fell during this week’s blizzard.
In the Sydney area, Public Works crews are operating around the clock to clear sidewalks and streets.
“It was a long event,” said John Phalen of Cape Breton Regional Municipality Public Works. “We were out working on mains and by the time we get into secondary streets we were into 14, 16 hours, so that's the biggest problem.”
Sydney-area students received a second straight snow day on Wednesday. Michelle MacLeod with the Cape Breton Victoria Regional School Board says a lot of emergency exits at schools were not yet clear.
“Safety is a big issue,” said MacLeod. “They don't make this decision lightly. They check with police, municipality, before they make any of these decisions.”
Public Works is asking for the public to have patience as their cleanup continues.
“I know everybody wants to get out and everybody wants their sidewalks and roads plowed right away, but we can only get there in a certain amount of time. Patience would be great,” said Phalen.
Phalen says the focus is now on clearing sidewalks to keep people safe and so students can return to class. He says school-area should be clear by Wednesday evening, but it may be a few days beforeall other residential areas will see snow removal.
With files from CTV Atlantic’s Kyle Moore.
