Halloween morning greeted with fresh snow in Moncton

Monctonians woke up to an early blast of winter on Halloween morning with snowmen sitting amongst pumpkins on local front lawns.

“It came very fast,” said Gary Amos, who was out walking his dogs.

“I thought we might get a flurry or two, but I think we got a little bit more than a flurry.”

According to Environment Canada, Greater Moncton saw nearly 11cm of snow to wrap up the month of October.

“It’s a big change, but it’s going to get warm this weekend so hopefully it’ll be a while before the real cold winter comes,” said Rod Cormier.

“It’s beautiful and warm, but once it’s gone there’s no rush for it to come back.”

Amongst walkers at Moncton’s Mapleton Park, the snow was relatively well received.

“Obviously we’ve had some in October before, but it’s not a common thing to get this much, this soon,” said Louis Boudreau.

“I just take it as it comes. I like to shovel it, I like to push it around, snow blow it and like I say it’s where I’ve been all my life and whatever comes, comes.”

However, the precipitation didn’t come without challenges.

At its peak, 6,300 NB Power customers were left in the dark and three local schools closed on Tuesday due to a lack of power.

“The cause is mostly trees and branches laden with snow coming into contact with lines. We also have one instance of a broken pole,” said Dominique Couture with NB Power in an email Tuesday morning.

She also said there was one planned outage for maintenance that impacted seven customers.

Throughout the day, mild temperatures melted away most of the snow, but temperatures were expected to drop below freezing, plus a wind chill, on Tuesday night.

“Local shelters are well equipped,” said Isabelle LeBlanc, director of communications for the City of Moncton.

“They have space within each shelter area and they also have some space, additional space, in case of extreme weather. [...] As far as when the provincial operational plan will be in play at the centre, that we will have to wait until the province provides us with the details."

She says the city has been working with the province of New Brunswick for the past few months.

“They’re working on finalizing an operational plan for a centre here in Moncton,” she said.

Adding that during the next regular council meeting, on Nov. 6, city council will be asked to consider entering a lease agreement with the province.

Last year, the province opened an emergency warming shelter at the end of December, which was upgraded to a 24/7 emergency drop-in shelter in January.

"I think it should be open now, like Nov. 1,” said Father Chris VanBuskirk with St. George’s Anglican Church.

“It's a no brainer and that's the frustrating thing is why are we, why are we waiting for details?"

CTV News reached out to the Department of Social Development today asking for an update on the plan for this coming winter, but didn’t receive a respond by deadline.

At this point, no official details have been released about plans for this year.

Currently, St. George’s Anglican Church runs a week day drop-in service for vulnerable members in the community.

“Between 75 and 100 attend each day for shower, for breakfast, for laundry, for using the washroom, use the telephone, Wi-Fi, but last night on my way home, it was a little after 10 o’clock and there were two guys that were out,” he said.

“Then this morning around 6:30 a guy made his way to the church who had just got released from jail. So there are people and whether it’s onesies or twosies, or five or six, or 10 or 12, or 100 there are people who are living precariously that that 24/7 drop in would be a great asset."

As the city waits for direction from the province on the warming centre shelter, LeBlanc says they are prepared for the other aspects that winter brings.

“At the end of April, which was at the end of last winter, we were slightly over budget because we had to make use of a lot of salt last year. If you recall, not a lot of snow, but a lot of ice. However, we do have budget set aside for November, December and October and so we’re in good shape to finish the season unless something abnormal happens,” she said.

She says the city has been preparing for several weeks, switching summer equipment over to winter equipment and making sure everything is serviced and contracts are in place.

Check out all the snowy action here.

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