Snow, ice, wind shut down much of P.E.I.

Heavy snow coated roads and obscured visibility early Wednesday in Charlottetown.

All schools, the university and college, most government offices, many non-critical medical appointments, and some flights were cancelled on the Island ahead of the bad weather.

The Confederation Bridge was closed to all traffic at noon after recording gusts of up to 125 km/hr.

There were a few people out in the morning making last minute trips to the grocery store before the weather really turned.

P.E.I. Emergency Measures Organization (EMO) says it’s important to have an emergency kit available for exactly this kind of situation with enough food, water, and essentials for at least 72 hours.

“Hopefully won’t go that long, but we should always prepare for a minimum of 72 hours,” said Jason Thistle, manager of P.E.I. EMO. “That would include all family members in your house and any pets you might have.”

Winter in Charlottetown, P.E.I. is pictured. (Source: Jack Morse/CTV News Atlantic)He also said it's a good idea to keep cash on hand and keep in touch with the latest updates online, on TV, or on the radio.

High winds and icy rain are expected into the evening, making it even more dangerous to be out, and officials are asking everyone who can to stay home.

P.E.I.’s electric authority is preparing for possible outages as weather deteriorates.

“We’re really concerned into late afternoon and early into this evening with, not only the changeover, but the expected high winds,” said Kim Griffin, spokesperson for Maritime Electric spokesperson. “That’s something we’ll be watching very closely.”

With the rain and cold temperatures come ice, which make roads treacherous and cling to branches and lines.

“Any time you have the wet snow on trees and branches, and then you have wind on top of that, that really concerns us from an outage perspective, if trees come down on our power lines,” said Griffin.

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