Treacherous conditions across southern Quebec after freezing rain, snow

Freezing rain on Tuesdaymorphed into a snowstorm by afternoon, and the treacherousconditions caused about100 cars to gooffthe roads, according to provincial police.

They say there were no major injuries.

In Montreal, residents struggled, slip-sliding onicy streets and floundering throughdeep snow.

Pascale Villeneuve, on her way to work in downtown Montreal, said the weather conditions had her feeling like a certain Montreal icon.

"I feel exactly like Maurice Richard, like a hockey player. Today, you better have your skates," she said.

Thatimage was evoked more than oncein relation to the conditions Tuesday morning.

Duncan Barrow, also on his way to work downtown, said he thought there could be more salt, especially on the sidewalks.

It was slow and careful commute from the PlateauMont-Royal for Barrow, who is originally from England.

"Everywhere's like an ice rink," he said.

By rush hour, conditions had improvedsignificantly, with just twoto fourmore centimetres of snow expected overnight.

School board criticized for staying open

The English Montreal School Board receivedbacklash from parentstodaybecause of itsdecision to stay open despite the bad weather.

EMSBspokesmanMichael Cohentold CBC that thedecision to stay openwas co-ordinated with otherMontreal island school boards.

He said they follow the advice of their bus company,Transco, when it comes to whether it will be safe enough to drive on the roads.

"We are cautious," Cohen said. "All students got to school safely"

Complaints over de-icing

In the borough of Cte-des-Neiges-Notre-Dame-de-Grce there were complaints that the city's plan to deal with an ice storm wasn't adequate.

City Coun.Peter McQueensaid theCoderre administration's centralized snow removal plan needed to include how it would deal with an ice storm such as the onethis morning.

Boroughmayorof Cte-des-Neiges-Notre-Dame-de-Grce,RussellCopeman, said more freezing rain fell than was expected which complicated removal operations.

"To be perfectly blunt, if people expect on a morning such as this, at seveno'clock in the morning when the freezing rain is falling, to be walking on completely bare pavement and completely bare sidewalks, the likelihood of that is small,"Copeman said.

'Worst case scenario'

Environment Canada meteorologist RobertMichaudsaid the freezing rain moved faster and further north than climatologistshad predicted.

He said between five and10millimetres of freezing rain fell this morning. The issue, he pointed out, is that Montreal hasn't had much precipitation in the last few days and so the freezing rain fell onto bare streets and sidewalks.

"That's the worst case scenario," he said.

City of Montreal spokesman Jacques-Alain Lavalle said while the freezing rain was unexpected, city crews did adjust to the weather conditions over the course of the morning.

The city's priority is making sure the main arteries are salted and covered in abrasives in these conditions, Lavalle explained.

The intersectingstreets are done next, but the boroughs decide which ones are tackled first.

Lavalle said cityprotocol is to send crews out as soon as the precipitation begins.

"That being said, is there room for improvements to the system? When this is over, we'll review and make the necessary changes," he said.

In the Montreal area,the freezing rain turned to snow by late morning.

The snow and high winds caused theirown set of issues in the afternoon, making roads greasy and diminishing visibility.

Stay home, authorities urged

Urgences Sant urgedpeople who didn't have to ventureout, especially those on foot, to stay home.

Montreal policeConst. DanielLacoursirealso advised residents to tread carefully.

"It's very, very slippery," he said.

Montreal police askedmotorists who get into accidents without injuriesto avoid calling them, to take down the particulars of the motorists involvedand fill out accident reports on their own.

The morning rush-hourcommute was difficult across the greater Montreal region.Multiple collisions were reported on highways in Montreal, the South Shore and Laval.

Near the Ontario border, icy roads were blamed for amulti-vehicle pileupon Highway 20. No one was seriously hurt.

Highway 40 westbound was also closed atCavendishBoulevarddue to another multi-car collision.

Muchof Quebec, from the U.S. border all the way up to the Gasp, was under either a snowfall or winter storm warning today.

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