Bathurst-area residents still digging out from latest nor'easter

Residents of Youghall Beach inBathurst, N.B., are still hard at work digging out from under huge drifts of snow from a March 14 nor'easter that left many houses and cottages partially buried.

Eldon McLean spent part of his Saturday afternoon cutting a path through a solid wall of snow, in advance of the snowbloweroperator brought into tackle the nearly four-metre high drift.

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After living on the Bay of Chaleur for 35 years, McLean said the last time he can remember a storm like past one was 30 years ago.

"I can remember down here by Johnson's, the drift was across the road, we made a tunnel through it and drove through the tunnel," McLean said as he gestured downQueen Elizabeth Drive.

Parts of the road are still down to one lane in some areas, waiting for plows to widen it.

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Sharon Moore said city crews could only plow the road so far on the night of the storm, before encountering a huge drift the plow could not get through. The following day, the city's industrial snowblowerwas brought in to cut through it.

Meanwhile, Moore and her husband, Mike, were waiting for a crew of shovellers to comeSunday to help clear away the drift that buried their house.

The couple, who turned their summer cottage into a permanent home 15 years ago, managed to clear around the kitchen window but the rest had to wait.

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There are drifts in the area over five metres high.

"We knew it would be bad but we just hoped for the best," McLeansaid with a laugh.

When asked if they were prepared to deal with another nor'easterbeing predicted for later in the week, Moore said, "What can you do? You can't tell it to go away."