For the most part, Yarmouth County residents dodged the weather bomb that slammed into Nova Scotia on Friday evening and hung around for most of Saturday. Along the southern end of the province, storm surges flooded coastal areas including Shelburne, Lockeport and Liverpool. The southwestern end of the province took the brunt of the wind, with gusts as high 164 km/h recorded in Woods Harbour.
In Yarmouth many area businesses closed on Saturday, (although the big grocery stores are among those that remain open) community events cancelled, Saint Ambrose was among several churches to cancel Saturday services. The storm brought high winds and white-out conditions to Nova Scotia. Bernie Melanson of Bernie's Shuttle Service cancelled his Halifax trip for only the second time in seven years that he has been driving daily shuttles to and from the city.
Environment Canada warned of blizzard conditions throughout the province with near-zero visibilities. The blizzard warning for Yarmouth was lifted around mid-day but Yarmouth remained under a blowing snow and wind warning until Sunday morning.
In a traffic advisory Saturday afternoon the Department of Transportation and Infrastructure Renewal said all highways were open and passable with extreme caution. Provincewide blowing and drifting snow was making visibility poor and roads slippery. The Department of Transportation asked drivers to stay off the roads, if they could, to allow snow plows and salt trucks to clear highways and for emergency vehicles to pass through. Some secondary roads were impassable due to drifting snow. Motorists in coastal areas are warned to be on the lookout for coastal erosion from the rough seas.
A low pressure system intensified Saturday as it slowly passed south of Nova Scotia. Yarmouth's waterfront escaped flooding as high tide passed without incident at 9:30 a.m. on Saturday morning, but there have been reports along more exposed coastal areas at the southern tip of Nova Scotia in Shelburne and Queens counties of flooding and damage to coastal facilities.
Environment Canada updated its warnings at 4 p.m. Saturday indicating that elevated coastal water levels were expected along with high tide. It was advising people in low lying areas to monitor weather conditions and look for updated statements.
Total snowfall amounts of 30 to 40 centimetres were forecast, although Yarmouth's totals were far less, recording about 14 cms. With the high wind though, in exposed areas drifts made some roads impassable, requiring heavy equipment to clear the drifts repeatedly through the storm.
