As Gravenhurst was hammered with over a metre of snow this weekend — shutting down Highway 11, stranding numerous vehicles, and leading the town to declare a state of emergency — countless people stepped up to help those who were trapped or in need.
While emergency services personnel both local and beyond worked around the clock to get the situation under control, community members also rose to the occasion to assist people affected by the blizzard.
On Saturday, the day after snow squalls began, On the Water Designs, a dock builder along Highway 11, opened its doors to let people get out of their vehicles and come inside.
“It was just cars, like bumper to bumper, as far as you could see,” said business owner, Brandon Jewitt.
“I had one of my guys in plowing our lot. Because of the snow, he got sort of caught here with the shutdown of the highway,” Jewitt said. “He was able to let people … into the showroom to use the bathroom and things like that.”
A nearby neighbour also suggested they could put together a hot meal for those who sought refuge, Jewitt said, which they brought to the business later that day.
“They brought all the food down and into the showroom, so people were coming off the highway to have a meal, and they told me that they were hanging out in the showroom where it was warm and dry, and socializing,” he said.
“She said people were looking kind of nervous as it was getting dark, and coming into somewhere bright and warm and dry kind of took the edge off for people.”
On Sunday, after Gravenhurst declared a state of emergency, local Sobeys owner Jesse Grimes said his usual ten-minute commute to work stretched to around two hours due to stranded vehicles and the sheer volume of snow. During the lengthy trip he noticed countless transport trucks stuck on Bethune Drive — backed all the way up from Highway 11.
Enough staff were able to make it into work on Sunday to get the grocery store open, and Grimes decided to fill his truck with groceries to bring food to those stranded in their vehicles.
“When I drove by, I had to pull my phone out and take a video of it, and I just went, ‘I wonder how many of these guys are actually starving right now?’” he said. “I told myself that we can do something here. You know, the firefighters, the policemen, the snowplow drivers, they're all doing all these great things, and you ask yourself, how can you do something (too)?”
As he was loading up his truck, a regular customer, Tanya, came up to Grimes and asked if she could help with delivering food, and the two set off down Bethune Drive — ultimately filling up the truck twice — to get supplies to everyone.
“She was nice enough to come with me and just help me at each stop and everything,” Grimes said.
“I gave clementines, water, bananas and a meal to go with it,” he said. “They were very appreciative about it. I had one driver even say, ‘Look, thanks so much for doing this. I have enough supplies, so I want you to keep distributing this to the other guys,’ and that was probably the most touching piece of it because these guys were all in it together.”
Once they reached all the transport trucks they could, Grimes drove the remaining food in his truck to a local group home that was completely snowed in. He said he “had no intentions at all of this blowing up,” and credited his staff for making the effort to get it into work to create the opportunity to help others.
“If it wasn't for my staff that actually made it in this building … they were here and they were doing their best job, and they were working so hard, we were able to go and do something extra like that,” he said.
With the town still under a state of emergency, the efforts continue.
On Tuesday afternoon, Salvation Army emergency disaster vehicles were staged at the Gravenhurst Centennial Centre — which has also been open as a warming centre through the crisis — to deliver meals to those still unable to leave their homes.
“We've probably had about 25 or 30 people in here in the last day and a half,” said Salvation Army’s Trevor McClellan.
“We're actually gearing up right now to leave, to take the canteen truck and leave the site to a couple of locations where people can't get out,” he said. “We figure probably around 200 people … out in the field, in the community.”
One local family said they lost power and water over the weekend, and came in Tuesday morning to make use of the Centennial Centre’s warmth and showers.
“Anything with warm and friendly people is … just sometimes the little flicker of hope that gets you through another day of dealing with this,” said Andrew Dickson, who came in with his wife and kids.
“I can't say enough good about the people of the community who help neighbours, and people with tractors that are operational, just getting in and doing what they can.”
Another resident, Doug Abernethy, formerly of Orillia, said he has been stuck at his apartment for the past few days.
As he needs to walk to get groceries, and some residential streets are currently only plowed one lane wide, heading to the grocery store is not a viable move as of yet.
“It's very narrow to try to walk up. If you've got a car coming down, I thought, ‘Oh man, there's no way,’” he said. “I got a hold of the town yesterday, and the Gravenhurst Fire Department, the volunteers, they brought some water and some snacks by this morning.”
At a press conference on Tuesday afternoon, Gravenhurst Mayor Heidi Lorenz said the community has shown “grace under fire,” noting work has been going on around the clock to get the situation fully resolved.
“The primary reason for us calling the emergency was the closure of Highway 11. Sure, we got a ton of snow, but that closure for so long created so many problems, not only, of course, on the highway being our main artery into town, but it spun off into dozens of abandoned vehicles on the side roads,” she said.
“We had at least 50 fallen trees, of course, the hydro lines being down, making it really unsafe for travel,” she said. “We know it has been a long way to get here, but I want to assure the public that we are well on our way to some normalcy.”
Lorenz said that Elexicon, the town’s energy provider, estimates it will have full restoration of power by 4 p.m. on Thursday, and that work continues to clear snow off main roads and side roads in the town.
She encouraged people in need of help to call the town 705-687-3412.
“We have people here that are here to help us as part of declaring the emergency,” she said. “You can tell us what it is that you need, and we will get you what you need in order to get through the next few days.”
