“Most of the streets were fine until it started to get cold towards evening,” said Jérémie Bouchard, public works engineer for the United Counties of Prescott and Russell (UCPR). “We have four trucks for each of our garages at Embrun, Casselman, and Plantagenet, and we always keep them all running during a storm.”

UCPR road crews rolled out at 8 a.m. last Thursday morning, taking four shifts on their snow removal circuits before returning to the garages for meals and fuel resupply, then going out again. Bouchard noted there was less commuter traffic at the west end of the counties that day because of storm conditions.

The biggest challenge for road crews was dealing with “drift snow” conditions along some sections of road where the constant wind blowing all day last Thursday created snow drifts along the sides of the roads. Last Friday’s cleanup after the storm saw crews concentrating on drift snow packed along the sides of county roads heading north and south through Prescott-Russell.