For the second time in less than a year, Davidson residents opened their homes to complete strangers after icy conditions and blowing snow forced the Saskatchewan Ministry of Highways to close Highway 11 between Kenaston and Regina for approximately two hours last Wednesday stranding travellers in town.
Davidson Emergency Measures Operations (EMO) coordinator Trish Shilling said about 80 of the 175 people who were diverted off the highway to Davidson Town Hall and decided to spend the night in town were billeted to 25 different households. Another 80 headed to the New Life Pentecostal Assembly to sleep on bedding provided by the Davidson Health Centre. She said the 15 other travellers decided to stay overnight at the Town Hall despite the EMO having more homeowners in town willing to act as billets.
“It ran a lot smoother than last year,” said Schilling when comparing Feb. 18 to the first time she had to organize emergency shelter for stranded travellers early last March. “This time I had a little more forewarning I guess. Last time, we got there and people were already streaming in, 20 to 30 at a time, while this time they kind of trickled in. It wasn’t late at night (like last time), so the time of day made a difference because it was still daylight and people weren’t as panicked. Even the travellers were more relaxed and we had more time to get set up and talk to them and get organized.”
A Craik RCMP constable said the provincial Ministry of Highways closed Highway 11 between Kenaston and Regina at 3:15 p.m. due to bad weather conditions and reopened it at 5:30 p.m. resulting in motorists being diverted to the Davidson Town Hall and Craik Legion Hall during that time. He said they received 19 calls for traffic collisions on Highway 11 during the blizzard including one for a jack-knifed semi with two trailers that blocked the southbound lane one kilometre south of Girvin that backed up 200 vehicles behind the collision for upwards of five hours.
Estevan residents Pam Dechief, Leann Boehm and Sheila Guenther were three motorists who found themselves stopped outside of Girvin due to the semi accident. They said they were on their way home from volunteering and checking out the Saskatchewan Winter Games in Prince Albert when they found themselves in the back up.
“We were there for awhile waiting on the highway for about an hour and a half listening to the radio and finally it sounded like they weren’t going to be able to clear the highway off anytime soon,” said Guenther, who along with the other two women and Brandon’s Tammy Johannson were billeted by Bob and Shirley Bender. “We came into town, stopped at the first motel, the Jubilee, and waited a little bit to see if they had any rooms. They sold out the last two rooms right before it was our turn. Then we started driving around town looking for another one and I called the town office and talked to a man there and he told me about (the) EMO coordinator, so I called her.”
To read more please see the February 24 print edition of The Davidson Leader.