York residents weathering ever-changing conditions

YorkRegion.com
January 12, 2014
By Adam Martin-Robbins

Mother Nature has dished out some pretty wild weather recently, but a lot of people seem to be taking it in stride.

Southern Ontario was slammed by a massive ice storm in late December that downed thousands of trees and left some neighbourhoods without heat or power for days.

The cleanup is expected to cost municipalities across York Region millions of dollars.

Then came the bone-chilling temperatures this past week that shut down Pearson Airport and led to mass school bus cancellations across the GTA.

Now, the area is in the midst of a rapid, expected to last through tomorrow, prompting warnings of potential flooding, especially in areas near creeks and rivers.

While York Region residents agree this winter, which officially began Dec. 21, has been pretty harsh so far, many feel it could be a lot worse.

Domenic Del Plavignano lives in an area of Thornhill that was pummelled by the ice storm.

Broken tree branches still litter his street.

The nearby park is in even worse shape with some sections impassable because of the tangled mess of fallen tree limbs and paths covered in ice.

It could be months before work crews get around to cleaning it up.

Mr. Del Plavignano still has thick chunks of ice on his driveway that he struggled to chip away Sunday morning, but he’s not complaining.

“We can’t do anything about the weather,” he said.

A few doors down, Lurlene Anderson said she’s just happy to get a break from the frigid temperatures.

“We’re trying to enjoy it at the moment because we haven’t had it in such a long time, especially with the ice storm that we had, it’s terrible” she said. “But, thank God, that we’re still here.”

Diane Fetzko, who walks her dog around the area twice a day, said “intense is a good word” to describe the weather these last few weeks.

She said a lot of people in the community are pitching in to help clean up the mess while the city does its best to cope with a difficult situation.

"I know they’re doing the best they can, but the melting on the sidewalks makes it worse,” she said. “The parks were decimated. They’ll probably be that way for a long time because with the cold weather they can’t get in and do very much. I don’t blame them, it’s horrible. They’re doing what they can do.”

Across town, in Woodbridge, Reno Pauletto is feeling pretty grateful.

“We lost three trees, but you know what, it could have been worse,” he said while shovelling snow off the back of his bright red Dodge pick-up truck.

His neighbourhood, off Islington Avenue just north of Langstaff Road, was whacked by the ice storm, too.

A work crew passed through earlier in the week and cleaned up a lot of the mess. Now huge piles of branches line both sides of the street.

Mr. Pauletto, who recently retired after spending years working in construction, said he and his wife, Flori, don’t usually go away in the winter, but they plan on escaping to some place warm and sunny really soon.

“It’s been bad in previous years, but never as bad as this.”