Residents of central Newfoundland woke up to their second dump of snow in less than a week on Monday, thanks to a storm system that brought snow, wind and rain to the U.S. East Coast over the weekend.
Some schools were closed in Gander, N.L., and other communities after approximately 20 centimetres of snow fell on a day when many families were preparing to dress up for Halloween.
"This is crazy. We're supposed to be trick-or-treating, not building snowmen today," Grand Falls-Windsor resident Cindy Healey told NTV reporter Colleen Lewis.
Other residents said that the snow was heavy, wet and messy.
"I don't mind the snow, but the wet snow is hard to deal with," said Wally Caravanhan as he was shoveling his driveway Monday morning.
By the afternoon, however, many locals were reporting that the snow was melting quickly.
Earlier, utility crews had restored power to almost all the Maritime customers who were cut off when the weekend system brought heavy wind, rain and snow.
Nova Scotia Power had also restored service by the afternoon to customers who were in the dark. About 150 near Sydney, N.S., remained powerless Monday evening. Earlier in the day, spokesperson David Rodenhiser told CTV News Channel that 35,000 had been affected on Sunday.
"We're out and we're working hard and it's all hands on deck," said Rodenhiser.
In New Brunswick, 3,100 customers reported power outages the day before.
Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island and New Brunswick were all hit by the same storm that blanketed parts of the northeast United States with snow on Sunday.
Environment Canada said Saint John saw some of the most snow in the region, with more than 15 cm of the white stuff piling up on driveways and roads by early Monday morning.
Other cities in New Brunswick saw heavy rains arrive with the snowfall, including Moncton (45.6 millimetres of rain and 6.6 centimetres of snow) and Gagetown (9.4 mm of rain and 4.8 cm of snow.)
Many places in Nova Scotia saw very heavy rainfalls, with Malay Falls (73.2 mm), Western Head (58.9 mm) and Sydney (68 mm) among the soggiest places in the province, following the weekend storm.
Three centimetres of snow fell at the Charlottetown airport as a result of the storm, along with 39.6 mm of rain. Further north in Summerside, P.E.I., 44.1 mm of rainfall had been recorded as of Monday morning.
With files from The Canadian Press
