Public schools closed in Chilliwack, Mission and Hope

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VANCOUVER (NEWS1130) – Making sure to hedge things as we move forward, Environment Canada says we can expect showers in amounts of anywhere from 10 to 20 mm.

SCHOOL CLOSURES

So far, SD75 in Mission has cancelled classes for Friday as has SD33 in Chilliwack and SD 78 in Hope. Busses will be running and schools will be open in Abbotsford.

We will be updating as we get more information about other areas around the Lower Mainland and the Fraser Valley.

DRIVE BC

You have to have winter tires to drive the out of town highways.

Three major routes from the Lower Mainland to the Interior are closed due to the snow.

Those are Highway 1, and Highway 5. Highway 5 is expected to be open by 2 pm.

If you thought about going the Washington State way, all three of their main routes are closed as well.

Meantime, a special avalanche warning is being issued for the Rockies along the BC/Alberta border.

There are a number of potholes on roads and highways around the Lower Mainland — some worse than others.

 

The closures have created frustrating delays for many travelers.

“I left Quesnel at 9am yesterday and I was supposed to be in Coquitlam by 7pm. I’ve been stuck in Merritt since 6 pm,” says Debbie Steinef, from Surrey.

“There’s no sign of the highway opening until about 10 am and I was supposed to be on a flight out of Abbotsford at 8:30 this morning.”

Steinef and her bus mates have been camped out at the bus depot in Merritt, trying to stay comfortable.

“I’ll tell you, the bus depot usually closes at 10 pm but they have stayed open for us all night and allowed us to stay inside. People have been sleeping on the floor, sleeping in chairs, and some of us haven’t slept,” she tells NEWS 1130.

Steinef calls the staff at the bus depot “phenomenal” but says she’s not impressed with Greyhound Canada.

“At one point they were telling the driver to take us to Kelowna. We actually left Merritt but were turned around by the highway crews on 97C because the roads were crazy. We came back to Merritt where we have now been sitting for more than 12 hours.”

Steinef feels Greyhound should never have let the bus continue out of Kamloops yesterday.

“We were in Kamloops by 5 pm. They shouldn’t have let the bus go on, knowing that the Coquihalla was a nightmare already. If we stayed in Kamloops we might have been able to get a hotel room.”

Steinef says her fellow passengers have remained calm during their ordeal.

Meanwhile, many drivers spent hours stranded in their vehicles on the Coquihalla overnight, waiting to be escorted along the highway in small groups to avoid more pileups.

If you see something that you think we should pass along, call us hands-free at *1130 or you can tweet us @NEWS1130. We have traffic and weather updates every 10 minutes on the ones.

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