Cape Breton reflects on lessons learned from 2024 ‘Snowmageddon’

It’s been one year since Cape Breton was hit with what might have been its biggest snowstorm ever.

This week marks the one-year anniversary of the “Snowmageddon” in the Cape Breton Regional Municipality (CBRM), which dumped more than 150 centimeters of snow on Sydney, N.S., and surrounding communities over a three-day period in February 2024, and drew comparisons with Halifax’s “White Juan” in the winter of 2004.

This time last year, Charlie Stephen and his wife were trapped on their property in Dutch Brook. Their driveway was buried under waist-high snow and the couple - both more than 75 years old - couldn’t get out for the better part of a week.

“What were we (stuck) here? Six days, or something like that?” Stephen said on Wednesday. “When we finally got someone who was able to plow (the driveway), he brought a loader out. It cost us $800 to get the driveway plowed, where we normally pay $50.”

The unprecedented snowfall paralyzed the municipality, so in response it has upgraded its most heavy-duty snow removal equipment.

“We’ve definitely learned a lot of lessons,” said Jenna MacQueen of CBRM communications. “Last year, we had to buy about $1 million worth of snowblowers. So that was three large snowblowers that we purchased.”

Changes have also been made to the municipality’s ability to rescue people who are trapped at home.

“Our fire department actually did purchase a piece of equipment: a side-by-side that has tracks that’s allowing them to go into properties that would otherwise be very hard to access,” MacQueen said.

Stephen and his wife have learned lessons of their own. They purchased a generator and a heat pump, and now make it a habit to keep enough food and supplies in the house to last a week.

“You just worry about another one of those, another ‘Snowmageddon,’” Stephen said. " No, I wouldn’t want to go through that again."

The cleanup following the February 2024 storm cost the CBRM roughly $3.85 million.

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