Calgary Herald from Calgary, Alberta, Canada • 3

I A8.r CALGARY HERALD Wednesday, March 18, 155 3 VT-''- "T'rr- r': SNUVVBD UNDER .1. 3 MtM Canadian Press Bill Hirsche uses a sled to take a newborn calf to the barn after it was born Tuesday near Lethbridge. nowtail "-'VijvV" --f A -r Jj; hits rural. Alberta hard. Larry MacDougal, Calgary Herald An abandoned car sits in the ditch east of Chestermere as traffic slowly starts to travel Highway 1 again.

the High River area The operation employs between 1,500 and 2,000 people, the majority of whom commute from Calgary. The plant expected to resume normal operations at 7 a.m. today. Meanwhile, residents of this foothills town of about 8,000 people were busy shovelling out from about 45 centimetres of snow. Many are commuters to Calgary, who either took the day off or continued working from home.

Town manager Gary Hudson said local residents and town officials are a little nervous about a chinook-induced meltdown that's expected by Thursday. Sudden melting would result in large pools of water in some areas, and possibly some flooding of basements, Hudson said. But he isn't worried the Highwood River might rise suddenly and flood portions of the town, as happened in 1995. That spring, a heavier than normal snowpack in the mountains combined with heavy rains to cause heavy flooding of the Highwood and other area rivers, resulting in millions of dollars in property damage. Bruce Masterman town's emergency services which found private accommodation for a further 14 people and a pet Rottweiler dog.

"That's what touched my heart most," said Holly Strand, Cochrane's director of disaster services. "Sight unseen, people were generous enough to open their homes." Bert Fox, father of country superstar George Fox and a former rancher here, took in an Ab-bottsford, B.C., couple after a 3 am. call for help. "I'm used to the old times. If someone's in trouble, you help out," Fox said Andy Marshall MlLLARVILLE Many Calgary-area ranchers resorted to good oP reliable horseback to feed their stock Tuesday after the record snowfall stranded new born calves in drifts up to 60 centimetres deep.

"I've got 250 calves out there that need checking on," said a weary Glenn Ball who had been tending stock on his Millarville-area ranch since 3 a.m. The hip-deep snow forced Ball and his wife Pat to check on the herd of 400 cows from horseback. "We had about four born last night," said Ball, who worried some calves will become sick or die. "All you can do is get them in the bush where there is some cover and then get straw bedding and feed to them," he said, adding that newborns have to be brought into the barn. "It's hell," he said.

"You can't even get the gates open or shut." Turner Valley outfitter Jan Matthews hitched up her team of Belgian draft-horses to feed her 76-strongherd. "It was awful They were falling down and slipping. They were up to their bellies in snow. It took three times as long to do chores, but we got her done," said Matthews. Throughout, rural areas road were empty and schools were closed.

It could take up to four days before unpaved rural roads south of Calgary can be plowed, said public works superintendent Dan Ellice. Wendy Dudley. High River Tuesday's freak snowstorm shut down Cargill Foods meat-packing, the largest employer in CALGARY HERALD Cochrane The worst March snowstorm on record hit rural Alberta hard Monday night and Tuesday, leaving hundreds of vehicles stuck by the side of the road or in the ditch all the way from Calgary to Lake Louise. Even those going to the rescue of abandoned vehicles found themselves in trouble. John Menu, of Calgary, sat by the side of the road for six hours near the Cochrane overpass over the TransCanada, about 20 kilometres west of Calgary.

His 35-tonne AAA Towing truck broke a wheel chain and slid off the road trying to pull out an 18-wheeler. A tow-truck veteran since the early 1960s, Menu could only remember one other occasion when he'd been caught in such a predicament. "This weather is good for business," he said, eager for more after his 4 a.m. start. Cochrane RCMP rescued scores of people from vehicles on the TransCanada and other highways in the region.

After Cochrane's single hotel and motel were full, they contacted the Meals on Wheels delivers with fleet of four-wheel drives "frrt mm ffFi JfY-" TV aS --1 HiT 11 Neighbors join in car-pushing parties RICK MOFINA Calgary Herald A symphony of snowmobiles, snow blowers and the laughter of children excused from school underscored Snow Storm '98 in one of Calgary's southernmost communities Tuesday. Lake Sundance was a mirror image of every neighborhood in Calgary. Neighbors abandoned cars after futile attempts to leave their snow-clogged streets. Others resigned to dig themselves out, or joined car-pushing parties to aid those determined to make it to work. Carole Yaffe opened her home to a Calgary Transit bus driver after he got stuck in the snow four doors from her home at Suncrest Way and Sun Valley Blvd.

S.E. "He had been stuck there for over two hours, I told him to come in and have a coffee and go to the bathroom, if he wanted," said Yaffe. The driver, an 18-year veteran, was overwhelmed with offers of shelter. His passengers had already been transferred to another bus; stranded for more than three hours, he was sitting in his heated bus waiting for a tow truck. "Calgary is like that.

People are so nice and ready to help you when you need it," said the driver, who gave his name only as Al. Meanwhile, Shell Canada employee Ken Keenan joined other residents giving snowmobile and all-terrain vehicle rides to community children. "The kids can't go to school, you can't get to work, what else is there? You have to cope with it somehow," smiled Keenan. Sundance teen Shawn Crawford saw a bright side to the storm. "This is cool, better than school," Crawford, 14, said from the back of Keenan's snowmobile as they passed a stranded city bus.

Across the neighborhood, amid the scrape of snow shovels and the whiz of spinning wheels, three Calgary men came to the aid of Ontario businessman Dale Bowness, whose van was stuck. "It was nice they came and helped me out so quickly. We'd do the same in Ontario," said Bowness, whose return to Ontario from visiting family in Calgary was delayed by the storm. Photo: Joseph Ranger The Herald's Brock Ketcham and A-Channel's Liza Fromer pause during busy day. BROCK KETCHAM Calgary Herald Meals on Wheels got a special helping hand Tuesday from a big set of tires and a lot of very big hearts.

Calgary television's A-Channel plowed through drifts in its sturdy, diesel-driven Hummer, piloted by cameraman Mike Gill and carrying a reporting team from A-Channel and the Calgary Herald. Volunteers from across the city phoned Meals on Wheels and joined the food delivery convoy. Meal client Abe Wiens didn't even bat an eye over Calgary's heaviest March snowfall in a century. A Meals on Wheels customer for decades, he knew his lifeline to a nourishing meal would not let him down. "The meal must go through," Wiens, 60, joked as he eyed a ham-and-potato dinner delivered at noon Tuesday, hot off the A-Channel Hummer.

The TV-newspaper news team, equipped with the TV station's Hummer four-wheel drive vehicle, spent the day on the road delivering food and helping Calgarians marooned by the heavy, soggy snow. Lynn Homer of Meals on Wheels which delivers meals to 600 elderly and shut-in Calgarians said her agency issued a call for volunteers with four-wheel drives after much of her regular crew got stuck at home. Homer said 60 Calgarians pitched in and Meals on Wheels most of its own vans stuck in a parking lot ended up with a squadron of volunteer four-wheel drives. Chris Green, 39, said he flew into action when he heard on the radio that Meals on "I am no longer able to cook myself. It's quite a help to have this." A-Channel assignment editor Mark Kennedy answered a distress call early Tuesday from the Calgary Regional Health Authority, which needed assistance in bringing two emergency physicians to work at the Peter Lougheed Hospital.

Drs. Sudhir Pandya and Teresa Ilnicki, who live in Edgemont and Charleswood, had no way to get to work, so Kennedy played cabdriver in the Hummer. Later, the news team provided transportation for Rockyview Hospital emergency physician Dr. Dan O'Connor of Citadel in northwest Calgary who along with his neighbors was snowed in. "I was driving home at the end of my shift last night and it was interesting picking through cars," O'Connor said.

"I'm sure the folks I'm relieving appreciate this as much as I do." Wheels needed volunteers. He drove his car to the agency's headquarters; then scouted about for a four-wheel drive. Green a country club chef spotted Heninger Toyota next door, sold the dealership on his need for a loaner and ended up with a shiny new four-wheel drive. "I really want to say 'thanks' to those guys," he said. Todd Broadbent, 27, said he and buddy Tom Rayment were sitting around wondering how much green beer they might consume for St.

Patrick's Day when they heard the call for volunteers. "We figured we could do something good today," he said as he and Rayment prepared to load up. Hundreds of people got their meals Tuesday. "They said it would come sometime today," said widow Minnie Burrage, 92, who gratefully accepted a Meals on Wheels dinner, a half-hour late, from A-Channel reporter Liza Fromer. Mll'llWiJY ijf tl.