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North Shore slides into deep freeze
Winter weather cuts power, packs shelters Jane Seyd jseyd@nsnews.com
WINTER arrived with a blast of cold Arctic air this week that had emergency shelters putting out extra mats for the homeless while local ski hills celebrated an early start to their season.
Temperatures started dipping before the weekend, then plummeted to -10 C overnight Monday on the North Shore. With the wind chill factor, however, Monday’s low felt more like -17 C, said David Jones, Environment Canada meteorologist. Daytime highs on Tuesday hovered around -4. “It’s fully 10 degrees colder than normals for this time of year,” said Jones. So far, however, temperatures have yet to set records set in 1985, when NEWS photo Paul McGrath a cold snap at the end of November saw overnight GIOVANNA Lazzarini takes a tumble down a hill at North Vancouver’s Grand Boulevard Park Saturday. This week’s cold weather has been temperatures hovering a treat for kids and skiers, but it has created challenges for BC Hydro and the operators of local emergency shelters. between -13 C and -16 C. A similar cold snap hit the Lower Mainland in 2006. “It’s early, but it’s happened before,” said Jones. The cold snap has meant staff at the North Shore Lookout shelter have been rolling out extra sleeping mats — in addition Jane Seyd — will be sent to an RCMP lab in Langley to be recalibrated over to the shelter’s regular 45 beds — to provide emergency shelter jseyd@nsnews.com the next 10 days. for the homeless. During that time, if police are using devices that haven’t been When temperatures dip to around freezing, the shelter POLICE forces in B.C. will reset their roadside reset, they won’t be issuing the three-day driving suspensions — operates under an extreme weather policy, allowing it to part of B.C.’s tough new drunk driving laws — to motorists who provide emergency sleeping mats and services for up to 20 breathalyzer devices to eliminate the chance of a blow in the warning range. more people. In the event those 20 mats get used, there’s also false positive reading in the warning range prior to But that doesn’t mean people who drink and drive are off provision to open more emergency shelter beds at North Shore the holiday season. Police made the announcement Friday, saying recent RCMP lab the hook, warned Cpl. Peter DeVries, spokesman for the North Neighbourhood House. Along with the cold snap, higher elevations on the North tests had found a small “margin of error” in the roadside screening Vancouver RCMP. People who appear to be impaired will still be handed 24-hour Shore saw snow over the weekend, with about 11 centimetres devices. As a result, the devices will be reset to give a “warn” reading suspensions, he said falling at a Sonora Drive weather station between Nov. 18 and for a blood alcohol level of .06 instead of .05. The change is being The change also doesn’t affect those who blow over .08; they 19. Trees on power lines were blamed for power outages that made to prevent anyone from being dinged with a fine and vehicle will still face driving bans, fines, impoundments and potential affected pockets of West Vancouver and left much of Bowen impoundment for blowing over the .05, when they are actually still criminal charges. A margin of error has already been built into the machines at that level, said DeVries. Island in the dark on the weekend, with about 2,000 customers under the limit. All roadside breathalyzer devices — including those used by the See Ski page 3 North Vancouver RCMP and West Vancouver Police Department See Devices page 3
Errors prompt breathalyzer changes