Ottawa Valley buried under 19 cm of snow

In the Ottawa Valley, people stayed off the roads, the schools were closed, and it was a day of neighbours helping neighbours. CTV’s Dylan Dyson reports.

Those living in the Ottawa Valley got off easy following Thursday’s snowstorm that swept across Ontario, with those living in Renfrew County receiving approximately 19 centimetres of snow.

As of 4 p.m. Thursday, the nation’s capital was under a dumping of 32 centimetres of snow.

The County of Renfrew and many of its municipalities declared a significant weather event, warning that travel across the region would be severely impacted and advising residents to stay off the roads if possible.

All public and catholic schools in the county were closed Thursday as well.

Street plows did what they could keeping main roads clear throughout the day. The Town of Arnprior says it is sending crews out again Thursday night to do more clean-up along side streets.

That left residents with not much to do but dig themselves out.

Dayton Latreille, 14, spent his day off from school offering snow shovelling services to others in the Arnprior area.

“Just to help people out, make a little bit extra money,” he said. “I’ve done about three or four houses. Made quite a bit of money.”

At $20 a laneway, Latreille was hard at work with plans to spend his hard-earned money on Valentine’s Day.

“Maybe buy some flowers, chocolate, or whatever for my girlfriend.”

Not far up the street, Arnprior resident Rob MacLean was out early tackling the snow in his neighbourhood, snowblowing as it was still coming down.

“I do two or three on that side, and I do two or three on this side,” he tells CTV News.

“Because I’m good neighbour. It’s one thing I was always taught when I was a kid, help out your neighbours, so I just do.”

While it was strenuous work for MacLean, the conditions were against him for much of the morning.

“This is nasty. At least it’s light. It’s flying around pretty good. The wind has died down and I’m not getting it in the face like I did a couple times this morning already.”

And with parents home with their kids, resident Brendan Kleinbeerink decided to enjoy the weather by setting up a winter cookout.

“We went around with the sled. Shovelled with the kids and made a fort in the yard, and I thought it would be a good day.”