Rain wreaks havoc on St. John's roads, after snow shuts some central Newfoundland schools

While a snowstorm shut schools in central Newfoundland, the mixed bag of weather resulted in flooding on many streets around St. John's on Tuesday.

The heavy rain started early Tuesday afternoon — after about five to 10 centimetres of snow had fallen, starting earlier in the day — and within an hour, water started pooling on streets.

Several roads, including Carpasian Road, Torbay Road and Water Street, were flooded and several cars had become stuck or stalled in the water.

Sarah Nolan and Jim Evans, employees at a business on the corner of Newfoundland Drive and Torbay Road, had front row seats to some of the most significant flooding.

"For the last 15 minutes to about 40 minutes, it just progressively got worse," Evans said

"And you can't open it up for [the water] to run anywhere … I'm surprised there's not more cars out there broke down."

The build up of water on Newfoundland Drive slowed traffic as vehicles became stuck in flooded streets during the evening rush hour.

"It's absolutely awful, this car's been here over an hour now, no one's coming, they're blocking traffic," Nolan said.

Difficult conditions

St. John's Mayor Danny Breen said Tuesday's conditions were "extremely challenging," and city crews are continuing with street widening operations into Wednesday morning and clearing out filled catch basins.

"It came on very quick, and that kind of snow packs on to the road quickly. Then, as you're dealing with that, then it turns to rain and there was a tremendous amount of water that was moving there," he said.

"It was a challenging day for our staff and they're continuing to deal with it … it's still pretty messy around, but they're making progress."

Breen said salting the roads is the next step to prepare for the cold temperatures Tuesday night.

"It takes about three hours to salt the streets of the city, so you have to be on top of that and that's something that our staff will be monitoring overnight," he said.

But as crews began the work of salting the streets, one city vehicle slid and struck a utility pole on Goodview Street, in the downtown area, knocking out power to some streets.

There were no injuries, but the city said there will be a workplace accident investigation into the incident.

Freezing to come

CBC meteorologist Ashley Brauweiler said it was the sheer volume of precipitation that caused problems in St. John's.

Ten centimetres of snow fell in just two hours at the St. John's airport Tuesday morning, before changing through freezing rain to rain, with more than 18 mm of rain falling on top of the earlier snow.

But all that water could turn to ice.

"Things are going to get cold as we get through the night tonight, so everything — all that standing water that's left — will likely freeze," said Brauweiler.

Rain will change back to flurries through Tuesday night and as the wet weather moves away, the colder temperatures will move in behind, Brauweiler said.

Winter 'having its way'

Additional workers with the City of St. John's were brought in to deal with the water.

"Extra crews are out attending catch basins in areas that are prone to flooding," said Lynnann Winsor, deputy city manager, department of public works, in an email.

"Snow-clearing crews continue to widen city streets and open up catch basins."

Allison Sheppard of Environment Canada's Gander weather office told CBC's St. John's Morning Show earlier Tuesday, "it's going to be a mess for everyone today."

"Absolutely, winter is having its way with us today for sure.

Another downside of the heavy rain? The snow that fell earlier in the day is now even heavier to shovel.

It keeps snowing and snowing

Sheppard said the snow will continue through the day, with winter storm warnings in effect for the central Newfoundland area.

"It's going to be pretty heavy," she said. "We're looking at amounts anywhere between 20 and 30 centimetres for them today before they taper to flurries this evening."

Mid-morning on Tuesday the RCMP warned drivers that the Trans-Canada Highway on the Avalon peninsula is snow covered, slippery, with limited-to-zero visbility. Stay off the highway unless it's an emergency, urged police.

The Clarenville area looks much the same, with snowfall expected to be heavy at times, with anywhere from 15 to 25 centimetres today, and then another 15 tonight before the snow diminishes to flurries.

"Once that snow gets started, it's really going to pick up, so it's going to get messy quickly."

People can also expect strengthening northwesterly winds, causing blowing snow and reducing visibility. The winds will be gusting to about 80 km/h in most areas, but will be stronger near Bonavista and Clarenville and coastal regions, to about 100 km/h.

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