Facebook group alerts drivers to Northern Peninsula conditions
A husband-and-wife team who work as emergency medical responders have created a Facebook group to help alert other drivers to precise road and weather conditions on the Northern Peninsula.
Debbie Humby, who lives in St. Lunaire-Griquet with her husband Chris, said a winter storm earlier this year helped inspire the decision to do something on social media to help others.
"The Northern Peninsula is so vast that you can listen to the news reports and it will say from this area to this area, 'snow covered,' but it doesn't really give you the full picture of what the road conditions actually are," she said.
The couple started the group — Great Northern Peninsula Road Conditions — in late March. By Monday morning, it had attracted almost 1,000 members.
Recent posts included updates on the washout last week near Portland Creek, which temporarily shut down travel in an area just north of Gros Morne National Park.
Humby said the updates came out of the couple's work, which gave them an eye on road conditions that others may not yet know about.
"In our jobs, we are on the road quite a bit. We could just let people know [things like] from St. Anthony to the airport the roads are snow covered, or there are a lot of caribou hanging around the airport," she said.
"That was the main reason why we started it."
The Humbys hope the site will serve as a tool that drivers can use when planning trips up and down the peninsula.
