Cape Breton Post 11/01/09 Snowstorms are not as severe as they were years ago LEROY PEACH The Cape Breton Post Despite the technology available to forecasters, our weather will always surprise. Even Canada's top meteorologist, David Phillips, will only say that the weather here this winter will fluctuate, and it has. On the other hand, the Farmer's Almanac promises severe cold. Imagine how winter was for Cape Bretoners in the 19th and 20th centuries, however, with primitive forecasting and the absence of equipment to deal with severe storms. I recall the Christmas Eve blizzard of 1947 when pan shovels became more effective than plows. I've done research on the reports of early missionaries to their superiors in the 19th century. At that time, one of the greatest perils was the weather. In 1856, for instance, a severe winter storm, the worst since 1840, blocked roads for the season. Two young boys froze to death near Louisbourg. The Anglican missionary William Young Porter took 16 hours to travel from Sydney to Louisbourg, where he was stranded from Sunday to the following Friday. It took him eight hours to get to Mira Ferry, a distance of 12 miles. The Reverend Charles Croucher (1869-1882), a resident of Port Morien, wrote often of adverse weather conditions. On Jan. 9, 1875, he stated that it took him 10 hours (including rests) to travel 16 miles. He had to free the snow from around the horse and draw the sleigh one-half a mile by hand, with the horse following and plunging through as best he could. One Sunday in the winter of 1878, he missed church for the first time in his tenure. He started out for St. Luke's, in Big Glace Bay, but he was only able to travel 200 yards through snowdrifts before he had to turn back. It took him an hour to return to his house. The storm along the coast in the area now called Long Beach swept away part of the road and covered the area with seawater to a depth of several feet. Fast forward to the 20th century. I recall snow on snow in the 1940s, with inadequate equipment to move it. On Jan. 26, 1965, the Cape Breton Post reported a fierce snowstorm which hit Cape Breton the day before. It stated that "Harry Hitchens, 72, director of the Donkin Band and one of the province's finest musicians collapsed and died while fighting snowdrifts near his home." Mr. Hitchens had abandoned his car and set out on foot through the drifts. The snow began at 8 a.m. Clergy and citizens had gathered in Port Morien for the ordination of Reverend Charles Ellis to the priesthood at St. Paul's Anglican Church. Snow, driven by a 48-mile-an-hour wind, continued to fall all day Monday. By midnight, 40 centimetres had fallen and some of the drifts were 10 feet high. One parishioner's car plunged into a deep ditch on the turn to the church. Following the service, eight clergy were storm-stayed for two days. If my memory is correct, you could look forward to lots of snow in winter years ago. That seems to have been the case in much earlier times, too. Today, however, forecasters do a better job of predicting it and plows a better job of removing it. LeRoy Peach lives in Port Morien and may be reached at leroy_peach@yahoo.ca. His column appears every week in the Cape Breton Post