Islanders brave winter storm to help out people trapped by snow

Some P.E.I. residents braved snowy roads and poor driving conditions to help their fellow Islanders during this weekend's winter storm.

Robin Croucher, a paramedic who's also captain of the Souris Fire Department, was out Sunday morning with three other firefighters checking in on people who had gotten stuck.

"We had a number of senior citizens that were snowed in and without power for a number of hours and getting quite cold." Croucher said. 

"We very quickly got four of our members together at the fire department, myself, Peter Aitken, Donnie Aitken and Stevie Savoie ... And we started making our way from house to house and checking on the seniors and making sure they were OK, dug out their doorways and offered to take them down to our warming centre at the fire hall.

"Some came down and a few of them want to stay home. They're a hearty bunch and tough, and they want to hunker down. So we brought them hot beverages and whatnot."

With the help of some trucks and a plow operator, the crew helped almost 20 Souris residents. Among those Croucher assisted this Sunday were two workers who had been stranded at the AgraWest food processing facility since Friday night.

"They hadn't eaten anything of any substance. They had coffee and hot beverages and whatnot, but no extra food with them other than what they took for their shift. So I called my wife and she got together a little care package and I went back home," Croucher said.

"We're Maritimers, right? We're a pretty hardy bunch and, you know, they were they were in good spirits. As I say, they could have used a bit of a meal and we threw something together quick for them and dropped it off. It was really no big deal. 

Croucher said conditions were "pretty miserable," but as firefighters, the crew was used to bad weather.

Jay Mackay also took to the streets to help out people who may have needed a lift during the storm.

On Saturday night, Mackay published a post on social media offering people a ride on his four-wheel drive, and stayed up until 2:30 a.m. ferrying them around.

Mackay had also been out following last week's storm, shoveling and getting Islanders home.

"Quite often, I just go [driving] for the fun of it," he said. "I just thought ... maybe I should be helping people get places."

Mackay said that though he wasn't able to get to everyone who asked for assistance, he did help a lot of people, including some nurses and even some new Canadians who'd never had to deal with this kind of storm before.