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Snow is chest-deep in some places after a raging winter storm buried much of Central Ontario, shutting highways and prompting the town of Huntsville to declare a state of emergency.
About 50 to 100 centimetres of snow fell between Wednesday and Saturday on the area east of Lake Huron's Georgian Bay, from Parry Sound south to MacTier and east to Minden.
The worst appeared to be over by Saturday morning, when Environment Canada lifted a snow squall warning throughout the region just before 10 a.m. ET.
"Things are starting to return to normal," Ontario Provincial Police Const. Peter Leon said.
As of 11 a.m. Saturday, Highway 400 had reopened between Waubaushene and Parry Sound, the OPP reported. However, only one northbound lane of Highway 11 was open north of Gravenhurst.
Tractor-trailers stranded
Leon cautioned that there is still a backlog of tractor-trailers stranded along highways in the region that police are working to clear, and many smaller roads remain unplowed.
'Things are starting to return to normal'— OPP Const. Peter Leon
"We obviously know there's a lot of people up that way that have cottages, and the difficulty could be in getting in with some of the back roads," he said.
He urged people heading into the region to check local conditions and pack a roadside emergency kit, along with a cellphone so they can call for help if needed.
"We don't want to see anybody … get stuck back there until a snowplow comes along."
On Friday, the copious snow forced the closure of schools and businesses in Huntsville. Mayor Claude Doughty declared a snow emergency, saying that in the 40 years he's lived in the town, he's never seen so much snow fall in so short a time.
With files from The Canadian PressShare Tools
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