Newfoundland snow: State of emergency called after record-breaking blizzard buries entire neighbourhoods

Whole neighbourhoods have been buried under snow and thousands left without power after a record-breaking blizzard struck the Canadian province of Newfoundland and Labrador over the weekend.

A state of emergency has been declared in St. John’s, the provincial capital, where 30 inches (76cm) of snowfall and wind gusts as high as 81mph were recorded.

Businesses and roads were closed across parts of the city, with the nearby towns of Mount Pearl, Paradise, Torbay and Portugal Cove-St Philip’s later following suit.

Dwight Ball, the provincial premier, has asked the federal government for support, including the mobilisation of the Canadian Armed Forces, and urged residents to “stay home and be safe”.

Natural resources minister, Seamus O’Regan, said military reservists might be called in to aid with recovery efforts, but details of the assistance had yet to be worked out. The immediate priority will be snow removal and clearing roads to the snowbound hospital, he added.

“We have a real issue right now with access to the hospital,” Mr O’Regan told reporters in Winnipeg, Manitoba.

Commenting on the scale of the blizzard, he said: “It’s snow and a hurricane, and snow and a hurricane shuts down a city.”

Recovery efforts have been hampered by deteriorating weather conditions across the province. Mr Ball tweeted on Saturday that road-clearing work was still underway “to meet first order priorities of restoring power and addressing health care services.”

The Department of Transportation and Works for Newfoundland and Labrador said it had received more than 100 requests for assistance on Friday, including 24 from ambulances, 23 from police and 60 from the public.

Meanwhile, Newfoundland Power reported late on Saturday afternoon that almost 7,000 customers in the St. John’s area were experiencing unplanned outages, but did not provide an estimated restoration time.

Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau said his thoughts were with those “dealing with the aftermath” of the storm.

“Stay safe out there and listen to your local authorities,” Mr Trudeau tweeted. “We’re here for you and stand ready to help in any way we can.”

No casualties have yet to be confirmed, though the Canadian Broadcasting Corp (CBC) reported that a 26-year-old man is missing after attempting to walk to a friend’s house on Friday during the blizzard.

The CBC also confirmed a report of an avalanche slamming into a home in St. John’s Battery neighbourhood, which sits at the entrance to the city’s harbour on the slopes of a steep hill.

Images on social media showed the scale of the storm, which has been dubbed “snowmageddon”, with people posting their attempts to dig out of their own homes.

Although the storm was relatively short in duration, its ferocity, having undergone a process of rapid intensification known as bombogenesis, has taken the province by surprise.