TORONTO, March 8 (UPI) -- Ontario police implored everyone to stay home and off the roads Saturday as a heavy snowstorm buried much of eastern Canada.
By Saturday evening, the storm had reached the Maritime Provinces. In the Cape Breton area of Nova Scotia, freezing rain was falling with temperatures just below freezing.
In Ontario, there were so many crashes provincial police said they were no longer responding to minor ones, Canwest News Service reported.
The same storm that has hit the U.S. Midwest was moving east toward the Maritime Provinces. The winter has already been unusually snowy compared to recent years, the Toronto Globe and Mail reported.
Both Toronto and Montreal were close to breaking annual snowfall records before the new storm. Bathurst, New Brunswick, has already reported more than 13 feet for the winter, a record.
Constable David Woodford of the Ontario Provincial Police told Canwest that 600 crashes had been reported since the storm hit Friday, with 200 Saturday morning alone.
"Conditions are treacherous," said Woodford. "We have blowing snow, we have white-out conditions. The roads are slippery. We're urging people to stay off the roads if they don't have to travel."
