Cancellations Received by PembinaValleyOnline.com for Wednesday, March 8th

Mennonite Collegiate Institute in Gretna - no classes. Info to come regarding today's musical practices.

The Red River Valley School Division is closed today

All schools are closed in Prairie Spirit school Division today

Border Land School Division - all schools closed today

Prairie Rose School Division - buses and classes are cancelled for today. Staff are asked to report when safe to do so.

Due to the weather, the RM of Morris has postponed its council meeting for today from 9am to 1pm. Today's hearings have been rescheduled to 3pm.

All Altona & Area Family Resource Centre programming cancelled today. Includes Gretna & Letellier Stay & Play; Altona Alphabet Soup in Motion; Altona Family Gym Night. Gretna Gym Jam is also cancelled.

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Despite being fortunate enough to not be hit with the brunt of the blizzard which hammered parts of Southwestern Manitoba with up to 30 cm's of snow and wind gusts approaching 90 km/h, the Red River Valley experienced deteriorating conditions Tuesday evening and overnight into Wednesday.

A Blowing Snow Advisory was issued yesterday afternoon for the Red River Valley including the Morden, Carman, Winkler, Altona, Morris, Emerson, and Dominion City regions. Wind gusts up to 80 km/h coupled with bursts of flurries lead to, and will continue to lead to suddenly reduced visibility, at times, potentially nearing zero, this morning.

The wind is expected to diminish to 20 km/h this afternoon.

As of 5 p.m., Tuesday afternoon RCMP had already closed several highways in the Valley including Highway 75 from St. Adolphe to the U.S. border, and Highway 3 from Carman all the way to the Saskatchewan border. Highway 3 from Winnipeg to Manitou has since re-opened.

As of 10:00 a.m. this morning (Wed), Highway 75 has been reopened to traffic.  The Trans-Canada Highway remains closed from Brandon to the Saskatchewan border.

Meanwhile, in Southwestern Manitoba, almost all highways remain closed as conditions have remained poor throughout the day making it very difficult for highway crews to start the process of digging out.  The good news...the Blizzard Warning has now ended for Southwestern Manitoba.