morning. Their initial priorities were to "preserve life, clear main arteries into the communities of Port Colborne and Fort Erie, and try to open Highway 3 between Port Colborne and Fort Erie". Farmers in Wainfleet dumped milk since it could not be transported out, and they also had trouble getting feed to their animals. The snow was difficult to plow; one road, near the lakeshore, could not be opened with a big front-end loader or a large bulldozer; instead, a small bulldozer with a bucket took 2.5 days to clear about of road. One resident noted they were snowed in for 19 days before being plowed out on February 14. One effect of the prolonged confinement at home many people experienced in the fall of that year was a marked increase in births at local hospitals (almost 18% in Regional Niagara in Canada). Other cities on the Niagara Peninsula, such as St. Catharines Thorold, Niagara Falls, Welland and Dunnville were significantly impacted, while Hamilton was not hit as badly by the storm. Dunnville, 20 km west of Wainfleet, experienced piercing snow from the late morning onward, resulting in the schools closing before lunchtime; the cars of some teachers who stayed for a couple hours to ensure all the students were picked up, got stuck in snow drifts not far from the school so they were stranded overnight. Snowmobile services were set up at certain locations around the town and the Ontario Provincial Police transported the teachers and other stranded people home one-by-one by snowmobile Saturday night and Sunday. The airport closest to Dunnville, in Simcoe 50 km to the west, recorded consistent winds of 50 km/h and blizzard conditions (blowing snow and visibility of 0.2 km or less) for the whole afternoon of January 28, and very low visibility for much of January 29 (0.4 km to 0.8 km) and for most of January 31 (about 0.6 km). St. Catharines, situated on the north side of the Niagara Peninsula on the shore of Lake Ontario, had winds between 50 and 70 km/h with blowing snow causing low visibility/almost blizzard conditions (0.4 km visibility) the entire afternoon of January 28, and had winds between 40 and 60 km/h and reduced visibility (approximately 0.8 km) most of January 29, and variable reduced visibility (ranging from 0.4 km to 1.2 km) for much of January 31, before the winds and blowing snow curtailed