On the last Thursday of April, hundreds of Albertans went to bed in their cars on one of the province's most dangerous highways, buried under 60 centimetres of snow, running on fumes, and with no idea when the road would open.
It's late April. It shouldn't be this bad. But it was.
How It Started
The storm rolled into northeastern Alberta Thursday afternoon, targeting the Wood Buffalo and Lac La Biche region with a snowfall warning calling for 30 to 50 centimetres. Some areas hit 60. High winds turned falling snow into a whiteout. By Thursday evening, Highway 63 the only paved road connecting Edmonton to Fort McMurray, 430 kilometres north was shutting down.
Multiple crashes blocked the roadway. A semi blocked northbound traffic near Sand Tiger Lodge, bringing everything behind it to a standstill. On Highway 881, two semi-trucks collided just north of Heart Lake, debris blocking both directions. Within hours, an estimated 300 vehicles were stranded across both highways with nowhere to go.
Lance Kane left Edmonton around 3 p.m. Thursday. By 7:30 p.m. he was parked on the highway going nowhere. He spent the night pulling clothes out of his suitcase to build a makeshift blanket nest to stay warm.
Judith Iwaszkiw spent the entire night in her vehicle. By Friday morning she had no idea how far the backup stretched. "We're not sure if this accident is five kilometres, 10 kilometres, 15 kilometres in front of us," she said. "It's as far as we can see."
She knew others had it worse. "People have run out of fuel, and there are some parents with small children who are lacking food and water and fuel."
A Medical Emergency in the Middle of the Night
RCMP weren't just dealing with frustrated drivers. Cpl. Troy Savinkoff confirmed that overnight, officers assisted a person with diabetes who was stranded on the highway and needed medical attention. There were others with medical concerns who hadn't packed for a 24-hour highway stay.
Tow trucks and plows couldn't get through. RCMP shifted focus away from opening the highway entirely and toward keeping people alive on it.
The Response
Wood Buffalo RCMP escorted tow trucks southbound in the northbound lanes to reach the blocking vehicles. Provincial contractor Emcon Services pulled in additional crews from Lac La Biche and Athabasca. Enbridge helped access stranded vehicles through controlled entry points.
The Regional Municipality of Wood Buffalo activated its Regional Emergency Coordination Centre and despite the stranded vehicles sitting outside municipal boundaries dispatched buses, food, water, plows, and heavy equipment south toward the mess.
Mayor Sandy Bowman was direct about it: "Even though this is outside our municipal boundary, and we were advised there were sufficient resources, we are stepping in to help residents get home safely."
Four buses with different Fort McMurray drop-off points headed north Friday evening. Responders checked every stranded vehicle. By 3:15 a.m. Saturday, RCMP confirmed no one remained on the highway. No fatalities. No serious injuries.
The Helicopter
Brad Shearing, a firefighter, spent nearly 24 hours on the highway. Around 2:30 p.m. Friday, the driver behind him said a friend was coming by helicopter. Shearing laughed.
Then he saw it land beside him at a rest stop.
A man stepped out carrying Tim Hortons coffee and jerry cans of gasoline. Shearing and the drivers around him started passing cups out the windows. Minutes later, traffic started moving.
"It was very Canadian," Shearing said.
He still video-conferenced into his morning work meeting from the highway. "I missed work Friday, but I still managed to video conference in for the morning meeting. So I had some excitement there."
Both Highways Reopen
As of approximately 3 p.m. Saturday, highways 63 and 881 reopened in all directions. RCMP still advised against travel given road conditions remained poor.
This Highway Has a History
Highway 63 has never been an easy road. Long nicknamed the Highway of Death, it recorded over 1,000 crashes between 2001 and 2005 alone 25 fatalities, 257 injuries. At least 149 people died on the highway between 1990 and 2012. The province twinned 240 kilometres of the route by 2016, but it remains the only paved land connection into Fort McMurray.
Thursday's storm exposed what locals have said for years: one highway into a city of 70,000 is not enough. Alberta has approved a twinning project south of Mildred Lake to the Peter Lougheed Bridge, scheduled for 2026 to 2028. It can't come fast enough.
Sources:
Regional Municipality of Wood Buffalo Highway 63 and 881 Impassable news release, April 24, 2026: rmwb.ca/news/posts/highway-63-and-881-impassable-due-to-severe-storm-conditions-coordinated-response-underway
Regional Municipality of Wood Buffalo Municipality Responds to Assist Stranded Motorists, April 25, 2026: rmwb.ca/news/posts/municipality-responds-to-assist-stranded-motorists-on-hwy-63
Wood Buffalo RCMP travel advisory and highway updates, April 24–25, 2026
511 Alberta highway condition alerts, April 24–25, 2026: 511.alberta.ca
