RCMP rushes supplies as Alberta snowstorm strands motorists on Highway 63

RCMP rushed food, fuel and medicine to motorists trapped for more than 15 hours on Highway 63 south of Fort McMurray as a heavy snowstorm and high winds shut down one of Alberta’s most important corridors.

The storm hit the Wood Buffalo and Lac La Biche area with a snowfall warning calling for 30 to 50 centimetres, and the Regional Municipality of Wood Buffalo said some places had already surpassed 60 centimetres. 511 Alberta showed active snowfall, wind and blowing snow alerts across parts of the province, while Wood Buffalo RCMP issued a travel advisory for Highway 63 from mile marker 164. In affected stretches, the road was closed in both directions, including from Marianna Lake to Fort McMurray and northbound from Wandering River.

Among the stranded was Lance Kane, who said he had been stuck since about 7:30 p.m. Thursday after leaving Edmonton around 3 p.m. He was among drivers caught when visibility fell, roads iced over and crashes piled up along the route to Fort McMurray. Highway 881 was also impassable after two semi-trucks collided just north of Heart Lake, blocking the road in both directions, according to Lac La Biche RCMP.

The emergency response shifted from traffic control to basic survival. Alberta RCMP Cpl. Troy Savinkoff said the priority moved away from opening the highway because tow trucks and plows could not get through, and RCMP and EMS helped one person with diabetes get medical treatment. The operation underscored how much the highway closure had become a test of emergency logistics as much as a transportation problem, with stranded motorists dependent on outside deliveries for food, gas and medical support.

Highway 63 remains the critical land link into Fort McMurray, and the storm exposed again how vulnerable that corridor is when severe weather closes in. Even as Alberta has approved a twinning project south of Mildred Lake to the Peter Lougheed Bridge on the Athabasca River, scheduled for 2026 to 2028, the existing route showed how quickly a single stretch of highway can become a bottleneck when snow, wind and crashes converge.