A major winter storm in eastern Canada is wreaking havoc on travel plans for some teams that are making their way to Edmonton for the Brier.
About 360 – or 25 per cent – of flights coming in and out of Toronto’s Pearson International Airport were cancelled Wednesday.
The cancellations mean some of the curling teams will be late arriving in Edmonton for the 2013 Tim Hortons Brier, which begins on Saturday.
The Brad Gushue team from Newfoundland and Labrador and Team New Brunswick were supposed to arrive Wednesday their flights were pushed to Thursday due to the storm.
“They’re supposed to be arriving tomorrow evening but it’s going to be a tight schedule for them because they’re on the ice at 8 a.m. Friday morning so if they arrive around here around 9 p.m. or something like that, that’s midnight Newfoundland time, so they might be a little tired,” said Mark Johnson, Brier chairman.
“They’ll probably want to go bed pretty quickly there as soon as they get off the plane and into their hotel room.”
Some officials of the Canadian Curling Association are also delayed by the storm.
The 2013 Brier runs March 2 to 10.
The overnight storm rolled in late Tuesday night, bringing high winds and heavy rain before turning into wet snow.
The storm also cut power to thousands of residents there.
With files from Adam Cook and CTV Toronto
