CBC just ran a clip of Sgt. Cam Woolley from the Ontario Provincial Police talking about this morning's snowstorm.

"We're getting a lot of calls from people in distress," he said.

However, there's one problem in helping them: These people have no idea where they are.

"Try and remember the last exit you drove by," Woolley suggested. But he also said it's getting sufficiently nasty that people won't be able to see roadmarks from the highways.

When I worked in Regina, I remember one early 1990s blizzard where people were using their cellphones to call for help -- after the highways had been closed by the RCMP. We could overhear the conversations using our police scanner. For context, this was about the time cellphones started coming into wide use.

"Can you help me?" someone would ask the cops.

"No," would be the terse response, usually met with a stunned "Wha-a-a???!!!" in response

"The reason we closed the highway is it's too dangerous for us to be out there," the RCMP would say.

The advice was for the unfortunate individual to stay alive until morning, and the Mounties would come pick them up then.