Premier Rodney MacDonald says if the right steps had been taken, more than 1,500 people wouldn’t have spent a long, cold Wednesday night stranded on the Cobequid Pass.

“I believe, to a point, it was a preventable situation,” Mr. MacDonald told reporters Friday at Province House. “Of course, we don’t control Mother Nature, but at the same time, we could have had a better system in place to deal with what has occurred.”

Volunteer firefighters in communities along the Cobequid Pass shook their heads after hearing that 1,500 vehicles had been stranded by a devastating snowstorm Wednesday night.

“You know, if we’d been called, we would’ve been there to help,” said Clair Peers, a spokesman for the Onslow Belmont Fire Department. “Can you imagine these kinds of resources right here — all of our equipment and resources and trained personnel ready to help out in any way — and we didn’t even get a call,” he said in a telephone interview Friday.

Ken MacKay chokes up when he starts to talk about his wife, Marilyn, who has been in Toronto for 16 months awaiting a double lung transplant.

The family from Louisdale, Cape Breton, have sold off their car, four-wheeler and boat to help pay for her travel and living expenses, but money is quickly running out. Mr. MacKay said Friday that if something doesn’t change, his wife will have to return home by the end of January and lose her spot on the transplant list.

CINCINNATI (AP) — FBI officials said Friday they arrested a man who threatened to blow up Cincinnati’s football stadium, two airports, Ohio River bridges and other landmarks.

Frederick Purvis, 42, of Hamilton, Ohio, is accused of sending emails to two local media outlets and to the FBI threatening Paul Brown Stadium, the four bridges, the Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport and an Indiana casino, FBI spokesman Mike Brooks said.