THE consequences of the weekend whiteout continue to affect hundreds of people across Derbyshire – even though the snow has now stopped falling.
Smaller roads in the north of the county were still blocked by snow drifts yesterday, while driving conditions remained treacherous in many places.
One theatre group was left performing to an almost-empty opera house after audience members struggled to get through the snow.
Volunteers with county mountain rescue teams say they have also had their hands full helping stranded motorists, while first-aiders needed to use a 4x4 to get a kidney patient to hospital.
Derby's theatre group Present Company was scheduled to perform the musical White Horse Inn – set, ironically, in snowy Austria – at Buxton Opera House, from Thursday until Sunday.
And director of the company Jean Gemmell said, from Friday onwards, there were sometimes more people on the stage than in the audience.
She said: "The phrase: 'The show must go on' felt very appropriate here.
"If an audience member buys a ticket and doesn't show, that's their business but, if a theatre company doesn't do the show, they have to refund the cost of all the tickets which were sold for that performance.
"We sold £5,000 worth of tickets for the show on Saturday – so we had to make sure we could do it."
She said it was not just the audience struggling to get to the venue – with some cast members and musicians from the orchestra also finding it difficult to reach Buxton.
And the show's female lead, Rachel Louisa Bray, was also forced to double-up roles as the snow prevented some performers showing up.
On Saturday night, the theatre company paid for everyone to stay overnight in Buxton, because of the conditions.
Mrs Gemmell said: "We usually have 14 people in the orchestra but, on the Friday evening, just two keyboards and a bassoonist made it.
"On the Saturday matinee, we just had a quartet of two keyboards, a viola and a percussionist. And two of the younger performers didn't make it on Friday night – they were stuck in their car for six hours in the snow.
"Several members of the cast travelled up in convoy and had to help each other pull their vehicles out of snowy bits of road at times.
"Passing motorists also helped and a passing tractor towed one car out of a snow drift."
The theatre group had actually moved the performance to March, because they had often been caught out with the weather during their normal slot in Buxton in January.
Mrs Gemmell said: "In 25 years performing in Buxton, we've never seen conditions this bad."
The show now continues its run at Derby Theatre from tonight until Saturday.
In Lea, near Matlock, St John Ambulance volunteers were called out to help get a dialysis patient to hospital after he developed complications and was struggling to breathe.
And the treacherous conditions meant Trevor Lowe, 76, had to be taken to the Royal Derby Hospital using a 4x4.
He was transported there by charity volunteers Clive and Christine Dennis, of Chesterfield, who were asked to help by Derbyshire County Council's emergency planning team.
Mr Dennis said: "Mr Lowe did his own dialysis at home but one of the tubes had become blocked so he needed to get to hospital to get it sorted out.
"He had been suffering from a chest infection and was struggling with his breathing.
"When we were driving to the house, the snow was blowing across and drifting. Cars had been abandoned, which we had to navigate around too."
Mr Dennis said, when they arrived in Lea, they could not get to Mr Lowe's house at first because the snow outside was "at least one-foot deep".
He said: "Luckily, the neighbours helped us clear the drive – but it took four of us 45 minutes before we could get him into the vehicle.
"Without a 4x4, he wouldn't have got out and we felt pleased and proud to be able to help get him to the hospital for his treatment."
Derbyshire police said they were continuing to receive calls from stranded motorists asking for help.
They said they has received a lot of support from the Edale Mountain Rescue Team, with its members using Land Rovers to save drivers stuck in the snow on the A619 between Chesterfield and Baslow.
And officers were also asking the team to assist the Derby and Buxton mountain rescue teams with similar situations on the A515, near Newhaven.
On Sunday afternoon, the volunteers were contacted by the county council emergency planning staff team to rescue three families on holiday in Derbyshire.
Martin Gorman, a spokesman for the Edale team, said they were staying in cottages in Bradwell but were snowed in and running out of food.
He said: "After collecting a significant amount of shopping from the council, we got as close as we could in our Land Rovers.
"But we had to abandon the vehicles and carry the supplies the last two kilometres on foot through the deep snow.
"The families had a number of small children with them and were very pleased to see us."
With snow still settled on the ground across Derbyshire, a spokesman for the county council said it was doing its best to clear roads.
He said: "Gritting crews continue to work around the clock to clear Derbyshire's snow-hit roads – but freak drifts are hampering their progress.
"The council's fleet has been dealing with some of the worst conditions in recent times, with strong winds blowing drifts back on to roads as quickly as they are being cleared in many areas."
Almost all of the county's main link roads were reopened yesterday, including the A515 Newhaven to Buxton, the A537 Cat and Fiddle, Snake Pass and the A623 Baslow to Barmoor Clough.
But the council spokesman said dozens of smaller roads were expected to remain closed until the weekend.
And Councillor Simon Spencer, cabinet member for highways and transport, said: "Our gritting crews continue to do a remarkable job – working around the clock to get traffic moving on the county's main routes.
"We are making progress but the unusually windy conditions mean the snow drifts are reblocking some roads as we are clearing them.
"The A515 is a good example of this, where we've been forced to keep two ploughs permanently working on it to keep it open."
Meanwhile, Derby City Council has moved to reassure people it was prepared for bad weather throughout spring.
Councillor Ranjit Banwait, cabinet member for neighbourhoods and Streetpride, said: "We are always on standby for gritting until the end of April, as there is still a risk of ice and snow.
"Stocks of grit are good and the usual gritting plans are in place. We receive a detailed weather forecast twice a day and make decisions on where and when to grit using them.
"We endeavour to grit all main routes. However, when we are not able to help, residents have access to around 190 grit bins."
But forecasters have predicted a much drier picture over the next few days. Helen Chivers, of the Met Office, said: "There may be a very light dusting of snow in the area but it's very unlikely it will settle or make a significant difference to what is already on the ground.
"One certainty is that it will be very cold. Temperatures overnight will be around the minus five degree area and, during the day, won't reach above three or four."
