Winter wonderland this post ain't

[theravenisdead]

Winter can (and is) a very beautiful time of year. Snow can be very beautiful to look at, and skiing has always had a special place in my heart (though admittedly I havnt skiied in over 6 years). And living in a city like mine, you never go through a winter without snow.

But winter has its bad sides of course. Probably the worst being the friggin cold temperatures. Blizzards are always bad too.  And we all probably have a good story about what we can remember as our worst winter experiences, or even our worst winters we've ever experienced.

I remember my worst winter very well. Winter of 97/98. Jauary of 98 to be specific. During the first week, the weather got milder for a short period. Enough so that instead of snow, it rained. But not just regular rain, freezing rain.

The rain began to freeze as it fell from the clouds, and when it finally reached the ground it was basically frozen.. It started raining on the night of the 5th and basically it didnt stop until the morning of the 10th.

After just the first 24 hours, 750,000 homes from eastern Ontario to central Quebec were without power. The ice covered basically everything, knocking down power lines, colapsing trees, coating streets and sidewalks in layers of ice, etc.

By the 7th Ottawa and Montreal were completely paralyzed. And it only got worse as the days progressed. January 9th proved to be the worst.
By the end of the day 3 million people in Quebec (two-fifths of the entire population of the province, including the entire city of Montreal and surrounding minucipalities) were without power.
The ice had colapsed over 120,000 kilometers of transmission lines all over the region, including massive hydro towers and main lines to various areas. Many areas would not recieve power for over a month.  Montreal itself lost power for close to 2 weeks. Most residence at some point went to a shelter to recieve warm meals and hot water.

As fer me back in Ottawa, we fared better. Most of the city did lose power at some point, but some areas never lost power at all. I only lost power for a grand total of 45 minutes (and only because they had to repair a transmissiom line, so they shut the power off deliberately) Such is the bonus of living in a major city.
If you lived in smaller towns outside the metro area, or in isolated neighbourhoods you were basically screwed. Some areas didnt get power back untill well into February.

Here are some stats on the Ice Storm of 1998:

People affected by power grid failures (at peak outages):

CANADA
Quebec: 3,200,000
Ontario: 1,500,000
New Brunswick: about 100,000

USA
Maine: 600,000
New York: 300,000
New Hampshire: 140,000
Vermont: 33,000

Damages, deaths, injuries, etc:

-28 dead, most from hypothermia.
-945 injured.
-600,000 people forced to keave their homes.
-Close to 100 millimetres of freezing rain fell, breaking the previous record of about 60mm.
-Million of trees brought down and many more continued break and fall for the rest of the winter.
-130 major transmission towers destroyed.
-over 30,000 transmission poles destroyed.
-57 communities in Ontario and 200 in Quebec declared a federal disaster area.
-Many residents without power for over one month.

Total costs after all expenses accounted for: close to $5.5 billion dollars (CAN).

More info can be found below.

CBC Television Archives: Ice Storm of 1998 (TV clips, reports, etc)
http://archives.cbc.ca/IDD-1-70-258/disasters_tragedies%20/ice_storm/

CBC Newsworld: The Ice Storm
http://www.newsworld.cbc.ca/flashback/1998/

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And here are some photos of the storm.

Yer average Ottawa street


Street near Montreal. Lots of down lines.


A collapsed 80km stretch of Hydro-Quebec transmission towers (St. Jerome)


This building collapsed from the weight of ice on its roof (Montreal)


Lineups for gas before pumps run dry (Montreal)


Lots of trees to clean up (Montreal)


Digging out (Ottawa)


Hydro worker silhouetted in iced fence (Fassifern)


Downed poles everywhere (Ottawa)


In comes the military (Ottawa)


More downed electrical towers (Somewhere in Quebec..)


Digging out, cont. (Montreal)


Lineup for electric generators at a local Home Depot (Ottawa)


Rescuing the rescuer (Ottawa)


Repairing the local lines (Prescott)


Street scene (Montreal)


Magnificant desolation...

[Saucer]

O_O;

My gawd, that's hardcore. We went without power for a week once. I can't imagine going without power for a month.

I remember hearing about that back in 1998. Brutal man, brutal.

[theravenisdead]

O_O;

My gawd, that's hardcore. We went without power for a week once. I can't imagine going without power for a month.  

I remember hearing about that back in 1998. Brutal man, brutal.

Especially with the cold temperatures that are oh-so familiar to Canadians in the winter   I can only imagine what it was like for the people on Montreal's south shore (they ended up calling the area the 'Triangle of Darkness') and how they managed for the month they were without power  

This map below from Hydro-Quebec shows the power grid for southern Quebec on January 9th of 1998 (And yah its in french, gomen   ). The green lines are parts of the grid that were still up. The red lines are parts that failed completely. The triangles are major power distribution centers, and the rectangles are actual power plants/dams. And the map also shows the amount of rain that fell in each area.


And this map below shows the areas affected by the storm.


Okies, I'm done