I am a High Voltage Lineman and I was there in Montreal and worked the IceStorm of 98 we worked 20 hours a day in the coldest and Brutal weather I’ve been through I’m retired now and every time it gets cold I Dream about it Nightmares but I’m proud that’s I was young and strong and could help put the lights back on 🇺🇸🇨🇦
I would like to say I’m from New Jersey and we went New Hampshire and into Vermont across Lake Champlain on the ferry to upper state New York to Plattsburgh to lake placid all the time putting up power lines and then they asked for volunteers for Canada 🇨🇦 so we crossed into Montreal the where we stayed in a military base when I came home I lost 30lbs😅
@@errollleggo447 thank you for your Christmas well wishes I’ve missed quite a few Christmas’s tonight and yesterday my son worked he is a lineman like myself and my father I hope he is home for Christmas
Hydro Quebec called my dad who had died of cancer in 95 to see if he could come into work (he must have been listed as retired or inactive). They were that desperate! So you might one day get a call if it gets bad enough.
I met my husband on Jan 5 1998 during the ice storm. We had no power for 32 days. We live 1 hr west of Montreal. It was a rough 32 days without power in our rural area, but I wouldn’t change it for anything as I met the man of my dreams and we will celebrate our 25 anniversary in about 2 weeks.
@@AhJodie I met him at our local community center where we could collect water. He was there for his parents and I for mine. We were 18 and 22. I was filling jugs and looked over and wow weeee. Lol. The rest is history.
@@kathypilon7692 What a cool story. If either of you would have been there a little earlier or later then you would not have met. Like you were guided to each other. I am happy for you both and may you have many more years together of joy, health and wealth!!!
I was living in a little log cabin in western Quebec when the 1998 ice storm hit. Many people in my neighborhood had to evacuate because there was an extended period without any power and people couldn't heat their houses or draw water from wells (electric pumps). Some of my neighbors even died. I had a wood stove and plenty of firewood so I was OK for heat. I couldn't use my well but I had about a dozen 2L pop bottles that I had filled with water for emergency purposes. Between melting snow and rationing my water I stayed put and I was relatively comfortable. I also had plenty of food on hand so I didn't have to go anywhere. Driving was impossible anyway. There were trees and power lines down all over the place. The day after the worst of the storm the sun came out and I went for a walk with snowshoes in my local hardwood forest. It was one of the most beautiful things I had ever seen, a huge crystalline forest (i.e. bare branches completely covered with ice) with the sun gleaming through it all and refracting in a thousand directions. I learned at least two things. Great beauty can accompany great danger. And it's always a good idea to keep extra food and water on hand no matter where you live.
I do have a lot of ready to eat food and water that lasts at least a week. We do get some power outs three or four times a year because of 1) thunderstorms and breaking trees on power lines or 2) heavy snowfall.over night (it can be up to 20 inches) and breaking trees on power lines. But to imagine an icestorm like this is sheer madness! No tree and no power line can hold that weight.
Ive thought about trying to have some equipment for moving in bad weather. Your right that you can't drive in situations like that but i walk anyway. I now wonder if i can one day put my walking practice to work getting people supplies as long as i have the right footwear
@@kurotsuki7427 The right very sturdy winter hicking boots and warm clothing makes all the difference in the world. Not to have those can become a most severe emergency in a tough situation. ❄☃️❄⛄❄
We lived in the “triangle of darkness” on the South shore of Montreal. It took more than a month to get power back. They set up showers in the neighborhood car wash because they had gas powered heaters. Most of us heated water electrically so had no hot water. We lost trees but salvaged all the dense ice and made a makeshift freezer with it and snow walls. We put everything we had in the freezer in boxes lined with newspapers and buried it all in ice and snow. We lost nothing. The worst part was when Montreal got power and people expected us to work normally without power. I was working on papers by candlelight and people wanted to fax me stuff to work on. However, we saw northern lights and more stars than we had seen since we were kids during that time.
I lived in downtown Montreal and was 8 months pregnant when the storm hit. Our power was out for 3 weeks. We stayed in our home the first week, but when our water went out, we had to go to a shelter. The only shelter that had room for us was up on Mount Royal. But we couldn't get up the mountain because all the busses and cars were just sliding backward down the hill. My husband had to carry me up the mountain by trying to walk through any snow patches we could find that would give some friction.
That's really horrifying 😬. It's really wild that when in mother nature get tired of us, she get rid of us just like that. I didn't know before today that Montreal w as that close to losing that last power line. 😰😨 What a man you got btw. You're so lucky to have such a superhero for a partner.
I was a trucker coming back from a run to Florida and headed back home to a suburb of Montreal. They had just reopened interstate 87 north of Albany, NY, and I managed to make it to the border with few problems. As I got closer to Montreal driving along Hwy 15, it was apparent something was different, and wrong. There were no lights glowing from the island, and the only lights I did see were the orange flashing beacons from all of the emergency and hydro vehicles. As I started coming into the south shore, I started to witness much of what has been shown in the video, and my immediate thoughts were that it looked like had had crossed over into a war zone. It is now 2022, but the ice storm of 1998 will never be forgotten.
Can we stop for a second and appreciate the incredible ingenuity of the individual who suggested dropping logs from a military helicopter to de-ice the line? I wonder how that conversation went. "How about we fly in real close and smash it with hammers?" "Nah, too risky. What about all these logs laying around?"
I was 16 at the time. We were lucky enough to have been on the same electrical circuit than the hospital. So the longest time we were without power was about 2-4 hours. I remember my house being full of family members, and how we were able to turn a bad situation into something fun. School was supposed to start on my 17th birthday after the holidays, but the school had turned into a shelter. We didn’t go back to school for weeks. It was an interesting experience. Something you remember until your last day. Edit: jeez I got really emotional watching this and reliving it through my adult eyes…
I was 12, my family of 6 moved in at my cousin's (another family of six but with a rather small house) and we honestly had a blast. I think we were there for two weeks though my memory is foggy. To us kids it just felt like a never-ending Christmas Holliday. We had a blast but towards the end I was tired of sleeping on the floor haha :P
We lived on the hospital line also! We lost electricity from 6pm to 6am next morning, about 12 hours. We had soup warmed over candle in a fondue pot for supper, and hot coffee the next morning! Our neighbors across the street and behind us had to wait 2 weeks for electricity! We were very lucky. A hot shower was such a luxury. I couldn't go to work as downtown Montreal was closed of. Huge chunks of ice were falling from the buildings. My mother came to stay with us (her place had no power) and I helped our elderly neighbors to clear the ice off their stairs and car. Their very pretty apple tree was all broken up. The kids had fun though, they could skate pretty much everywhere. There were power cable stuck in ice all along our street, we couldn't even drive on it. It was very strange/surreal.
Now that the utility system is hooked on “renewables” such as solar, when this happens again (and it will) the restoration time will be much much longer. Solar panels destroyed (and they will be) with ice like this will have to be replaced when regular generation plants are only waiting on transmission lines to be rebuilt to move power. Remember, government always has your best interest at heart…😂😂😂 Been in the power/utility industry for 37 years. With ice like this solar wont work….Windmills will look like transmission towers did after this. Flat. Funny that the biggest natural disaster in Canada was caused by ice right in the middle of manmadeglobalwarmingglobalcoolingclimatechangeiceagecarbontaxalgore…………yet when we have several days of hot weather (absolutely normal during the summer) the media companies rage about “global warming”. They dropped the “man made” part to make it easier to sell the “green” agenda to those easily convinced that man controls the planet….when this is a perfect example of the opposite.
I was 15 years old back then. Got a week off school, used my flash light, lighted all the candles we could find and it was scary. Never forget 98 storm.
I’ll never forget this disaster…I’m in Toronto, but my dear friend lost his car, house (both crushed by trees), and almost his life after being hit by a bus while walking to work, that lost control on the ice, jumped the curb, and pinned him against a wall. He and his family was devastated, I just thank god he survived after 2 months in the hospital. It was an awakening reminder material things mean nothing, because you can replace a house and a car, which he did, but you cannot replace a life. Ps - a HUGE THANK YOU to all those that came to help!!!!
I was 8 1/2 months pregnant in January 1998 in Saint-Bruno de Montarville, south shore of Montréal. It was, literally, the worst experience of my life. 3 weeks with no power, no visits to the doctor, all food in the freezer gone bad, all house plants dead. We lived in a 4 1/2 basement apartment with another couple, my 17 month old, a cat and a dog for 3 weeks. To this day, when I hear tick, tick, tick on the windows I cringe.😢
I never thought about that tbh... I can't imagine how scary it must've been to have another life to worry about inside you and another child. Glad you're still here.
@@agirlisnoone5953 I don't know, I thought it made for a properly depressing touch. I specifically don't have plants because I can't handle them dying. Some people care about all forms of life. At least I do...
How did you make it? I love in Minnesota and my dad installed a wood fire place in case propane goes out or we can't afford it. I'm sorry you had to go through that.
35:40 This man has warmed my heart. Coming up from Richmond, Virginia to help us during our most troubled times is truly an act of utmost humanity. Thank you, kind sir.
@@funtyes1970 Getting paid for doing a good thing doesn't make the act any less good. He could'a said 'eff that noise' because of the road conditions, but he didn't. His boss said 'there's people sleeping outside in the freezing cold', and he said 'I'm on my way'.
@@funtyes1970 "well how you are talking it was volunteer work" Boi, tf? I literally said that his boss called him. That's not explicitly volunteer work. Read better.
Just hearing the sounds in this made me relive a lot of it again. We lived in the Black Triangle, in a town that follows the power line pylons. It's a weird feeling being in a house without electricity because of the lack of sounds. No lights buzzing and the likes. But the reality was that every couple seconds at every time in the day or the night, you'd hear centennial trees cracking, falling and smashing like glasses of marbles on the concrete of roads or the rook of cars and houses. Like clockwork you'd hear either the police, the fire dept or the ambulances try and make their way to places. I was a kid back then and strangely enough have really good memories of me and my brothers living through this. But We all volunteered at the shelter out of boredom but ended up meeting a lot of people there, it teach me a lot. Huge thank you to neighbourhood heroes, volunteers, army personnel, folks at Hydro-Q and Samaritans from down south during our hour of need!
I was there with my Air Cadets training program when this happened we stayed behind to help. I was 18 at the time, it still holds as the craziest storm in my life.
Very well done. Was 19 years old and 25 km south of downtown Ottawa. What a flood of emotions. I do believe that this is the best documentation of this event that I have seen.
Agreed, this is a great documentation of the event. Other good ones I’ve seen are « Verglas 98 » and « 35 jours de noirceur ». They are in French, but I’m sure subtitles will do if you have any interest in watching others!
This documentary brought up a lot of emotion. I was a student at McGill University. We were at school the morning the storm started. Over the PA they announced that the building would be closing in an hour so we evacuated. In ‘98, I lived on Rue St-Urbain on the corner of Avenue Mont Royal. I was one of the few who only lost power for only an hour. I credit my fortune to being on the same grid as l’Hotel Dieu hospital. That weekend, I was supposed to travel to DC for a Monday interview. Instead of leaving on Saturday, I finally got out on Sunday. I lived near Mount Royal and was very sad to see the devastation on the mountain. I remember thinking of the folks who lived on the South Shore that had no electricity for weeks. Hats off to thousands of HQ lines people as well as the crews who came to help from the US. I had no idea that crews came from as far away as Virginia. Any Montrealers here lived through the flood in ‘87?
As a Canadian Forces medic, the battalion I was serving with in Valcartier ( 5e bataillon des services du Canada), as well a good portion the base’s other units were scrambled to load up vehicles with supplies and form a convoy and headed out to the triangle of darkness. Being the before last vehicle to leave we traveled on hwy 40 leaving Québec close to midnight and only arrived in Montreal in the early hours of the morning. (We had been slowed down by and accident involving one of our vehicles and a tractor trailer on the icy hwy) arriving near Montreal was rather surreal as it looked like a war zone. Flashes of light could be seen in the distance looking like bombs going off everywhere, most likely power lines falling and causing sparks. Broken trees and power lines littered the roads and fields. The amount of ice on every structure was truly unbelievable. We eventually set up at base St-Hubert where our medical personnel were set up to take care of our unit’s sick and wounded for about 22 days or so. To my disappointment I was never actually involved in directly assisting the civilian population but most other members of our unit were busy supporting all the other units who in turn were helping the local population and authorities. It was an experience I will never forget but still, I would have felt much more useful directly helping my fellow citizens.
Yep I remember I was with the r22r at that time and it was brutal work cutting wood clearing yards helping people get to hospitals churches and schools to stay alive total disaster and 16hr days in the cold. We did all we could to help out.
I've always found the whole mental image of the army getting involved for this rather amusing. It's not like the ice storm was anybody's fault, there was no actual enemy to fight, the army just has the resources to help out when large scale events like this happen Also thank you for your service
I was but a child when this happened. I remember weeks without power, using outside as a fridge freezer, and putting on hockey skates or figure skates was the only way to leave your house. We were lucky to not be in the city so we were prepared for such an outage but the images will still stay in my head forever.
Yeah, I lived in the sticks and it was quite surreal when we'd listen to the car radio for news updates. The radio was just overflowing with chaos, bad news, saying how bad things were or the army was finally getting involved or how many people were dying in fires or from carbon monoxide poisoning. Meanwhile, things were dandy in the sticks. We had a wood stove, a large pantry, used the veranda as a freezer and kept a bucket of ice/snow in the fridge to keep it cool. Most of all, no school =D. Family and friends from the city came to live with us week 1. I have fond memories of the ice storm.
I was active military in Manitoba in 98. We got the call for assistance and upon leaving Manitoba where the temperature was -54C, we landed in Quebec and the warm temperatures had us baffled at first. Then we saw the ice. I'll never forget.
There is a huge difference in temperature between Canada's east and the west (minus BC), it's so strange. I was born in Nova Scotia and lived there until I was 21, then I moved to Alberta, in February during a cold snap, I had never experienced one before and the minute I stepped out of the airport it was hard to breathe, each breath was so painful from the cold air. Nova Scotia still doesn't have snow on the ground in January and Alberta..... well, we usually have snow in October (except in 2022, it was warmer so the snow came later).
Yeah our farm is right by lake Winnipeg and oh my god it gets so incredibly cold, my mom and dad were in Montreal during the great flood and almost lost the car driving through the water
I'm watching this tonight, as the weather is going bad, and freezing rain is coming and I'm realizing how badly prepared we are. Aren't we fast to forget the minimal amount of things that can make a huge difference between getting thru the storm or losing the battle and landing in a shelter. Words to the wise, I will get my kit together asap.
this shows that an ice storm can literally kill everyone. You can be sealed into your house. Lucky it didn't go for another day or buildings would've started collapsing
This ice storm is what has kept me prepared. I've NOT forgotten the lessons it taught me about preparedness and how quickly stores empty when storms hit. I would not be running to the store this time around. I'm ready.
This is a very well-done documentary especially by the standards of late-90s/early-00s television. I'm particularly struck by the fact that the Hydro Quebec press conference was interrupted by a power outage.
I'm from Chateauguay Quebec and I'll never forget this! It was pure hell .The hospital emergencies were loaded with patients for fractures and broken bones from slipping on ice and falling.
@@vincentlussier8264 Hopefully you won´t have another ice storm. But I remember being in Québec and knowing of people in Hospital for falls in a normal winter. Les crampons peuvent sauver la tëte et la dignité (lol)
I was lucky because I lived in the Plateau where most of the power lines are underground. We lost power for only a few days. My parents were less lucky, they live on the South Shore and were out of power for a month. I went there on the weekend to chop firewood, but the wood was green and covered in ice. My father and I would try to remove as much ice as possible before chopping the logs. Then we would lay the chopped wood on the floor in the basement to try to dry them out. Then finally we would stack the relatively dry pieces of wood around the fireplace to dry them out further, before finally burning them. After about 10 days my parents finally abandoned their home and stayed at my sister's apartment in Montreal, where she had power. My sister had been in Toronto over the Christmas holidays, and couldn't return to Montreal because the roads were iced up. She had to watch the disaster unfold on television, knowing all her family was trapped here. What was so weird, is that after about a week life was back to normal in the Plateau, but you could take a short metro ride to the South Shore, and Saint-Lambert, where I grew up, looked like a war zone. I'll never forget the incongruity it, it was hard to believe we were in the same city (metropolitan area).
I lived in Quebec that year and went to visit my dad in Ontario; who was in his 70's and got stuck there for 23 days without electricity. We were 4 families living together in a farm area and lived on melted snow and water from a pool with one toilet for the gang of 15. Shopping in the food stores was like living in an apocalypse ; with little or no food on the shelves. The Military was called into town and helped by going house to house to check in on residents of the area. I will never forget it.
You're such a talented editor! Thanks for these compilation videos. Really well done. My sister lived in Montreal during this in a factory loft with her boyfriend. They were lucky in that they had a wood stove. They shared their home food with neighbours who weren't so lucky. She still talks about the experience of how bizarre it was and also how it also brought out the best in people :)
I have a similar story. My parents met just before the storm and couldn't talk to eachother as they were cities appart and the storm stopped them from speaking to eachother. The met again 2 months later and then 2 years later here I was! truly happy that they met again, or I wouldn't be here
We lived on Jeanne-Mance between Villeneuve and Mount-Royal but had power through the whole time. We had many friends stay and sleep over during it and we hung out at the "Skala" on Parc Avenue. People came together; everyone helped everyone else....it was amazing to see and be a part of. I worked on the clean-up crew for the south shore as well. What an experience!
During the ice storm of 1998, we were living in Massachusetts & the good folks from the Canadian province of Ontario helped get our power back. There was about 7 trucks that came down to help us. Thanks so very much for all your help.
What people need to realize here, is that Hydro Quebec has one (if not the strongest) linemen force in North America. They have always built very strong. My dad was a lineman chief back then, he helped build it up to that standard. When there were hurricanes and storms in the US, he would go there to help. He always reported how their equipment was sub-par and infrastructures compared to Quebec's like in Boston for example. This would have been even more disastrous if our grid had not been built strong in the first place. Many lessons learned though and they rebuilt even stronger now. They learned to turn up the voltage to melt the ice for example as a prevention.
I was living in Greenfield Park (South Shore) and working at McGill Univ. Even the Yellow metro line shut down. It was a real nightmare. There must have been 2-3cm of ice covering the roads. The transformers behind my apt building shorted and arced. So creepy. The police came to pick us up to take us to the shelter at the nearest high school. The Canadian Army set up an Army kitchen to feed us, and even their huge generator outside the school caught fire.
From southern Ontario we watched helplessly and in awe. It was heartbreaking as news poured out of Montreal, especially folks who passed in their homes from the cold. A terrible time for our fellow Canadians but also a time where anyone who could assist, large or small, did.
I just returned near London from Montreal the day before the storm. Just missed it. We got freezing rain too, nothing like them. My grandpa lived on Riguad mountain and we didn't get news if he was alive or not until March.
Almost 25 years after, the images are still present in our memories. I just turned 8 years old when it happened. It was surreal and I hope we will never live something like this again
I was 22 years old and I was living downtown Montreal. It felt like the end of the world, a war zone with all the military. Worst day by day. I'm watching this video and I'm shaking and crying. I started to cry within the first 3 min. It's really disturbing to see. It's like reliving it, even 24 years later! We've been told it was possible we had to leave the city, by foot... but to go where? I remember on the south shore they called the CN rails & CP rails to get a locomotive in the town. @17:50 Locomotive works with Diesel power generator onboard. They provided electricity to shelters and utilities like water and sewage. As they say at the end... it was the Perfect Ice Storm.
I wish I had a camera, Downtown at night ? Looked like the aftermath of a fire . Totally dark and each house looked like it was doused with water that had froze. A picture in my mind I know I'll never forget
I wasn’t there but I live in New England. We experienced a pretty bad ice storm in 2008. That’s when we learned why having backup generator’s are important.Watching and hearing the trees and towers collapse was awful.
Hi Al!. You are a hell of a good lineman and I'm honored have been taught by you. That 98 storm looked like the mother of all ice storms and we have been on more then our fair share of them together, haven't we? Ice storms and other wise. I've talked with a bunch of guys that went up there with you and they all say that was the toughest storm anyone had ever worked. The working conditions where brutal and the word I got was that the soldiers on the base where you all lived, treated the American linecrews pretty poorly. You all persevered and got it done anyway you could. Well done Ashem. It was an honor to have worked with you Al and I continue to be inspired by the example you set. I hope you see you again soon my friend.
My daughter was born during one of the worst nights of that ice storm. We were at the hospital, and my girlfriend was pushing with doctors, nurses, and myself, holding flashlights and running around like crazy. The electricity was on and off about 30 times, and each time, all the machines and monitors alarms were beeping, and it was almost pitch black for 15 to 20 minutes, until the electricity went out for good, and the generator gave a bit of power. It was a crazy night, and it's something that will never be forgotten, not only because it's my daughter birthday, but also because of the whole event. We had a generator and a woodstove at home and plenty of wood, and we didn't have electricity for almost 2 weeks. When we got out of the hospital, it took me almost an hour to prepare the car because there were 4 inches of ice on it. I had to break it with a hammer, but very carefully not to damage it, and it took almost 3 hours to get home from the hospital, which usually took 30 minutes. There were broken trees and downed lines everywhere, and I had to take many detours, but at least my house was OK and accessible. Many people I know had their houses damaged and didn't have heating. Both my parents came at my place for the week. I hope it won't happen again.
Hydro-Quebec learned a lot from this storm and developed a lot of solution. If we get a storm like this again, the impact would be a lot lower, especially for the high voltage power line.
True. When North Eastern US, Ontario to Ohio, lost power in August 2003, Quebec had good infrastructure that was separated from the Ontario and New York grid - there the power stayed on.
We were a few weeks without power at my place. We were rural, I remember military vehicles with chains coming in to ask if we needed help, since no other vehicles could make it. We were skating in the orchard, heated up and cooked on the wooden stove at my grandparents, and used the generator to keep the water pump going. Eastern Ontario. We can still to this day see damage in the forest, 25 years later! The orchard was a write off, almost 50% of the trees didn't make it
I was living in Ottawa when this happened. It was the most wild thing I have ever been in weather wise. We lived out in an area that lost power for almost 30 days, and went to stay at my aunts house.
I was 13 when this happened. My family and I used to drive to Florida almost every winter. We didn’t really know how bad the weather was until we drove back to our house in Quebec City. Although I didn’t experience the disaster myself, I remember how shocked I was looking at the scenary when we approached the Canadian border. I’ll never forget the sight of the powerlines crumpled like discarded paper cups. Scary.
I was in the Military out of Winnipeg. As Military police we were flown in to help police the effected areas. It was so dark, using a map was hard at night (I only worked Nights) as you could not see and land marks and the ones you did were big ice mounts, signs could not be read. I worked outside the city around Beloeil and Otterburn Park. I would nightly check into the shelters every night and made close friends with people running them. One night a shelter 's generator was breaking down, I called HQ and asked for help. When I came around the next night I learned CAF Engeneers and a CAF Helicopter lifting a new large Generator had arrived and in no time the new generator was running. I was so happy to see it running. I lost count on how many times I fell or go hit by falling ice. CAF and Goverment agencies did so much for so many is such a short time.
Thank you! I know exactly where you were posted. I was 18 att. I volunteered at a shelter on the south shore, as an improvised nurse. It was state of emergency, so anyone that could did help, however they could. I was already quite knowledgeable and was coaching for a big 8h before being designated to a new shelter. Before the army came, it was tough. We didn’t have enough beds, blankets, food, electricity, hot water, cleaning supplies, soap, drinking water, medicines and medical supplies, flu was spreading, more and more people were getting really sick, dehydrated, pharmacies were closed so there were a few days where people couldn’t renew their medicines, so we had to think effectively, assembling and sharing people’s insulin vials, until the authorities set something up to provide people’s prescription drugs. We collectively still suffer from ptsd from this, we never really talk about it. I’ve met so many people that weren’t born or have moved here after, that don’t know nothing about it. Anyway, thanks for helping out. Much appreciated :)
Even though I come from a cold country, I have no idea how hard it must be to have no power for 3+ weeks (judging by some comments) in the middle of -20 C winter. But it warms my heart to some degree that people came together and helped each other and even Muricans came to help. Absolutely amazing. Also, absolutely terrifying how fragile modern infrastructure is.
And even after all that hydro quebec still doesn't enforce the regulations regarding how close to the power lines trees are allowed to be. 3 years ago the area I live in lost power for 8 days in the middle of a blizzard (the blizzard lasted 3~4 days) because most of the power lines are barely a few feet away from the treeline. Most of quebec lost power for a few days but since I live in a rural area we were the last to have it fixed.
I'm not sure where you're from, but apparently you haven't paid much attention to how the United States constantly aids in rescue, recovery assistance, and most every other type of natural disaster relief. That aid is sent in the forms of human help, material products, as well as monetarily. I pay my taxes that benefit others all around the world when they experience tragedy. Your country may be unaffected by natural disasters. Perhaps that's the reason for your "shock and amazement" when we went to aid our northern cousin in a time of need. Hopefully you're more aware of how neighbors treat each other after your experience and this information I have offered.
@@randibgood Bless your soul brainwashed Murican 🙂 You are also 'aiding' other countries by invading them with the 'fighting terrorism' card? 😂 Listening to Murican propaganda much? Don't tell me, I already know the answer.
Well done documentary that covers the event. Yes I lived through it. I was living in Montreal and working downtown Montreal at the time. I was aware of the increasing power failures starting on Wednesday outside Montreal. The big hit was on the black Friday (Jan. 9) when power went down in the afternoon. I left office early and I walked home in slush, snow and ice. It was black everywhere except for the car lights and the army was very present and reassuring for me. My boots and feet were soaking wet up to my ankles. I called my brother when I got home to make sure he and his family were fine. He came to get me because he had propane heating in his house and we knew by then that the damages were extensive and situation would last a long time. We manage to cross the Mercier bridge just before it was closed (like all the bridges) to remove the ice. The next morning, it was freezing temperature about -15C. Ice was everywhere. I remember that Saturday the propane delivery man showing up. I was so surprised that he had managed to drive all the way to the house without trees blocking the road. I did not have to go to emergency center I was privileged.
I lived threw the ice storm of 1998 Maine. I lost my Roof to my home. We had no power for months. It was the most horrible event of my life. It is so hard to explain when you almost don't make it. Hypothermia is beyond what you can understand.
I live in Hamilton. My friend had been laid off form Bell Canada's road crews, along with most of his co-workers. He called as many of them as would go. He rented about a dozen vans to go help for a week or so. He was there for 3 1/2 months. They worked day and night, and made a fortune. Today he still owns one of the biggest phone line installation crews, east of Toronto.
Lived in Vermont at the time. Not close to the trees thankfully, but we lived in the country near a big forest. The sound of ice breaking branches, echoing through the valley...I'll never forget it.
I just ran across this and it brought back memories of 1996 in Cullman Alabama. We had an ice storm. My husband stayed out of town so he could get to work. I was alone with a 17 year old, a nine year old and a three year old. The younger children were very sick with high fever. I had had them at the dr the day before but they were still very sick. My daughter and I listened to trees fall all night. The big booms they made as they hit the ground was very frightening. We had no power for 4 or 5 days. We had propane heat but we only had about 15 lbs pressure. That should be 15 percent in our tank. The temperature didn’t get above freezing the hold time. Lows were below zero. I was used to camping so I made out with simple soups cooked on the grill. I can’t really say I was really scared but with the children so sick I was really worried.
I'm from Kingston but was living in Toronto when this happened. Seeing the images of power towers crumpling like they were made of straw while watching the storm move in our direction was scary. We got very lucky as the worst of it ended around Kingston (3 hours east of Toronto). When I went home a couple of months later I just cried seeing the destruction of so many trees. My family's home is in a rural area a few minutes outside the city, and the landscape looked so different. It definitely had an impact on wildlife. People literally freezing to death in their homes was also a serious lesson in how dangerous these storms can become.
Glad you mentioned Montreal was Not the only place affected. there was too much emphasis only on Montreal..many others were in turmoil through this disaster
We purchased our Kingston home 6-months after this storm. I thought that despite huge trees about the house, we had a sunny lot. However now we do not - the trees had been severely-pruned by the ice storm!
I left Montreal the day before , lived near London. We got freezing rain that far away too and lost power. But it was just the normal ice storm they can fix in a day or two. My grandpa lived on Riguad mountain and we didn't hear anything about him until March. His house was at the end of a long gravel road up the mountain. No chance of getting out. I got to stack firewood cut up from all the downed trees around his house for 5 years straight afterwards. There is probably still piles I stacked up there
Eastern Ontario also was hit hard during this storm. It happened during the week of my 20 th Birthday. The power went out on my birthday, Jan 8. I'll never forget the days of hearing branches, trees and other things crashing down and my candle lit birthday dinner with the half of mc cain chocolate cake my aunt had left over in her fridge. Then there was a thunderstorm that ripped through in the middle of all of this icy nightmare. It was craziness! It was too unsafe to go out for a few days and the amazing feeling it was to see light for the first time. First, it was the interior light in the car when we had to go to the only generator powered grocery store in our area while we were getting the snow storm that followed the ice storm. We had no choice but to go out because we were out of everything. We could see the lit up store sign in the distance with everything dark. It was breath taking. The store didn't have much left but enough to get us by for a few days if we used it wisely. Our entire area was out of power for miles around. Some were weeks and over a month in the dark. I think we went 5-6 days before we started seeing the hydro and military start rolling in. That was an incredible sight! They were definitely our heroes at that time. They were who brought back our normal in a world surrounded by disaster. We, like many others also lost everything in our fridge and freezers. It took our house furnace 6 hours of running non stop to get the house up to a comfortable temperature and that whole time I watched out the window as the hydro and military trucks bringing more in to go help people in the rural areas who needed it the most. Here is a footage documentary from my area during this storm. We are located south of Ottawa. ruclips.net/video/hqc4nUjHxZE/видео.html&ab_channel=BargainBinCinema We redid my birthday with 2 celebrations a couple weeks later. My kids used to panic when the power went out in a storm and I am quick to remind them of this ice storm. Their generation can't imagine what that was like and I hope they never experience a storm like this.
Yeah I’m 2 hours out of Ottawa in Prescott county, we have an Ariel photo from a friend that went over the area, and other photos too, we lost a shed with one of our diesel generators that powered the lathe and banshee, terrible times.(terrible roof on the shed too,I won’t lie, blaming the 100 year old rafters😂)
We had a ice storm here in SC and was without power for a week- I can't even imagine what they went through with extreme amounts of ice all over everything and without power for weeks! thanks to everyone who helped saved lives and got the power back on!
We collectively still suffer from ptsd from this. Every time icy rain is forecast, we get tensed. I was 18 att, I became a spontaneous nurse for an entire shelter of >200pple. Ttd hearing trees cracking triggers flashbacks in me, it’s like hearing gunshots. Nature was literally crashing down on us. We couldn’t go out, only emergency crews and the military could, it was too dangerous to get crushed by falling branches or ice blocks. De-icing was a job! I remember hitting hard with the pick of a hammer on our car and nothing. Resources were limited for weeks, no grocery stores, no pharmacies, no banks were opened, nothing was working, the entire province was out of candles. People were freaking out, that’s why our PM att kept some information from us, and I agree it was the right thing to do tbh. Anyways, it was very heartwarming to see Americans drive to us, all those crews working at cleaning up and fixing power lines, I remember seeing them working here for weeks. Something I’ll never forget.
My family lived through it! The fire dept had to clear the trees to help us get to safety! My mom received a plaque that said she experienced the 1998 Ice Storm. Power was out, Water was frozen! We had to go down to the lake and get buckets of water to bathe in! Thankfully our home had a old school wood fireplace which we placed the pots of water on to boil.. It was extremely cold and very scary as a child!! After that storm, I refuse to complain about the winters now, People literally died! my family could have been apart of that, But luckily my mother is a fighter and always found a way to make even the most unbearable situations better. There were 7 kids, and 2 adults ( my mom and her friend, who is also female ) That storm taught me the strength of women!!!
I will always remember the first morning of the disaster. It was 6h30 in the morning and was walking on Beaubien towards the metro station. Crossing St-Hubert I saw half a tree falling on a car. Then same thing happened on Chateaubriand. At work, half the people did not come to work and I had to do the first of weeks of double shifts. When I came back home, all the streets were filled with fallen trees. One even fell right on my feet. Only then did I fully understood how hard the next weeks were going to be.
It was like a apocalyptic scenario. But the best and heartwarming things of this, is people helping each others, from all parts of Canada and the US, as if we were just One. If only we could just act like this all the times, everyday.
i'm a survivor of this ice storm,i was 16 years old and was living in St-Cyrille De Wendover (near Drummondville) wich was among the most affected area..... A 4 weeks long power outage. We had the chance to have a wood stove so heating was not a problem but we had no generator to power the water pump of the artesian well, so no water.... poop in a bucket and other great experiences lol
Back then, what helped is that we all had land lines. No cells. So even without power for weeks, we could still call one another to check in. We didn't get to see any of these news. We lived them. We'd sit in the car and listen to the radio or a battery-operated radio in the house. We were in the triangle of darkness and we'd drive supplies over to where my father lived in another town for him and the people he was sheltering at the time and the road there was terrifying and dangerous and just.... insane. The destruction was absolutely breathtaking. You couldn't go the way you normally went, because the transformers were exploding and the trees lay in the road.... I hope I never see anything like it again... but it was beautiful. You also got to know people's and companies' true colors really quickly. The good, the bad, and the ugly.
I didn't experience the storm, I'm in New Orleans. incidentally an arcadian from Nova Scotia 2nd generation. this was such a sweet documentary. made me cry.
I was 18 and worked at a local Mac's Milk Convenience Store. I had to keep track of and conduct transactions by hand. I was paid $6.85 an hour which was min wage in Ontario at the time. My boss let me take home $100 worth of food on credit for my family. We had lots of Joe Louis, Doritos, Burritos, Lunch Meat and Jolt Cola lol. Thank God we only went without power for a week.
I was six but remember it so vividly. Our family was the only ones with 2 working fireplaces, our entire large family came over. Around 30 of us all huddled in working together without power for most of it, generator for small things when we needed it. But no one had cells back then so it was board games and mini stick hockey in the basement haha i as a kid loved it, extra long Christmas break and I got to hang out with all my cousins :)
I lived in the east of Montreal and was about 16. I was lucky to have natural gas heater so a couple of friends slept at my place, the city was indeed literally silent dead. We could put our skates at home and skate to a friends place, everybody brought some food we played guitars, life was great for us, we were sad when we saw lights getting back, we knew schools would reopens soon! Amazing experience of a lifetime indeed.
No one who lived through this will ever forget it. We were just south of Ottawa. Trees crashed into houses all up and down our street with power lines in them. I had a huge maple fall into our dining room, live wires across both my front and back porch. The army came and got us out. My street was blocked off. Fire was shooting up the broken poles all night and hydro teams just could not come.
I first watched this on a reaction video, came here to watch it, and subscribed. This is such a well-done video! I’m looking forward to watching the rest of your content.
I lived in St-Micheal at the time. The apartment went from 21 degrees to 10 degrees within an hour of loosing power on Tuesday morning. Though it was beautiful it was also scary.
I live in Massachusetts & I am a nurse. I looked outside & there was a power pole across the road & everything was white but ice everywhere, we lost power. I had to call my patient that I couldn’t go to work. There was about 6 electric company trucks that came down from Quebec Canada to help us restore power. Thank you folks for helping us. I can’t remember what year it was but it was a very bad storm. Our house had propane to cook on the stove & a stack of wood to burn in our wood stove.
I will never forget the look on Tom Messner's face. I watched that weather report in real time. I lived on the border of Canada, New York and Vermont. Rural Canadians came down for weeks to use our laundromat. I invited a family I met in the laundromat to come to my house, cook a meal and they all took showers. Three weeks at that point they didn't have electricity so no water but they had wood heat. I was just inside the area that had electricity after four days. I saw a power crew from Hawaii helping put lines back up. Apparently, our power company helped Hawaii once.
I was driving home to Lachine from a party in Hudson (about a 35 minute drive) the night it started, and had to pull over 5 times to scrape the windshield even though I had the heat on full blast. I remember thinking to myself "well that's kinda strange".
10:30 For references, when they talk about the ring of power, they are talking about a series of high voltage lines that circle the island of Montreal. If a segment of the ring is lost, power can be rerouted around the island using the other segments of the ring. The vast majority of substations are powered by at least 2 circuits. The pylons that you see falling down were built to handle 3 times more weight than was required by North American standards. This is actually rather unusual. Most cities don't have anywhere near that level of redundancy built into their electrical grid. Even with the amount of redundancy built into the electrical grid of Québec, this storm still pushed the grid to its knees. Even more redundancy has been added since then. Fall arrest towers have been added at regular intervals to stop the domino effect.
Although I was not there I sent chainsaws and supplies with friends who were going there from Aspalund tree Co. When they returned they told me it was the biggest disaster they had ever seen. I got my equipment back and was reimbursed for the supplies they used. I was given a hat from Hydro Quebec which I wore proudly. My grandmother was born in Quebec city.
At the time I lived in Low Qc, 45 minutes north of Ottawa. My girlfriend and daughter lived in ottawa as she was going to college. I was able to be with them but we couldn't leave and go back to my house across the border as power was slowly going out around us. Ottawa started putting road block up using armed forces, we then left Ottawa to go to my parent's house deep in Renfrew county. What was usually a 2 hour drive took 4 hours with all the ice. We had wood heat there, generator and we were comfortable. We went back home 2 weeks later. Weird times indeed. I remember that almost no one had generators back then, but aftet that many ppl did. There was damages left over in places for over a year. Snow is one thing, the ice of '98 was a whole new thing. What a time
I didn't realize how extensive it was. I was in grade 11 at the time and saw it in the news, but it didn't really sink in until just now the extent of the damage and danger.
I was among the Montreal area people who experienced this event and I remember as it was yesterday. I was 21 at the time and the first day it started I had to go to an adult school and, because of the weather conditions, I did not have any transportation. I had to walk. Instead of 45 minutes, it took me 1 and half hour. When I finally arrived, the school was closed so I had to go back home. We would have never imagined that this would become worse. We lost power about 10 days but we stayed at my grandparents' house in Brossard (we lived in La Prairie, 20 min from Montreal) where they had a furnace. We played cards, Monopoly, all kinds of activities to keep the spirit.
Me and 8 friends (25yrrs old) doing winter camping near Montreal, Friday and Saturday and the Ice started on Sunday. All weekend, we were wondering why the snow on the pines over our heads was melting and falling on us like slush. Got out of woods and electricity was starting to cut left and right, strange feeling of ''what did we missed?'', we got 2 days more of camping than anyone. 2 weeks of fireplace, ran out of wood and went in the forest to get some, dangerous idea has the thick chunk ice in the trees was falling on our heads with the wind, the wood was not good for the fire so gave up and went to Montreal for electricity. One fun out of this was to do mountain bike in Mount St-Bruno on the icy snow. The whole mountain was like a 'green golf' terrain so hard we could bike down in places i would not even think of in summer. Wish i had a video of that, that snow was unique in the world. And the lakes were like mirrors, no snow patch, all ice, best ride ever. It's not a matter of ''if'' but when will it happen again.
Ten years after this storm, in 2008, northern New England was hit by a bad ice storm, but nothing like this. I lived in southern New Hampshire at the time, and we had no power for three days. For some of our neighbors and family, it was two weeks. To this day, ice storms are just the worst possible weather. I’m so glad to live closer to Boston now, where it’s usually not so cold.
yep. Some people couldn't even get into their cars or get them to move, frozen to the ground. Freezing rain goes on for awhile and you won't even be able to get out of your house. Got lucky buildings weren't collapsing
I still remember vividly when I made my toasts over a candle then I looked outside and saw lightning. I was like great, ice storm is now a thunderstorm as well.
I was only 4 when it happened. I lived in the Southshore on Montreal. I remember going to my Grandparents because they had power. I don't remember much of it, but it was exciting in the eyes of a preschooler. It's really cool to see how disastrous it really was.
I think many of us who were young at the time really had no idea how bad it was, we were sheltered by our loved ones. The news clips really hammered home how disastrous it was.
I was a kid at the time living in Kanata Ontario (a suburb of Ottawa). Watching this documentary reminds me of that sound of snapping trees as they were about to fall over.. instant flashbacks. I remember the entire family huddling in the living room next to the fireplace for what seemed like days. Eventually, our grandparents in the East end of the city got their power back and we stayed with them for a couple of days until power was restored in our neighborhood. don’t know how we got to their place is they had the longest steepest driveway I’ve ever seen in my life. Have no idea how we actually got into their house as their driveway was like a ski hill under normal circumstances. If memory serves me well we were without power for about five or six days. As a kid I wasn’t as scared as I would be now, this is for sure. Great documentary, and a reminder of a crazy distant memory.
I do remember that winter, I was 23 years old and my son was 3 years, we went to my moms house, actually my whole family was at my mom's house because she had electricity... it was scary. The first day of the storm, I went to bring my son to kindergarden and I went to get him maybe an 1 hour after I left him there... it was getting worst by the minute. It was beautiful but so dangerous, it was like bombs of ice falling. I will never forget that ice storm. Tomorrow will be the 25th anniversary of that winter.
I live in Maine, and was only 7 when this ice storm hit, but it was insane. I remember freezing our food in snow/ice drifts on the deck with no power for at least a week.
Lived in ON when this happened and I'll never forget it. Everything was encased in ice. The porch, the roof, the bushes, the trees, the vehicles. It was bananas. We were so fortunate to have a stocked wood-burning fireplace. We all lived in the living room for about a week and had to bail the sump pump out by hand. I remember the Army coming to our door to check on us. Totally nuts.
I was 12 when it happened. I remember clearly coming back from my friend's house the Sunday afternoon when it all started. I was playing to walk over the snow coated with ice without breaking it. We lost power over the next days. Since my parents were into camping we had warm winter sleeping bags and camping stove and fuel. Luckily, we were in Laval, outside the worst areas. We had power back within days but only for short periods and in alternance. My best friend was living in the other sector. So, our families were moving from house to house depending which one had electricity. I remember having a good with with my family and my friend.
I remember this, I was young Cpl in the CAF and flew in from Winnipeg. I remember the ice falling and hitting my Sgt when he was warning us of the ice falling. It was also so dark.
I was 7 when this happened.. my little brother was born during the ice storm. My dad was a linesman and I remember seeing so little of him at the time. The whole family gathered anything we had and we spent a month down the road living at my grandmother's with one small generator and her wood stove. I remember the adults took shifts day and night to keep the stove going. We lived out in the country, surrounded by mostly forests, one of the memories that stands out to me the most is how deathly silent it was some days afterwards, save for the constant snapping of trees and creaking of the ice echoing all around us at all times of the day and night. I remember looking out at in the fields and seeing the power towers in the distance folded like paper from the weight of the ice. I remember cutting and stacking firewood with my uncle and my dad when he would come home. Cleaning the ashes out of the stove. I remember my family digging a hole in the ice and snow in the yard by the back door and using it as a freezer My moms side of the family owned the corner store in the village and we were rationing water jugs and snacks for our neighbours. Some nights, families would walk around visiting each other and just hangout around the fire for hours, I remember all the folding chairs people left in my grandma's basement. I remember my using skates to get to the store sometimes. I got really good at lighting candles and playing card games. I remember my newborn brother constantly crying and along with the storm and our uncomfortable living situation, we never got much sleep. I remember some of our farming neighbours losing livestock.. Car accidents in front of the house. I remember lots of people looking out for each other every day. Small village, everyone knows everyone.☺ To this day we still lose some of the trees that were permanently bent from the ice. The amount of downed trees changed the path of the creek in the woods and it effected the whole ecosystem around my family's house.
I live in Ontario and remember hearing about how bad it was down there. I knew they were without power for almost a month. I did not hear how it took down the power lines. It quite literally destroyed the towers.
i was 22yrs old. i'm from st-jean-sur-richelieu, one of the three points of the dark triangle. no power for just under 7 weeks... in a canadian winter. it has to be around 0degrees celsius for freezing rain to occur, but this was non-stop for 5 days... after that, the temps dropped. old folks homes evacuated into high school gyms with army cots & a few generators. stores price gouging (10 bucks for a 5-pack of candles that usually went for 1.99), can't drive, can't walk. crime went up about 30%, mostly teen gangs taking advantage of the absence of electricity, nothing overly violent. everything just stopped, except for those fantastic electrical workers that went 24/7. oh, & the silence in the city, weird. just the sounds of cracking ice from time to time. similar to the covid lockdown, a lot of folks got back into their creative/artistic side, & there was a baby boom 10 months later. pros & cons, i guess.
It’s terrifying cause the narrator will list these terrible things happening each day and then kept saying “but it’s far from over” or “but the next day something worse happened” and it happened for weeks for people! This definitely made me tear up, these are some strong people
they didn't do it justice. I didn't hear if my grandpa survived or was okay until March. He was stuck up on Riguad Mountain. Only because he had a fireplace and a lot of wood stacked did he not freeze to death. Afterwards he ripped out his beautiful fireplaces and put in ugly woodstoves. With all the trees down I got to stack firewood for 5 years afterwards
It truly was a super storm. We Quebecers pride ourselves on be resilient to the insane weather we see. But the 98 ice storm was our infamy. I was only 3 years old and at the time my parents and I were living in upstate new York as my was going to school there. But my mother being a nurse and my dad seeing his family back home would need help we went back. I don't remember much at all honestly but my grandmother has an album of pictures from the storm. My dad and his brothers went to help a local logger in Pincourt on Ile Perrot to help clear roads and cut up fallen trees. There is a photo of my dad and his brothers standing up on a massive fallen tree cutting it up like Nordic warriors against endless ice Armageddon. The hydro workers were true heroes in those crucial days in January 1998. They kept that one line standing and we stood up to mother nature. We know she will be back....she always is every year....that's why the new towers we built are re-enforced. That why many of us have generators now in our house and chain saws in garages. We will fight the ice again....yet I hope not to this level.
As disastrous as it was, it could have been way way worse. Millions were very lucky that the temperatures for the week or so without power remained just below zero. Had we gone into a deep freeze, which was extremely possible after the ice storm, the results would have been unimaginable.
I don’t deal with the cold. I’m located in Texas and we deal with miserable heat waves temperatures in Texas can reach 115 to 120 and without power your house can be as high as 107. Degrees the worst heat wave I ever been through was 2011 the opposite of this storm the 2011 heat wave lasted around 117 days
Did you experience this storm? Share your story below!
I lived threw it. The ice storm of 1998. Maine. I lost the roof on my home from the weight. I had my home fixed and to this day I still live here.
I was on grade 3 during the ice storm,I remember someone knocking on our door and handing us resources
Vraiment c'était de la marde..
We lost our power in Southwest New Brunswick and had a great time drinking beer and playing boardgames.
I remember that winter. I live in Delaware, USA and the winter was so mild we only had one millimeter of snow that entire winter.
I am a High Voltage Lineman and I was there in Montreal and worked the IceStorm of 98 we worked 20 hours a day in the coldest and Brutal weather I’ve been through I’m retired now and every time it gets cold I Dream about it Nightmares but I’m proud that’s I was young and strong and could help put the lights back on 🇺🇸🇨🇦
I would like to say I’m from New Jersey and we went New Hampshire and into Vermont across Lake Champlain on the ferry to upper state New York to Plattsburgh to lake placid all the time putting up power lines and then they asked for volunteers for Canada 🇨🇦 so we crossed into Montreal the where we stayed in a military base when I came home I lost 30lbs😅
Thank you for your work! Lineman is no easy work normally, but that was some heroic stuff
Thanks for the help back then. Hope you have a good Christmas. 20 hours a day in that weather must have been brutal!
@@errollleggo447 thank you for your Christmas well wishes I’ve missed quite a few Christmas’s tonight and yesterday my son worked he is a lineman like myself and my father I hope he is home for Christmas
Hydro Quebec called my dad who had died of cancer in 95 to see if he could come into work (he must have been listed as retired or inactive). They were that desperate! So you might one day get a call if it gets bad enough.
I met my husband on Jan 5 1998 during the ice storm. We had no power for 32 days. We live 1 hr west of Montreal. It was a rough 32 days without power in our rural area, but I wouldn’t change it for anything as I met the man of my dreams and we will celebrate our 25 anniversary in about 2 weeks.
Aww❤
Magic of destiny. I have fond memories of this time
How did you meet him?
@@AhJodie I met him at our local community center where we could collect water. He was there for his parents and I for mine. We were 18 and 22. I was filling jugs and looked over and wow weeee. Lol. The rest is history.
@@kathypilon7692 What a cool story. If either of you would have been there a little earlier or later then you would not have met. Like you were guided to each other. I am happy for you both and may you have many more years together of joy, health and wealth!!!
I immigrated to canada in 97, this was my first winter.... imagine that. I thought I made the worst decision of my life
🥺 how do you feel now?
@@JuliasCesar 👀😑
@@mllee2008 what’s your deal? Got an issue? Speak your mind instead of hiding behind emojis.
Lol u sure did. 😜😆
😂😂😂❤
I was living in a little log cabin in western Quebec when the 1998 ice storm hit. Many people in my neighborhood had to evacuate because there was an extended period without any power and people couldn't heat their houses or draw water from wells (electric pumps). Some of my neighbors even died. I had a wood stove and plenty of firewood so I was OK for heat. I couldn't use my well but I had about a dozen 2L pop bottles that I had filled with water for emergency purposes. Between melting snow and rationing my water I stayed put and I was relatively comfortable. I also had plenty of food on hand so I didn't have to go anywhere. Driving was impossible anyway. There were trees and power lines down all over the place. The day after the worst of the storm the sun came out and I went for a walk with snowshoes in my local hardwood forest. It was one of the most beautiful things I had ever seen, a huge crystalline forest (i.e. bare branches completely covered with ice) with the sun gleaming through it all and refracting in a thousand directions. I learned at least two things. Great beauty can accompany great danger. And it's always a good idea to keep extra food and water on hand no matter where you live.
That is also what stuck with me; the beauty of it. Your comment is a great testament to preparedness!
I do have a lot of ready to eat food and water that lasts at least a week. We do get some power outs three or four times a year because of 1) thunderstorms and breaking trees on power lines or 2) heavy snowfall.over night (it can be up to 20 inches) and breaking trees on power lines. But to imagine an icestorm like this is sheer madness! No tree and no power line can hold that weight.
Ive thought about trying to have some equipment for moving in bad weather. Your right that you can't drive in situations like that but i walk anyway. I now wonder if i can one day put my walking practice to work getting people supplies as long as i have the right footwear
Good job! The more we prepare for emergencies the more we can survive. Very good message!!
@@kurotsuki7427 The right very sturdy winter hicking boots and warm clothing makes all the difference in the world. Not to have those can become a most severe emergency in a tough situation. ❄☃️❄⛄❄
We lived in the “triangle of darkness” on the South shore of Montreal. It took more than a month to get power back. They set up showers in the neighborhood car wash because they had gas powered heaters. Most of us heated water electrically so had no hot water. We lost trees but salvaged all the dense ice and made a makeshift freezer with it and snow walls. We put everything we had in the freezer in boxes lined with newspapers and buried it all in ice and snow. We lost nothing. The worst part was when Montreal got power and people expected us to work normally without power. I was working on papers by candlelight and people wanted to fax me stuff to work on. However, we saw northern lights and more stars than we had seen since we were kids during that time.
Wow... I was like 3 years old lived Ahuntsic
I lived in downtown Montreal and was 8 months pregnant when the storm hit. Our power was out for 3 weeks. We stayed in our home the first week, but when our water went out, we had to go to a shelter. The only shelter that had room for us was up on Mount Royal. But we couldn't get up the mountain because all the busses and cars were just sliding backward down the hill. My husband had to carry me up the mountain by trying to walk through any snow patches we could find that would give some friction.
Wow that is an unbelievable experience, truly nightmarish! So glad you’re okay.
That's really horrifying 😬. It's really wild that when in mother nature get tired of us, she get rid of us just like that. I didn't know before today that Montreal w as that close to losing that last power line. 😰😨
What a man you got btw. You're so lucky to have such a superhero for a partner.
@@nolanmcleod2619 It's fiction.
@@indy_go_blue6048 maybe 🤷🏾♂️😅
What did you do??
I was a trucker coming back from a run to Florida and headed back home to a suburb of Montreal. They had just reopened interstate 87 north of Albany, NY, and I managed to make it to the border with few problems. As I got closer to Montreal driving along Hwy 15, it was apparent something was different, and wrong. There were no lights glowing from the island, and the only lights I did see were the orange flashing beacons from all of the emergency and hydro vehicles. As I started coming into the south shore, I started to witness much of what has been shown in the video, and my immediate thoughts were that it looked like had had crossed over into a war zone.
It is now 2022, but the ice storm of 1998 will never be forgotten.
What a haunting experience. None of us will ever forget 🧊
@@DiscoverMontréalwith last year's "mini crise du verglas", yeah.
Can we stop for a second and appreciate the incredible ingenuity of the individual who suggested dropping logs from a military helicopter to de-ice the line?
I wonder how that conversation went.
"How about we fly in real close and smash it with hammers?"
"Nah, too risky. What about all these logs laying around?"
It's LO-OG, it's LO-OG! It's big, it's heavy, it's wood!
It's LO-OG, it's LO-OG! It's better than bad : it's GOOD
I was 16 at the time. We were lucky enough to have been on the same electrical circuit than the hospital. So the longest time we were without power was about 2-4 hours. I remember my house being full of family members, and how we were able to turn a bad situation into something fun. School was supposed to start on my 17th birthday after the holidays, but the school had turned into a shelter. We didn’t go back to school for weeks. It was an interesting experience. Something you remember until your last day.
Edit: jeez I got really emotional watching this and reliving it through my adult eyes…
I was 12, my family of 6 moved in at my cousin's (another family of six but with a rather small house) and we honestly had a blast. I think we were there for two weeks though my memory is foggy. To us kids it just felt like a never-ending Christmas Holliday. We had a blast but towards the end I was tired of sleeping on the floor haha :P
We lived on the hospital line also! We lost electricity from 6pm to 6am next morning, about 12 hours. We had soup warmed over candle in a fondue pot for supper, and hot coffee the next morning! Our neighbors across the street and behind us had to wait 2 weeks for electricity! We were very lucky. A hot shower was such a luxury. I couldn't go to work as downtown Montreal was closed of. Huge chunks of ice were falling from the buildings. My mother came to stay with us (her place had no power) and I helped our elderly neighbors to clear the ice off their stairs and car. Their very pretty apple tree was all broken up. The kids had fun though, they could skate pretty much everywhere. There were power cable stuck in ice all along our street, we couldn't even drive on it. It was very strange/surreal.
I was 8 . I remember my dad still made me go to piano lessons 😂😂 I was pissed. But not having school was good
Now that the utility system is hooked on “renewables” such as solar, when this happens again (and it will) the restoration time will be much much longer.
Solar panels destroyed (and they will be) with ice like this will have to be replaced when regular generation plants are only waiting on transmission lines to be rebuilt to move power.
Remember, government always has your best interest at heart…😂😂😂
Been in the power/utility industry for 37 years.
With ice like this solar wont work….Windmills will look like transmission towers did after this. Flat.
Funny that the biggest natural disaster in Canada was caused by ice right in the middle of manmadeglobalwarmingglobalcoolingclimatechangeiceagecarbontaxalgore…………yet when we have several days of hot weather (absolutely normal during the summer) the media companies rage about “global warming”.
They dropped the “man made” part to make it easier to sell the “green” agenda to those easily convinced that man controls the planet….when this is a perfect example of the opposite.
I was 19
I was 15 years old back then. Got a week off school, used my flash light, lighted all the candles we could find and it was scary. Never forget 98 storm.
Rouses Point, NY never went back from Christmas vacation. They couldn't go back for three more weeks.
I’ll never forget this disaster…I’m in Toronto, but my dear friend lost his car, house (both crushed by trees), and almost his life after being hit by a bus while walking to work, that lost control on the ice, jumped the curb, and pinned him against a wall. He and his family was devastated, I just thank god he survived after 2 months in the hospital. It was an awakening reminder material things mean nothing, because you can replace a house and a car, which he did, but you cannot replace a life. Ps - a HUGE THANK YOU to all those that came to help!!!!
I was 8 1/2 months pregnant in January 1998 in Saint-Bruno de Montarville, south shore of Montréal. It was, literally, the worst experience of my life. 3 weeks with no power, no visits to the doctor, all food in the freezer gone bad, all house plants dead.
We lived in a 4 1/2 basement apartment with another couple, my 17 month old, a cat and a dog for 3 weeks. To this day, when I hear tick, tick, tick on the windows I cringe.😢
I never thought about that tbh... I can't imagine how scary it must've been to have another life to worry about inside you and another child. Glad you're still here.
Sorry but the note about house plants dead is hilarious! Very minor compared to what was and could have been.
@@agirlisnoone5953 I don't know, I thought it made for a properly depressing touch. I specifically don't have plants because I can't handle them dying. Some people care about all forms of life. At least I do...
Je vous comprends tellement... mon fils Gabriel va avoir a la fin du mois 25 ans!!!
How did you make it? I love in Minnesota and my dad installed a wood fire place in case propane goes out or we can't afford it. I'm sorry you had to go through that.
Nothing more Canadian than dropping logs onto ice-covered powerlines.
True xD
When I heard they'd brought in sharpshooters to snipe the ice off some infrastructure, I swear I heard a bald eagle off in the distance.
and that’s just because no hockey player could get there and slap shoot the lines instead with hockey pucks!!
@@alxd5068 There was ice everywhere...!?!
More so, there’s nothing more Canadian than dropping logs in an ice-covered biffy!
35:40 This man has warmed my heart. Coming up from Richmond, Virginia to help us during our most troubled times is truly an act of utmost humanity. Thank you, kind sir.
You acting like them worker work for free , I'm. Sure you they got paid very well doing storm duty . They get double the pay plus overtime
@@funtyes1970 Getting paid for doing a good thing doesn't make the act any less good. He could'a said 'eff that noise' because of the road conditions, but he didn't. His boss said 'there's people sleeping outside in the freezing cold', and he said 'I'm on my way'.
@@hauntedshadowslegacy2826 well how you are talking it was volunteer work . And then works got paid really good to
@@funtyes1970 "well how you are talking it was volunteer work" Boi, tf? I literally said that his boss called him. That's not explicitly volunteer work. Read better.
@@hauntedshadowslegacy2826 Don’t waste your time with this one, he’s never going to understand
Just hearing the sounds in this made me relive a lot of it again.
We lived in the Black Triangle, in a town that follows the power line pylons. It's a weird feeling being in a house without electricity because of the lack of sounds. No lights buzzing and the likes. But the reality was that every couple seconds at every time in the day or the night, you'd hear centennial trees cracking, falling and smashing like glasses of marbles on the concrete of roads or the rook of cars and houses. Like clockwork you'd hear either the police, the fire dept or the ambulances try and make their way to places. I was a kid back then and strangely enough have really good memories of me and my brothers living through this. But We all volunteered at the shelter out of boredom but ended up meeting a lot of people there, it teach me a lot.
Huge thank you to neighbourhood heroes, volunteers, army personnel, folks at Hydro-Q and Samaritans from down south during our hour of need!
I was there with my Air Cadets training program when this happened we stayed behind to help. I was 18 at the time, it still holds as the craziest storm in my life.
Very well done. Was 19 years old and 25 km south of downtown Ottawa. What a flood of emotions. I do believe that this is the best documentation of this event that I have seen.
Agreed, this is a great documentation of the event. Other good ones I’ve seen are « Verglas 98 » and « 35 jours de noirceur ». They are in French, but I’m sure subtitles will do if you have any interest in watching others!
@@krugstrash its the best english one for sure tho.
This documentary brought up a lot of emotion. I was a student at McGill University. We were at school the morning the storm started. Over the PA they announced that the building would be closing in an hour so we evacuated. In ‘98, I lived on Rue St-Urbain on the corner of Avenue Mont Royal. I was one of the few who only lost power for only an hour. I credit my fortune to being on the same grid as l’Hotel Dieu hospital. That weekend, I was supposed to travel to DC for a Monday interview. Instead of leaving on Saturday, I finally got out on Sunday. I lived near Mount Royal and was very sad to see the devastation on the mountain. I remember thinking of the folks who lived on the South Shore that had no electricity for weeks. Hats off to thousands of HQ lines people as well as the crews who came to help from the US. I had no idea that crews came from as far away as Virginia.
Any Montrealers here lived through the flood in ‘87?
As a Canadian Forces medic, the battalion I was serving with in Valcartier ( 5e bataillon des services du Canada), as well a good portion the base’s other units were scrambled to load up vehicles with supplies and form a convoy and headed out to the triangle of darkness. Being the before last vehicle to leave we traveled on hwy 40 leaving Québec close to midnight and only arrived in Montreal in the early hours of the morning. (We had been slowed down by and accident involving one of our vehicles and a tractor trailer on the icy hwy) arriving near Montreal was rather surreal as it looked like a war zone. Flashes of light could be seen in the distance looking like bombs going off everywhere, most likely power lines falling and causing sparks. Broken trees and power lines littered the roads and fields. The amount of ice on every structure was truly unbelievable. We eventually set up at base St-Hubert where our medical personnel were set up to take care of our unit’s sick and wounded for about 22 days or so. To my disappointment I was never actually involved in directly assisting the civilian population but most other members of our unit were busy supporting all the other units who in turn were helping the local population and authorities. It was an experience I will never forget but still, I would have felt much more useful directly helping my fellow citizens.
your heart was in the right place; all soldiers I know have that same desire to be of service; you are all the best!
Thank you for your service to Canada 🇨🇦
Yep I remember I was with the r22r at that time and it was brutal work cutting wood clearing yards helping people get to hospitals churches and schools to stay alive total disaster and 16hr days in the cold. We did all we could to help out.
I've always found the whole mental image of the army getting involved for this rather amusing. It's not like the ice storm was anybody's fault, there was no actual enemy to fight, the army just has the resources to help out when large scale events like this happen
Also thank you for your service
I was but a child when this happened. I remember weeks without power, using outside as a fridge freezer, and putting on hockey skates or figure skates was the only way to leave your house. We were lucky to not be in the city so we were prepared for such an outage but the images will still stay in my head forever.
Yeah, I lived in the sticks and it was quite surreal when we'd listen to the car radio for news updates. The radio was just overflowing with chaos, bad news, saying how bad things were or the army was finally getting involved or how many people were dying in fires or from carbon monoxide poisoning.
Meanwhile, things were dandy in the sticks. We had a wood stove, a large pantry, used the veranda as a freezer and kept a bucket of ice/snow in the fridge to keep it cool. Most of all, no school =D. Family and friends from the city came to live with us week 1. I have fond memories of the ice storm.
Yup. I put my food in a snow bank so I didn't lose any.
I was active military in Manitoba in 98. We got the call for assistance and upon leaving Manitoba where the temperature was -54C, we landed in Quebec and the warm temperatures had us baffled at first. Then we saw the ice. I'll never forget.
There is a huge difference in temperature between Canada's east and the west (minus BC), it's so strange. I was born in Nova Scotia and lived there until I was 21, then I moved to Alberta, in February during a cold snap, I had never experienced one before and the minute I stepped out of the airport it was hard to breathe, each breath was so painful from the cold air.
Nova Scotia still doesn't have snow on the ground in January and Alberta..... well, we usually have snow in October (except in 2022, it was warmer so the snow came later).
@@trinomial-nomenclature Mother nature at her finest lol
@@tnttroy No kidding right?!? I think she's bipolar lol.
Yeah our farm is right by lake Winnipeg and oh my god it gets so incredibly cold, my mom and dad were in Montreal during the great flood and almost lost the car driving through the water
@@trinomial-nomenclature Try Yellowknife lmao
For anyone interested in learning even more, look up Canadian National 3502- a diesel-electric locomotive used to power a town during this ice storm.
I remember reading about it at the time. It was in the newspaper.
Dannemora prison had massive generators. It's outside of Plattsburgh. The prison generated electricity for their whole town for days.
I'm watching this tonight, as the weather is going bad, and freezing rain is coming and I'm realizing how badly prepared we are. Aren't we fast to forget the minimal amount of things that can make a huge difference between getting thru the storm or losing the battle and landing in a shelter. Words to the wise, I will get my kit together asap.
Jme disais la meme chose !
this shows that an ice storm can literally kill everyone. You can be sealed into your house. Lucky it didn't go for another day or buildings would've started collapsing
This ice storm is what has kept me prepared. I've NOT forgotten the lessons it taught me about preparedness and how quickly stores empty when storms hit. I would not be running to the store this time around. I'm ready.
@@sincerely-b I'm ready now. WINTER IS COMING 😭🫠
@@_Julie_Bee Some learn from history and some don't. Glad you're ready. You really never know.
This is a very well-done documentary especially by the standards of late-90s/early-00s television. I'm particularly struck by the fact that the Hydro Quebec press conference was interrupted by a power outage.
I'm from Chateauguay Quebec and I'll never forget this! It was pure hell .The hospital emergencies were loaded with patients for fractures and broken bones from slipping on ice and falling.
Yes! That must have been hard to handle for all medical staff.
Chateauguay in the house! 🙌🏽
@@veronicasanacionOh you bet!
@@lenlewis76You live here in Chats? Well how do you do?✌️
@@vincentlussier8264 Hopefully you won´t have another ice storm. But I remember being in Québec and knowing of people in Hospital for falls in a normal winter. Les crampons peuvent sauver la tëte et la dignité (lol)
I was lucky because I lived in the Plateau where most of the power lines are underground. We lost power for only a few days. My parents were less lucky, they live on the South Shore and were out of power for a month. I went there on the weekend to chop firewood, but the wood was green and covered in ice. My father and I would try to remove as much ice as possible before chopping the logs. Then we would lay the chopped wood on the floor in the basement to try to dry them out. Then finally we would stack the relatively dry pieces of wood around the fireplace to dry them out further, before finally burning them. After about 10 days my parents finally abandoned their home and stayed at my sister's apartment in Montreal, where she had power. My sister had been in Toronto over the Christmas holidays, and couldn't return to Montreal because the roads were iced up. She had to watch the disaster unfold on television, knowing all her family was trapped here.
What was so weird, is that after about a week life was back to normal in the Plateau, but you could take a short metro ride to the South Shore, and Saint-Lambert, where I grew up, looked like a war zone. I'll never forget the incongruity it, it was hard to believe we were in the same city (metropolitan area).
A tribute to the resiliency of people in the face of major challenges.
I lived in Quebec that year and went to visit my dad in Ontario; who was in his 70's and got stuck there for 23 days without electricity. We were 4 families living together in a farm area and lived on melted snow and water from a pool with one toilet for the gang of 15. Shopping in the food stores was like living in an apocalypse ; with little or no food on the shelves. The Military was called into town and helped by going house to house to check in on residents of the area. I will never forget it.
You're such a talented editor! Thanks for these compilation videos. Really well done. My sister lived in Montreal during this in a factory loft with her boyfriend. They were lucky in that they had a wood stove. They shared their home food with neighbours who weren't so lucky. She still talks about the experience of how bizarre it was and also how it also brought out the best in people :)
I have a similar story. My parents met just before the storm and couldn't talk to eachother as they were cities appart and the storm stopped them from speaking to eachother. The met again 2 months later and then 2 years later here I was! truly happy that they met again, or I wouldn't be here
We lived on Jeanne-Mance between Villeneuve and Mount-Royal but had power through the whole time. We had many friends stay and sleep over during it and we hung out at the "Skala" on Parc Avenue. People came together; everyone helped everyone else....it was amazing to see and be a part of. I worked on the clean-up crew for the south shore as well. What an experience!
The plateau. I lived on de la Roche.
I lived corner De Bienville and Saint-André. I only lost power for 30 minutes during the whole storm. I was very lucky.
During the ice storm of 1998, we were living in Massachusetts & the good folks from the Canadian province of Ontario helped get our power back. There was about 7 trucks that came down to help us. Thanks so very much for all your help.
What people need to realize here, is that Hydro Quebec has one (if not the strongest) linemen force in North America. They have always built very strong. My dad was a lineman chief back then, he helped build it up to that standard. When there were hurricanes and storms in the US, he would go there to help. He always reported how their equipment was sub-par and infrastructures compared to Quebec's like in Boston for example. This would have been even more disastrous if our grid had not been built strong in the first place. Many lessons learned though and they rebuilt even stronger now. They learned to turn up the voltage to melt the ice for example as a prevention.
Your dad must have made many sacrifices to keep us having power. Thank you for his service and your sacrifices too!
I was living in Greenfield Park (South Shore) and working at McGill Univ. Even the Yellow metro line shut down. It was a real nightmare. There must have been 2-3cm of ice covering the roads. The transformers behind my apt building shorted and arced. So creepy. The police came to pick us up to take us to the shelter at the nearest high school. The Canadian Army set up an Army kitchen to feed us, and even their huge generator outside the school caught fire.
From southern Ontario we watched helplessly and in awe. It was heartbreaking as news poured out of Montreal, especially folks who passed in their homes from the cold. A terrible time for our fellow Canadians but also a time where anyone who could assist, large or small, did.
I just returned near London from Montreal the day before the storm. Just missed it. We got freezing rain too, nothing like them. My grandpa lived on Riguad mountain and we didn't get news if he was alive or not until March.
Almost 25 years after, the images are still present in our memories. I just turned 8 years old when it happened. It was surreal and I hope we will never live something like this again
I was 22 years old and I was living downtown Montreal. It felt like the end of the world, a war zone with all the military. Worst day by day. I'm watching this video and I'm shaking and crying. I started to cry within the first 3 min. It's really disturbing to see. It's like reliving it, even 24 years later! We've been told it was possible we had to leave the city, by foot... but to go where? I remember on the south shore they called the CN rails & CP rails to get a locomotive in the town. @17:50 Locomotive works with Diesel power generator onboard. They provided electricity to shelters and utilities like water and sewage. As they say at the end... it was the Perfect Ice Storm.
What an experience! Looking back, the whole thing was truly unbelievable.
I was 16 and I was also in Montreal downtown, and guess what, it was my first Canadian Winter experience
I wish I had a camera, Downtown at night ? Looked like the aftermath of a fire . Totally dark and each house looked like it was doused with water that had froze. A picture in my mind I know I'll never forget
I wasn’t there but I live in New England. We experienced a pretty bad ice storm in 2008. That’s when we learned why having backup generator’s are important.Watching and hearing the trees and towers collapse was awful.
@@tahirshaikh5397 so glad you were ok... how do you feel these days?
Thanks!
Hi Al!. You are a hell of a good lineman and I'm honored have been taught by you. That 98 storm looked like the mother of all ice storms and we have been on more then our fair share of them together, haven't we? Ice storms and other wise. I've talked with a bunch of guys that went up there with you and they all say that was the toughest storm anyone had ever worked. The working conditions where brutal and the word I got was that the soldiers on the base where you all lived, treated the American linecrews pretty poorly. You all persevered and got it done anyway you could. Well done Ashem. It was an honor to have worked with you Al and I continue to be inspired by the example you set. I hope you see you again soon my friend.
My daughter was born during one of the worst nights of that ice storm. We were at the hospital, and my girlfriend was pushing with doctors, nurses, and myself, holding flashlights and running around like crazy. The electricity was on and off about 30 times, and each time, all the machines and monitors alarms were beeping, and it was almost pitch black for 15 to 20 minutes, until the electricity went out for good, and the generator gave a bit of power. It was a crazy night, and it's something that will never be forgotten, not only because it's my daughter birthday, but also because of the whole event. We had a generator and a woodstove at home and plenty of wood, and we didn't have electricity for almost 2 weeks. When we got out of the hospital, it took me almost an hour to prepare the car because there were 4 inches of ice on it. I had to break it with a hammer, but very carefully not to damage it, and it took almost 3 hours to get home from the hospital, which usually took 30 minutes. There were broken trees and downed lines everywhere, and I had to take many detours, but at least my house was OK and accessible. Many people I know had their houses damaged and didn't have heating. Both my parents came at my place for the week. I hope it won't happen again.
Hydro-Quebec learned a lot from this storm and developed a lot of solution. If we get a storm like this again, the impact would be a lot lower, especially for the high voltage power line.
Yes, I can feel now the taste of HQ progress, on my 4th day of no power 🎉
they didn't learn anything, they should be burying those electric wires but Quebec is so goddamn backwards
True. When North Eastern US, Ontario to Ohio, lost power in August 2003, Quebec had good infrastructure that was separated from the Ontario and New York grid - there the power stayed on.
We were a few weeks without power at my place. We were rural, I remember military vehicles with chains coming in to ask if we needed help, since no other vehicles could make it. We were skating in the orchard, heated up and cooked on the wooden stove at my grandparents, and used the generator to keep the water pump going. Eastern Ontario. We can still to this day see damage in the forest, 25 years later! The orchard was a write off, almost 50% of the trees didn't make it
Montreal did survive this storm. It is a beautiful city that everyone should visit.
I was living in Ottawa when this happened. It was the most wild thing I have ever been in weather wise. We lived out in an area that lost power for almost 30 days, and went to stay at my aunts house.
I was 13 when this happened. My family and I used to drive to Florida almost every winter. We didn’t really know how bad the weather was until we drove back to our house in Quebec City. Although I didn’t experience the disaster myself, I remember how shocked I was looking at the scenary when we approached the Canadian border. I’ll never forget the sight of the powerlines crumpled like discarded paper cups. Scary.
I was in the Military out of Winnipeg. As Military police we were flown in to help police the effected areas. It was so dark, using a map was hard at night (I only worked Nights) as you could not see and land marks and the ones you did were big ice mounts, signs could not be read. I worked outside the city around Beloeil and Otterburn Park. I would nightly check into the shelters every night and made close friends with people running them. One night a shelter 's generator was breaking down, I called HQ and asked for help. When I came around the next night I learned CAF Engeneers and a CAF Helicopter lifting a new large Generator had arrived and in no time the new generator was running. I was so happy to see it running. I lost count on how many times I fell or go hit by falling ice. CAF and Goverment agencies did so much for so many is such a short time.
Thank you!
I know exactly where you were posted.
I was 18 att. I volunteered at a shelter on the south shore, as an improvised nurse. It was state of emergency, so anyone that could did help, however they could. I was already quite knowledgeable and was coaching for a big 8h before being designated to a new shelter.
Before the army came, it was tough. We didn’t have enough beds, blankets, food, electricity, hot water, cleaning supplies, soap, drinking water, medicines and medical supplies, flu was spreading, more and more people were getting really sick, dehydrated, pharmacies were closed so there were a few days where people couldn’t renew their medicines, so we had to think effectively, assembling and sharing people’s insulin vials, until the authorities set something up to provide people’s prescription drugs.
We collectively still suffer from ptsd from this, we never really talk about it.
I’ve met so many people that weren’t born or have moved here after, that don’t know nothing about it.
Anyway, thanks for helping out. Much appreciated :)
Even though I come from a cold country, I have no idea how hard it must be to have no power for 3+ weeks (judging by some comments) in the middle of -20 C winter. But it warms my heart to some degree that people came together and helped each other and even Muricans came to help. Absolutely amazing. Also, absolutely terrifying how fragile modern infrastructure is.
And even after all that hydro quebec still doesn't enforce the regulations regarding how close to the power lines trees are allowed to be.
3 years ago the area I live in lost power for 8 days in the middle of a blizzard (the blizzard lasted 3~4 days) because most of the power lines are barely a few feet away from the treeline.
Most of quebec lost power for a few days but since I live in a rural area we were the last to have it fixed.
I'm not sure where you're from, but apparently you haven't paid much attention to how the United States constantly aids in rescue, recovery assistance, and most every other type of natural disaster relief. That aid is sent in the forms of human help, material products, as well as monetarily. I pay my taxes that benefit others all around the world when they experience tragedy. Your country may be unaffected by natural disasters. Perhaps that's the reason for your "shock and amazement" when we went to aid our northern cousin in a time of need. Hopefully you're more aware of how neighbors treat each other after your experience and this information I have offered.
@@randibgood Bless your soul brainwashed Murican 🙂 You are also 'aiding' other countries by invading them with the 'fighting terrorism' card? 😂 Listening to Murican propaganda much? Don't tell me, I already know the answer.
@@Jet-ij9zcI don't understand why they don't bury all the power lines.
@@randibgood Yup! Canada and USA help each in times of need. Like good neighbours do, no matter their political affiliations 😁
Well done documentary that covers the event. Yes I lived through it. I was living in Montreal and working downtown Montreal at the time. I was aware of the increasing power failures starting on Wednesday outside Montreal. The big hit was on the black Friday (Jan. 9) when power went down in the afternoon. I left office early and I walked home in slush, snow and ice. It was black everywhere except for the car lights and the army was very present and reassuring for me. My boots and feet were soaking wet up to my ankles. I called my brother when I got home to make sure he and his family were fine. He came to get me because he had propane heating in his house and we knew by then that the damages were extensive and situation would last a long time. We manage to cross the Mercier bridge just before it was closed (like all the bridges) to remove the ice. The next morning, it was freezing temperature about -15C. Ice was everywhere. I remember that Saturday the propane delivery man showing up. I was so surprised that he had managed to drive all the way to the house without trees blocking the road. I did not have to go to emergency center I was privileged.
I lived threw the ice storm of 1998 Maine. I lost my Roof to my home. We had no power for months. It was the most horrible event of my life. It is so hard to explain when you almost don't make it. Hypothermia is beyond what you can understand.
What part of Maine bub??
Sounds like you were unprepared.
I live in Hamilton. My friend had been laid off form Bell Canada's road crews, along with most of his co-workers. He called as many of them as would go. He rented about a dozen vans to go help for a week or so. He was there for 3 1/2 months. They worked day and night, and made a fortune. Today he still owns one of the biggest phone line installation crews, east of Toronto.
Lived in Vermont at the time. Not close to the trees thankfully, but we lived in the country near a big forest. The sound of ice breaking branches, echoing through the valley...I'll never forget it.
I just ran across this and it brought back memories of 1996 in Cullman Alabama. We had an ice storm. My husband stayed out of town so he could get to work. I was alone with a 17 year old, a nine year old and a three year old. The younger children were very sick with high fever. I had had them at the dr the day before but they were still very sick. My daughter and I listened to trees fall all night. The big booms they made as they hit the ground was very frightening. We had no power for 4 or 5 days. We had propane heat but we only had about 15 lbs pressure. That should be 15 percent in our tank. The temperature didn’t get above freezing the hold time. Lows were below zero. I was used to camping so I made out with simple soups cooked on the grill. I can’t really say I was really scared but with the children so sick I was really worried.
ice storms are not fun. This was 4" of ice though, way worse than anything you'd see in Alabama
I'm from Kingston but was living in Toronto when this happened. Seeing the images of power towers crumpling like they were made of straw while watching the storm move in our direction was scary. We got very lucky as the worst of it ended around Kingston (3 hours east of Toronto). When I went home a couple of months later I just cried seeing the destruction of so many trees. My family's home is in a rural area a few minutes outside the city, and the landscape looked so different. It definitely had an impact on wildlife. People literally freezing to death in their homes was also a serious lesson in how dangerous these storms can become.
Glad you mentioned Montreal was Not the only place affected. there was too much emphasis only on Montreal..many others were in turmoil through this disaster
The storm was really bad in Kingston and area. The power lines were down all over and they opened up HDH as a warming centre.
We purchased our Kingston home 6-months after this storm. I thought that despite huge trees about the house, we had a sunny lot. However now we do not - the trees had been severely-pruned by the ice storm!
I left Montreal the day before , lived near London. We got freezing rain that far away too and lost power. But it was just the normal ice storm they can fix in a day or two. My grandpa lived on Riguad mountain and we didn't hear anything about him until March. His house was at the end of a long gravel road up the mountain. No chance of getting out. I got to stack firewood cut up from all the downed trees around his house for 5 years straight afterwards. There is probably still piles I stacked up there
Eastern Ontario also was hit hard during this storm. It happened during the week of my 20 th Birthday. The power went out on my birthday, Jan 8. I'll never forget the days of hearing branches, trees and other things crashing down and my candle lit birthday dinner with the half of mc cain chocolate cake my aunt had left over in her fridge. Then there was a thunderstorm that ripped through in the middle of all of this icy nightmare. It was craziness! It was too unsafe to go out for a few days and the amazing feeling it was to see light for the first time. First, it was the interior light in the car when we had to go to the only generator powered grocery store in our area while we were getting the snow storm that followed the ice storm. We had no choice but to go out because we were out of everything. We could see the lit up store sign in the distance with everything dark. It was breath taking. The store didn't have much left but enough to get us by for a few days if we used it wisely.
Our entire area was out of power for miles around. Some were weeks and over a month in the dark. I think we went 5-6 days before we started seeing the hydro and military start rolling in. That was an incredible sight! They were definitely our heroes at that time. They were who brought back our normal in a world surrounded by disaster.
We, like many others also lost everything in our fridge and freezers. It took our house furnace 6 hours of running non stop to get the house up to a comfortable temperature and that whole time I watched out the window as the hydro and military trucks bringing more in to go help people in the rural areas who needed it the most.
Here is a footage documentary from my area during this storm. We are located south of Ottawa. ruclips.net/video/hqc4nUjHxZE/видео.html&ab_channel=BargainBinCinema
We redid my birthday with 2 celebrations a couple weeks later.
My kids used to panic when the power went out in a storm and I am quick to remind them of this ice storm. Their generation can't imagine what that was like and I hope they never experience a storm like this.
Wow great story thank you 💟
Yeah I’m 2 hours out of Ottawa in Prescott county, we have an Ariel photo from a friend that went over the area, and other photos too, we lost a shed with one of our diesel generators that powered the lathe and banshee, terrible times.(terrible roof on the shed too,I won’t lie, blaming the 100 year old rafters😂)
We had a ice storm here in SC and was without power for a week- I can't even imagine what they went through with extreme amounts of ice all over everything and without power for weeks! thanks to everyone who helped saved lives and got the power back on!
We collectively still suffer from ptsd from this.
Every time icy rain is forecast, we get tensed.
I was 18 att, I became a spontaneous nurse for an entire shelter of >200pple. Ttd hearing trees cracking triggers flashbacks in me, it’s like hearing gunshots. Nature was literally crashing down on us. We couldn’t go out, only emergency crews and the military could, it was too dangerous to get crushed by falling branches or ice blocks. De-icing was a job! I remember hitting hard with the pick of a hammer on our car and nothing.
Resources were limited for weeks, no grocery stores, no pharmacies, no banks were opened, nothing was working, the entire province was out of candles. People were freaking out, that’s why our PM att kept some information from us, and I agree it was the right thing to do tbh.
Anyways, it was very heartwarming to see Americans drive to us, all those crews working at cleaning up and fixing power lines, I remember seeing them working here for weeks. Something I’ll never forget.
I live in United States in Maine and I remember the ice storm of 98 being quite severe here as well.
My family lived through it! The fire dept had to clear the trees to help us get to safety! My mom received a plaque that said she experienced the 1998 Ice Storm. Power was out, Water was frozen! We had to go down to the lake and get buckets of water to bathe in! Thankfully our home had a old school wood fireplace which we placed the pots of water on to boil.. It was extremely cold and very scary as a child!! After that storm, I refuse to complain about the winters now, People literally died! my family could have been apart of that, But luckily my mother is a fighter and always found a way to make even the most unbearable situations better. There were 7 kids, and 2 adults ( my mom and her friend, who is also female ) That storm taught me the strength of women!!!
how long were you out of power? Thanks for sharing your story!
I will always remember the first morning of the disaster. It was 6h30 in the morning and was walking on Beaubien towards the metro station. Crossing St-Hubert I saw half a tree falling on a car. Then same thing happened on Chateaubriand. At work, half the people did not come to work and I had to do the first of weeks of double shifts. When I came back home, all the streets were filled with fallen trees. One even fell right on my feet. Only then did I fully understood how hard the next weeks were going to be.
It was like a apocalyptic scenario. But the best and heartwarming things of this, is people helping each others, from all parts of Canada and the US, as if we were just One. If only we could just act like this all the times, everyday.
i'm a survivor of this ice storm,i was 16 years old and was living in St-Cyrille De Wendover (near Drummondville) wich was among the most affected area..... A 4 weeks long power outage. We had the chance to have a wood stove so heating was not a problem but we had no generator to power the water pump of the artesian well, so no water.... poop in a bucket and other great experiences lol
I heard the same in mont saint hilaire which is near saint-hyacinth
Back then, what helped is that we all had land lines. No cells. So even without power for weeks, we could still call one another to check in. We didn't get to see any of these news. We lived them. We'd sit in the car and listen to the radio or a battery-operated radio in the house. We were in the triangle of darkness and we'd drive supplies over to where my father lived in another town for him and the people he was sheltering at the time and the road there was terrifying and dangerous and just.... insane. The destruction was absolutely breathtaking. You couldn't go the way you normally went, because the transformers were exploding and the trees lay in the road.... I hope I never see anything like it again... but it was beautiful. You also got to know people's and companies' true colors really quickly. The good, the bad, and the ugly.
cellphones existed they wouldn't have worked. All the cell towers would've gotten destroyed
I was watching some American fella reacting to your video.. I felt obliged to come and see the original. Thanks btw history is important.
Thanks Adam it means a lot!
What a great program. Very well put together. Bravo!
I didn't experience the storm, I'm in New Orleans. incidentally an arcadian from Nova Scotia 2nd generation. this was such a sweet documentary. made me cry.
This video was ones of the best I've seen.absolutely very well done,
I was 18 and worked at a local Mac's Milk Convenience Store. I had to keep track of and conduct transactions by hand. I was paid $6.85 an hour which was min wage in Ontario at the time. My boss let me take home $100 worth of food on credit for my family. We had lots of Joe Louis, Doritos, Burritos, Lunch Meat and Jolt Cola lol. Thank God we only went without power for a week.
I was six but remember it so vividly. Our family was the only ones with 2 working fireplaces, our entire large family came over. Around 30 of us all huddled in working together without power for most of it, generator for small things when we needed it. But no one had cells back then so it was board games and mini stick hockey in the basement haha i as a kid loved it, extra long Christmas break and I got to hang out with all my cousins :)
cellphones would've been useless anyway. No cell tower can survive 4" of ice
I lived in the east of Montreal and was about 16. I was lucky to have natural gas heater so a couple of friends slept at my place, the city was indeed literally silent dead. We could put our skates at home and skate to a friends place, everybody brought some food we played guitars, life was great for us, we were sad when we saw lights getting back, we knew schools would reopens soon! Amazing experience of a lifetime indeed.
No one who lived through this will ever forget it. We were just south of Ottawa. Trees crashed into houses all up and down our street with power lines in them. I had a huge maple fall into our dining room, live wires across both my front and back porch. The army came and got us out. My street was blocked off. Fire was shooting up the broken poles all night and hydro teams just could not come.
I first watched this on a reaction video, came here to watch it, and subscribed. This is such a well-done video! I’m looking forward to watching the rest of your content.
Awesome! Thank you!
I lived in St-Micheal at the time. The apartment went from 21 degrees to 10 degrees within an hour of loosing power on Tuesday morning. Though it was beautiful it was also scary.
Yeah! It started out kinda cool and beautiful and slowly turned into a living nightmare.
"first time in my life I said I wish I stayed in Winnipeg"
Sums it up upper cut
Fantastic doc. Cant wait to see more videos from this channel.
Thank you!!
I live in Massachusetts & I am a nurse. I looked outside & there was a power pole across the road & everything was white but ice everywhere, we lost power. I had to call my patient that I couldn’t go to work. There was about 6 electric company trucks that came down from Quebec Canada to help us restore power. Thank you folks for helping
us. I can’t remember what year it was but it was a very bad storm. Our house had propane to cook on the stove & a stack of wood to burn in our wood stove.
I will never forget the look on Tom Messner's face. I watched that weather report in real time. I lived on the border of Canada, New York and Vermont. Rural Canadians came down for weeks to use our laundromat. I invited a family I met in the laundromat to come to my house, cook a meal and they all took showers. Three weeks at that point they didn't have electricity so no water but they had wood heat. I was just inside the area that had electricity after four days. I saw a power crew from Hawaii helping put lines back up. Apparently, our power company helped Hawaii once.
I was driving home to Lachine from a party in Hudson (about a 35 minute drive) the night it started, and had to pull over 5 times to scrape the windshield even though I had the heat on full blast. I remember thinking to myself "well that's kinda strange".
10:30 For references, when they talk about the ring of power, they are talking about a series of high voltage lines that circle the island of Montreal. If a segment of the ring is lost, power can be rerouted around the island using the other segments of the ring. The vast majority of substations are powered by at least 2 circuits. The pylons that you see falling down were built to handle 3 times more weight than was required by North American standards. This is actually rather unusual. Most cities don't have anywhere near that level of redundancy built into their electrical grid. Even with the amount of redundancy built into the electrical grid of Québec, this storm still pushed the grid to its knees. Even more redundancy has been added since then. Fall arrest towers have been added at regular intervals to stop the domino effect.
True. A lot of R&D has been done and used to upgrade the grid since
Although I was not there I sent chainsaws and supplies with friends who were going there from Aspalund tree Co. When they returned they told me it was the biggest disaster they had ever seen. I got my equipment back and was reimbursed for the supplies they used. I was given a hat from Hydro Quebec which I wore proudly. My grandmother was born in Quebec city.
At the time I lived in Low Qc, 45 minutes north of Ottawa. My girlfriend and daughter lived in ottawa as she was going to college. I was able to be with them but we couldn't leave and go back to my house across the border as power was slowly going out around us. Ottawa started putting road block up using armed forces, we then left Ottawa to go to my parent's house deep in Renfrew county. What was usually a 2 hour drive took 4 hours with all the ice.
We had wood heat there, generator and we were comfortable. We went back home 2 weeks later. Weird times indeed. I remember that almost no one had generators back then, but aftet that many ppl did. There was damages left over in places for over a year.
Snow is one thing, the ice of '98 was a whole new thing. What a time
I didn't realize how extensive it was. I was in grade 11 at the time and saw it in the news, but it didn't really sink in until just now the extent of the damage and danger.
I was among the Montreal area people who experienced this event and I remember as it was yesterday. I was 21 at the time and the first day it started I had to go to an adult school and, because of the weather conditions, I did not have any transportation. I had to walk. Instead of 45 minutes, it took me 1 and half hour.
When I finally arrived, the school was closed so I had to go back home. We would have never imagined that this would become worse.
We lost power about 10 days but we stayed at my grandparents' house in Brossard (we lived in La Prairie, 20 min from Montreal) where they had a furnace.
We played cards, Monopoly, all kinds of activities to keep the spirit.
Me and 8 friends (25yrrs old) doing winter camping near Montreal, Friday and Saturday and the Ice started on Sunday. All weekend, we were wondering why the snow on the pines over our heads was melting and falling on us like slush. Got out of woods and electricity was starting to cut left and right, strange feeling of ''what did we missed?'', we got 2 days more of camping than anyone. 2 weeks of fireplace, ran out of wood and went in the forest to get some, dangerous idea has the thick chunk ice in the trees was falling on our heads with the wind, the wood was not good for the fire so gave up and went to Montreal for electricity.
One fun out of this was to do mountain bike in Mount St-Bruno on the icy snow. The whole mountain was like a 'green golf' terrain so hard we could bike down in places i would not even think of in summer. Wish i had a video of that, that snow was unique in the world. And the lakes were like mirrors, no snow patch, all ice, best ride ever.
It's not a matter of ''if'' but when will it happen again.
Ten years after this storm, in 2008, northern New England was hit by a bad ice storm, but nothing like this. I lived in southern New Hampshire at the time, and we had no power for three days. For some of our neighbors and family, it was two weeks. To this day, ice storms are just the worst possible weather. I’m so glad to live closer to Boston now, where it’s usually not so cold.
yep. Some people couldn't even get into their cars or get them to move, frozen to the ground. Freezing rain goes on for awhile and you won't even be able to get out of your house. Got lucky buildings weren't collapsing
I still remember vividly when I made my toasts over a candle then I looked outside and saw lightning. I was like great, ice storm is now a thunderstorm as well.
I was only 4 when it happened. I lived in the Southshore on Montreal. I remember going to my Grandparents because they had power. I don't remember much of it, but it was exciting in the eyes of a preschooler. It's really cool to see how disastrous it really was.
exactly same for me! i was 4 and we were living in granby and had to go to my grandparents for weeks in the laurentides
I think many of us who were young at the time really had no idea how bad it was, we were sheltered by our loved ones. The news clips really hammered home how disastrous it was.
@@DiscoverMontréal yes definitely! i've seen some reportages from it before but everytime it's still so devastating to see
I was a kid at the time living in Kanata Ontario (a suburb of Ottawa). Watching this documentary reminds me of that sound of snapping trees as they were about to fall over.. instant flashbacks. I remember the entire family huddling in the living room next to the fireplace for what seemed like days. Eventually, our grandparents in the East end of the city got their power back and we stayed with them for a couple of days until power was restored in our neighborhood. don’t know how we got to their place is they had the longest steepest driveway I’ve ever seen in my life. Have no idea how we actually got into their house as their driveway was like a ski hill under normal circumstances. If memory serves me well we were without power for about five or six days. As a kid I wasn’t as scared as I would be now, this is for sure. Great documentary, and a reminder of a crazy distant memory.
I do remember that winter, I was 23 years old and my son was 3 years, we went to my moms house, actually my whole family was at my mom's house because she had electricity... it was scary. The first day of the storm, I went to bring my son to kindergarden and I went to get him maybe an 1 hour after I left him there... it was getting worst by the minute. It was beautiful but so dangerous, it was like bombs of ice falling. I will never forget that ice storm. Tomorrow will be the 25th anniversary of that winter.
I live in Maine, and was only 7 when this ice storm hit, but it was insane. I remember freezing our food in snow/ice drifts on the deck with no power for at least a week.
5:20 That noise! That's what I remember about this time.
Lived in ON when this happened and I'll never forget it. Everything was encased in ice. The porch, the roof, the bushes, the trees, the vehicles. It was bananas. We were so fortunate to have a stocked wood-burning fireplace. We all lived in the living room for about a week and had to bail the sump pump out by hand. I remember the Army coming to our door to check on us. Totally nuts.
I was 12 when it happened. I remember clearly coming back from my friend's house the Sunday afternoon when it all started. I was playing to walk over the snow coated with ice without breaking it. We lost power over the next days. Since my parents were into camping we had warm winter sleeping bags and camping stove and fuel. Luckily, we were in Laval, outside the worst areas. We had power back within days but only for short periods and in alternance. My best friend was living in the other sector. So, our families were moving from house to house depending which one had electricity. I remember having a good with with my family and my friend.
I lived through this and I never want to go through anything like it ever again.
Amen to that ❤
I remember this, I was young Cpl in the CAF and flew in from Winnipeg. I remember the ice falling and hitting my Sgt when he was warning us of the ice falling. It was also so dark.
I was 7 when this happened.. my little brother was born during the ice storm.
My dad was a linesman and I remember seeing so little of him at the time. The whole family gathered anything we had and we spent a month down the road living at my grandmother's with one small generator and her wood stove. I remember the adults took shifts day and night to keep the stove going.
We lived out in the country, surrounded by mostly forests, one of the memories that stands out to me the most is how deathly silent it was some days afterwards, save for the constant snapping of trees and creaking of the ice echoing all around us at all times of the day and night.
I remember looking out at in the fields and seeing the power towers in the distance folded like paper from the weight of the ice.
I remember cutting and stacking firewood with my uncle and my dad when he would come home. Cleaning the ashes out of the stove.
I remember my family digging a hole in the ice and snow in the yard by the back door and using it as a freezer
My moms side of the family owned the corner store in the village and we were rationing water jugs and snacks for our neighbours.
Some nights, families would walk around visiting each other and just hangout around the fire for hours, I remember all the folding chairs people left in my grandma's basement.
I remember my using skates to get to the store sometimes.
I got really good at lighting candles and playing card games.
I remember my newborn brother constantly crying and along with the storm and our uncomfortable living situation, we never got much sleep.
I remember some of our farming neighbours losing livestock..
Car accidents in front of the house.
I remember lots of people looking out for each other every day. Small village, everyone knows everyone.☺
To this day we still lose some of the trees that were permanently bent from the ice. The amount of downed trees changed the path of the creek in the woods and it effected the whole ecosystem around my family's house.
I live in Ontario and remember hearing about how bad it was down there. I knew they were without power for almost a month. I did not hear how it took down the power lines. It quite literally destroyed the towers.
i was 22yrs old. i'm from st-jean-sur-richelieu, one of the three points of the dark triangle. no power for just under 7 weeks... in a canadian winter. it has to be around 0degrees celsius for freezing rain to occur, but this was non-stop for 5 days... after that, the temps dropped. old folks homes evacuated into high school gyms with army cots & a few generators. stores price gouging (10 bucks for a 5-pack of candles that usually went for 1.99), can't drive, can't walk. crime went up about 30%, mostly teen gangs taking advantage of the absence of electricity, nothing overly violent. everything just stopped, except for those fantastic electrical workers that went 24/7. oh, & the silence in the city, weird. just the sounds of cracking ice from time to time. similar to the covid lockdown, a lot of folks got back into their creative/artistic side, & there was a baby boom 10 months later. pros & cons, i guess.
It’s terrifying cause the narrator will list these terrible things happening each day and then kept saying “but it’s far from over” or “but the next day something worse happened” and it happened for weeks for people! This definitely made me tear up, these are some strong people
they didn't do it justice. I didn't hear if my grandpa survived or was okay until March. He was stuck up on Riguad Mountain. Only because he had a fireplace and a lot of wood stacked did he not freeze to death. Afterwards he ripped out his beautiful fireplaces and put in ugly woodstoves. With all the trees down I got to stack firewood for 5 years afterwards
It truly was a super storm. We Quebecers pride ourselves on be resilient to the insane weather we see. But the 98 ice storm was our infamy. I was only 3 years old and at the time my parents and I were living in upstate new York as my was going to school there. But my mother being a nurse and my dad seeing his family back home would need help we went back. I don't remember much at all honestly but my grandmother has an album of pictures from the storm. My dad and his brothers went to help a local logger in Pincourt on Ile Perrot to help clear roads and cut up fallen trees. There is a photo of my dad and his brothers standing up on a massive fallen tree cutting it up like Nordic warriors against endless ice Armageddon. The hydro workers were true heroes in those crucial days in January 1998. They kept that one line standing and we stood up to mother nature.
We know she will be back....she always is every year....that's why the new towers we built are re-enforced. That why many of us have generators now in our house and chain saws in garages. We will fight the ice again....yet I hope not to this level.
As disastrous as it was, it could have been way way worse. Millions were very lucky that the temperatures for the week or so without power remained just below zero. Had we gone into a deep freeze, which was extremely possible after the ice storm, the results would have been unimaginable.
So true! We were lucky in our bad luck...
Thats what i wanted to know thank you. So maybe, even without heat, keeping under many blankets and in a sleeping bag would have helped?
I don’t deal with the cold. I’m located in Texas and we deal with miserable heat waves temperatures in Texas can reach 115 to 120 and without power your house can be as high as 107. Degrees the worst heat wave I ever been through was 2011 the opposite of this storm the 2011 heat wave lasted around 117 days