The Ice Event - A Personal Tale

The Ice Storm (or event as I'm calling it) began Dec 20th and continued through Dec 21st, 2013. The temperature was just right for freezing rain; a degree or two warmer and it would have just been rain; a degree or two colder and we would have had snow.

Throughout Saturday the rain continued and the ice accumulated. Layer after layer built up. It looked beautiful but was treacherous for walking and driving. Everyone knew the potential existed for power outages due to trees and power lines falling due to the weight of the accumulated ice. It was just a matter of waiting to see if it would affect us.
For me the power remained on throughout the night on Saturday until about 2 am Sunday morning when it went out.
I was up at dawn and decided to take a walk outside with my camera. Walking was difficult. It was more like skating with boots on. I had to be very careful and tried to avoid walking under trees. Every sixty seconds or so you would see or hear a branch falling. Of course many branches were already on the ground, in the road or on top of people's cars.

It had stopped raining when I first went out but started again while I was walking. It cut short my photographing of the scene. I returned home covered in a thin layer of ice. Fortunately the house was still fairly warm.
The power stayed off until close to 10 am. Then it returned. I thought that we had got off quite easy. Many other people lost it and did not get it back. The only thing I didn't have have cable and internet. That actually did not return until Thursday night. It is amazing how much we rely on things like the internet in our modern world. You don't notice how much you use it until it is gone for five days. So the rest of the day was fine, no cable, no internet but I had power.
I had power until late Sunday night. Then, boom, gone again.

This time it stayed off. The house did get cold, although not too cold if you were snuggled up under a blanket. I was babysitting my five year old niece. We had a good time. I cooked dinner on my camp stove, we listened to music on my ipod (until it ran out of power), and played with toys by candle light. The biggest concern I had was the battery on my phone was dying. I was using that to get updates on the power situation and to keep in contact with people.

The power stated off until Monday morning.
It was nice to have it back on. There were many people just blocks away that went with nothing until Boxing Day (Thursday).
We did loose it again Thursday for a few hours. A birch tree in the neighbour's yard had a broken branch dangling over the hydro wires. I guess once the sheath of ice had worn off the wire and the branch, it started to smoke. The neighbour noticed and asked me what we should do. Since the branch was now starting to burn, I told her to call the 911 and ask for fire. They were on the scene in under two minutes. As they arrived the whole branch was in flames. It was less than a minute after they arrived, as we stood in the backyard watching it burn, that there was an explosion which both put out the fire and took the power out again. Fortunately it wasn't too long before crews came to remove the branch and power was restored.

All in all it made for an interesting and memorable Christmas.