The Ice Storm

I must consider me lucky; I live on the north shore of Montreal, and it's the south shore that has been the most affected by the ice storm. I anyway lived certain events, I felt like the time stops and have been witness of an unreal night. I was even afraid for my life and the life of my wife at a certain time, and was impressed and excited by all that occurred and what I saw at other times.

There was already ice showers since Monday, but it's since Wednesday, January 7th, 1998 that we knew that there was something wrong with the weather. It was like if the clouds didn't move anymore. Like if they had been parked above the city. And the weather was not very encouraging for the next hours since they announced worse weather for Thursday and Friday.

In the morning of Thursday, January 8th, 1998, the Public Security asked employers and employees to stay at home, in order to reduce circulation on the roads and in downtown area and also to ration electricity.

In fact, at this same moment while I'm writing these lines, we are Saturday-night, January 10th, 1998. Since 3 days, I have no news from my boss, I just can't communicate with him in any way, and I didn't go to work Thursday and Friday; anywhere roads were slipping, trees and electric poles were falling, so it would have not been a good idea to be in the streets at that time.

What I've seen, until the Friday night, was limited to the view I had from the window of my house and to the TV news, because we were one of the lucky ones to still have electricity.

Friday has begun hardly with... a thunderstorm! Yes, I know... it's winter. I try to filmed lightning a little bit, but this kind of winter thunderstorm (extremely rare) produce lightning that don't touch the ground. The flashes occurs between clouds.But it was very strange, with the ice floes hung to my roof, the ice falling from the sky, then flashes and thunder.

We still had electricity but the phone stopped functionning approximately at 3:00pm. The cellular phone of my neighbor gave me a good service helping me to finalize the organization of a little party between friends. This temperature was not going to make me cancel a party envisaged since a long time. My friends were in the same city as me (Laval, Quebec), but about 30 minutes of driving was necessary to go there.

On my way, I had the impression to drive in sand since the layer of ice was so thick on the road. But it wasn't sand but ice and that slipped!

On a road intersection, a surrealist vision for this area of the country: 7 or 8 army trucks stopping at a gas station. It was like if we were in war. But they were there to help us.

We finally arrived alive at the party. Simple precaution after having parked the car: we covered the windshield with a piece of plastic bag to avoid having to thaw it at the end of the evening. At that moment, it was still falling a little glaze.

During the evening, a cracking in the roof, similar to a collapse or a long thunder clap, surprised and worried us a little bit. By the window, on several occasions we saw blue gleams in the sky, signs which transformers exploded. Our dear friends had a large tranformer, hung to a pole in their backyard, and it made strange noise... The lights in the appartment flickered a little bit sometimes, but there was still electricity.

At the end of the evening, like a good husband, I proposed to go outside to the car to remove snow, ice, and to heat the car a little while. Stepping outside... surprise!

The world had changed...

Everything is quiet... the temperature much softer... but the sky illuminates blue gleams unceasingly, and we hear crackings everywhere; the ice, accumulated since Monday on wire, roofs and trees, had started to melt, detached and fall on the ground with crash noises. The only path which I can get to the car forces me to go down by the frozen staircases while passing under an enormous tree which violently launches its ice projectiles on the ground with the least breeze.

Did you ever played this game where you have to avoid a ball thrown at you by your class-mates, when you were young? Well that game was now played between me and this tree. I had to guess the good moment for me to run, then, to pass quickly under the tree while going down the staircases without falling on the ground, trying to avoid receiving one of these missiles on the head. And hoping that a branch won't detached itself either.

In fact, I had to cross this path 3 times, the 3rd time with my wife by my side. We just avoided serious injuries, tons of pieces of ice bursted on the ground behind us just after we crossed.

It wasn't over! We had to go back home. I first could noticed the bad shape of the road while sliding with the car on ten meters long, the foot however on the brake. On our way home, my wife took the camera. She filmed a little while, some luminous blue flashes in the sky, then the camera shut down itself, victim of moisture.

The same duel that I just had with the tree, I was now having it with the electric wires crossing above the road, same as with the streets lights, circulation fires and bridges. From all of these objects, enormous quantities of ice were detached, falling on the ground with crash. I could only trust my luck, hoping that none of these pieces reach the car. In my head, I calculated: driving to 60km/h, the pieces must fall about the same speed so what would be the damage if one of these pieces struck the windshield?...

So we arrived at home... it's dark... very dark... too dark... no more luck for us: no more electricity. And my twisted key does not fit anymore the lock of the house front door! We tested my wife key: it worked! We entered...

I took the flashlight whereas my wife lighted 3 candles. The temperature inside indicate 19 celcius degrees. It was less cold than we believed; time is 2:00am. We evaluated the time of the power failure for 2 hours approximately (We will know later than electricity had missed in fact since 10:00pm the day before... the house must be well isolated).

It's late, the phone is still not functionning yet; so we decided to spend the night here, under a heap of covers and cloths, and to leave in the morning to my parents place if there were no changes. Without heating, in winter, in Quebec, in a well isolated house, we evaluated that the house loses approximately 1 degree per hour.

Before going to bed, I got outside with my video camera to film a little while. Environment is strange... everything seems to be stopped, dead... silence, at infinity, is broken by the cracking noises... by ice and branches which were breaking... then far away, at a certain time, after the explosion of a transformer, the noise of an unspecified alarm which started... It was something like the end of the world...

Ice detached suddenly from the roof of my neighbor and crushed on the ground, making me jumped. It's then the turn of my house roof to lose pieces. This crashing noise, we will hear it some times, all night long.

Environment is sinister. It's like if the city is falling in pieces, after a bombardment.

Once inside the house, I installed my camera on the tripod, then I filmed a few hours. Several thick covers and cloths covered us and between us, a walkman, functioning with batteries, gave us last informations on the catastrophe...

My camera filmed many of the big blue, green or white flashes.

6:00 in the morning, my wife awoke me; electricity is back!

We had been extremely lucky. Some people will not have electricity for more than 2 weeks. Some peoples were sleeping on small beds folding stools, in lodging houses where are piled up thousands of men, women and childrens. Everyone lived together, in the same room. Parents are afraid for their childrens. Pedophiles would already have been arrested. There are also witness of parents beating their childrens. People are very nervous. Showers are rare.

But there is also a miracle. 11 or 12 deaths maybe, since the beginning of this ice storm. It's already too much, but it's little comparing to the significant events. Also, it is surprising and reassuring to note at which point we are able to organize us, here, in our small peace of planet where catastrophes are however a rare event.

Saturday night, January 10th, 1998. My parents, who initially proposed me a room at their home in the event of problem, have just went back to their residence; it's finally them who had needed my assistance. But they were also lucky; electricity has been back after a lack of only 24 hours...

One month later, in the pieces of ice which broke while falling from the roof of my car shelter, we could read all the ice storm history in Fabreville, Laval (Quebec), and the various periods of ice or glaze, as a geologist would read a stone block.