Eastern Canada Ice Storm

[Disneylover99]

Are you still there? How is it?

A family member is off to Australia via Buffalo today. I told her to go yesterday morning and stay over but NOPE. Hopefully, she gets through fine.

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Have a wonderful time.

It's a beautiful winter wonderland, like Gina's pictures. We went for a walk this morning in the drizzle. It wasn't slippery to walk, but we had a heck of a time getting into our car. We had to move it because it looked like a tree was about to topple down on it.

No power outages though. There is hardly anyone at our hotel. We feel like we're in our own little bubble and we don't want to leave.

 

[lisaviolet]

It's a beautiful winter wonderland, like Gina's pictures. We went for a walk this morning in the drizzle. It wasn't slippery to walk, but we had a heck of a time getting into our car. We had to move it because it looked like a tree was about to topple down on it.

No power outages though. There is hardly anyone at our hotel. We feel like we're in our own little bubble and we don't want to leave.

I'm sighing. I used to do this every year for quite a stretch - staying in Niagara Falls the weekend before Christmas. A lot of fun! Good memories and great deals. I'm totally skilled at getting them too!

Well maybe you shouldn't then!

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Gina, your pictures are just beautiful. Brings so much beauty and so many problems.

 

[OnceUponATime15]

Yikes! I live in Pickering too and I was wondering about the situation there. We are supposed to go home tomorrow, but maybe we'll stay an extra day. I don't want to go home to a freezing house.

I'm still in the dark & it's getting colder by the hour. I'm getting veridian updates on twitter.. All areas around me are now beginning to report service resumption... I'm not so patiently waiting for my turn.

 

[vacation_junkie]

Oh What a night here in Southern Niagara!
Heavy downpours and crazy wind.
I heard the house go silent at 3am.
I went to round up a bunch of flashlights by ipad light! (Why didn't I think of flashlights before bed?) Of course DS robbed many of the portable light devices of all of their batteries for his toys! (Mom not impressed).
You could hear the cracking of trees falling in the distance. Kind of creepy sounding. I thought it was a transformer popping but it was a couple trees.
DH had to be on call for 6am, lucky the hospital is right around the corner from our house. Hospital on generators so he left early and went in.
The power came back on at about 8am.
Little brother called because the sump pump didn't work cause the power was out when they were sleeping. So I just spent the past 6 hours sucking up water, tearing up carpet. Their basement was flooded!
On a positive note. An upright carpet cleaner works wonders for sucking up water. Better then a shop vac.
On the side street from my house there was a car that ended up flooded when the ditch breached. This is it after most of the water subsided.

My car was a block of ice. There was inch of ice on my poor Mickey head! I guess That serves me right for not parking in the garage.

Our power went out again about 9ish. Was out for about 6 hours.

I'm finally back home. the power keeps flicking. If it goes out again I'm gonna scream!

I hope we are over the worst of it!
I hope everyone keeps safe & dry.

 

[lisaviolet]

So sorry to hear. Here's to tomorrow being a better day.

 

[vacation_junkie]

So sorry to hear. Here's to tomorrow being a better day.

Were all warm dry and now their basement is water free so its all good! They need to buy a back up sump pup for when the power goes out.

Lots of people around have more damage then that. Plus the poor sap that was swallowed up by the ditch the car is a total write up. When I took the picture they were attempting to get the car ready to tow it out. They had the car door open. The water was up past the dash!

 

[Disneylover99]

Keep warm everyone! Hopefully everyone gets power back soon!
It's business as usual in the touristy part of Niagara.
So back to the hot tub I go....

 

[Sprockie]

Wow, this bring me back to 1998's ice storm. I hope it doesn't get that bad. We're north of Kingston and our power was out for 22 days!!!!!!!
I hope everyone's power is restored by now.

 

[Disneylover99]

Freaky!!!!!

I just turned on CP24 for an update and I saw my house in the background. They were interviewing my neighbour who was using a chainsaw to cut up trees that were blocking the road.

 

[busyshrew]

We're in the Kitchener-Waterloo region and our own power went out around 10:00am. We ate some breakfast and DH & I washed up (while there was still hot water in the tank). Then we were plenty bored so we all headed out around 1:30 pm.

Everything coated in ice. DD called it "beauty and devastation", very poetic for a 9 year old girl. Power outages were patchy all across town.

We wound up eating out at a restaurant that did have power (it was pretty busy), and then stopped by to check on my parents (who luckily had power almost the entire time).

We're back home and our own hydro is back on, thank goodness and thanks to all the hard-working utilities people! Unfortunately our computer server got fried in the outage so we'll have to look at fixing that.

Hope everybody is able to be warm and safe tonight. We were supposed to go out to church service but with the OPP asking everyone to stay home we will cosy up in front of our fireplace and watch Christmas movies.

 

[alohamom]

I am just north of Milton in Halton Hills and it is bad here! We have not had power since 9:30 last night. We are very fortunate to have a generator so we have the fridge, tv and furnace but no stove, no water pump and no real lights-just a few lamps. I really feel for any one who has no power tonight, it is going to be very cold. We went out for a drive this aft just down our road and back and it is terrible, so many trees down and so many power lines down too. I really doubt we will have power back any time soon. Take care everyone and hopefully we will all be back to normal soon!

 

[scrappinginontario]

Wow, this bring me back to 1998's ice storm. I hope it doesn't get that bad. We're north of Kingston and our power was out for 22 days!!!!!!!

WOW!!! When i was in line at Tim's today (because that's where everyone goes when the power comes back on! ) we were talking about 1998 but I didn't remember how bad it was.

22 days??!!! What did you do? Did you have to find an alternate place to live for that time? What did work places do? I can't imagine how awful 22 days would be!!

Hope you were able to miss this one!

 

[Sprockie]

WOW!!! When i was in line at Tim's today (because that's where everyone goes when the power comes back on! ) we were talking about 1998 but I didn't remember how bad it was.

22 days??!!! What did you do? Did you have to find an alternate place to live for that time? What did work places do? I can't imagine how awful 22 days would be!!

Hope you were able to miss this one!

We have missed this one - not so much as a flicker in hydro (touch wood) - we still live in a rural area north east of Kingston, but not as remote as 1998. We lived on Opinicon Lake then and were one of the last to be restored because there weren't many of us who lived on the road. There were about 3 neighbours and us who worked together all day - helping each other and cutting ourselves out towards the road. The trees were so bent and broken you couldn't tell where the road was. We heated our house with wood anyway and we cut holes in the ice and hauled up lake water to flush toilets and wash. We rotated for dinner at everyone's house and ate well (had to eat what was thawed from the freezer) and had lots to drink. We had a few generators we shared and after about a week, some local people worked from the other end of the road to get to us and we were finally able to drive out to get supplies. We'd lay in bed at night and listen to the crashing of the trees in the bush around us.
We didn't have any kids at the time, but I felt sorry for those who did.
Everyone on our road was self employed or retired, so no panic to get out for work.
When I talk to others in our community about the ice storm, we all have really great stories to share about how everyone worked together and how it really showed the generosity and true colours of people. I hope it never happens again, but to us, it was some good times and fond memories.

 

[papertraveller]

Our power came on today after a 26-hour outage. Trees in the neighbourhood are a disaster zone -- there is still so much ice up there you worry that more limbs will fall.

We managed okay. Cooked bacon and eggs for dinner on the bbq, then gathered around the fireplace to play cards. The house temperature dropped to the low 60s by the time the power was restored.

Fortunately, after last summer's flood we invested in a battery back-up for the sump pump so that was running like a charm. The contractor has only just finished the repair work from the flood damage now, so I don't think we could have faced another flood!

My heart goes out to all those still affected by the storm. It's a nasty one.

 

[EastYorkDisneyFan]

It's not too bad on my street. Only one house has a power line down right now.

There are some down on other side streets as well and a couple of trees down too. Other then that just a lot of ice and snow. Thankfully the Ice on the power lines has all melted.

 

[OnceUponATime15]

After 41 plus hours We got our power back late this afternoon.

Time to put Christmas back on track!

Now if Rogers could just get the cable restored....

Lolz... one thing at a time I guess.

 

[minnie mum]

Just to show how quirky and random these power outages can be: we escaped the storm with only a very short outage Sunday night. Congratulated ourselves on being so lucky and commiserated with those subjected to prolonged dark and cold. Woke up this morning to no power!!! Hydro One was saying that they expected the power to be back on at 6 tonight. And we're expecting the family for dinner But all is well now. The power came back on a few minutes ago. Coffee is definitely a must while I check my To Do list. Merry Christmas everyone.

 

[alohamom]

Still no power and no sign of of it coming on anytime soon. We are rural, just north of Milton.The hydro company website says they need to clear trees from the lines and attach the lines before they can power it up. I totally understand that BUT there have been no tree cutting trucks out in our rural area at all. Friends of ours were trapped on their dead end road until yesterday, one resident had a friend hike in with medication, the trees completly covered the road and it was impassable. This is actually so very disappointing that the Town of Milton has abandoned us. I get that it is Christmas but this is an emergency situation. We are fortunate to have a generator but cant run everything on it. At least we had each other for christmas today. Cheese and crackers, sausage on the bbq with salad-wasnt a traditional xmas meal but it was food. I feel for any one elderly or sick!

 

[susanv]

It must be a Halton thing Alohamom, we just got our power back on last night around 7 (right after Mass, good timing, eh?) and my MIL up the road still has no power. Both of us rural Halton (Terra Cotta) only I'm lucky enough to live right on the main road where as she lives on a sideroad and her power is contracted out from Caledon.

I pray your power comes back on soon. They say possibly Saturday or Sunday for my MIL, I hope yours happens sooner than that.

 

[Disneylover99]

My dad lives in Scarborough......still no power for him.