1998 ice storm in Eastern Canada

Ice storms can be pretty amazing. We had one in 1991 which knocked out power for 13 days. The ice was really thick on the trees and electrical wires (and cars, and stoops, and mailboxes, etc.) and added literally tons of weight. I remember that first night we could hear frozen rain hitting the roof, then for hours, random 'gunshots' as tree limbs, whole trees, power lines, power poles, and whatnot broke. We got the kids up and went to the basement; we had a lot of trees on that property and didn't want one killing us.

I understand the one that hit Canada a few years later was just as bad, maybe worse. Is any part of the TV show online? I'd love to see some footage.

Maryn, who remembers it well

i remember it because I was on a flight from London to Pittsburgh, via Montreal. The plane obviously couldn't land there and I had to try and explain to the lad in the seat next to mine that he wouldn't be getting off in Montreal, a deed made difficult because (a) I don't speak French and (b) he was hearing-impaired. Luckily, he could read English, so I wrote down what was happening.

It affected our return flight too. The flight was cancelled and we had to fly to London via Detroit, which at the time, had the most depressing International Departures Terminal ever.

The 1998 ice storm affected New England (US) as well, including the state of Maine, where I lived at the time. My parents were without power for nearly a week. We fared better and didn't lose power on our street (in a different city), though the streets on either side of ours did.

That ice storm is most memorable to me because I didn't find out it had happened until 24 hours later...I was a little over 2 months pregnant at the time and had come down with a massive stomach bug. I couldn't even keep water down. So I was in the hospital with an IV, and I literally slept through the entire storm. Woke up the next morning and turned on the news to see pictures of incredible destruction--and some of incredible, though dangerous, beauty.

This is from the archives of the canadian weather channel:
http://www.theweathernetwork.com/news/storm_watch_stories3&stormfile=topstorms2_01_06_2009

At the peak of the storm, the area of freezing precipitation extended from Muskoka and Kitchener in Ontario through eastern Ontario, western Quebec and the Eastern Townships to the Fundy coasts of New Brunswick and Nova Scotia. In the United States, icing coated Northern New York and parts of New England.

Click to expand...

I remember that ice storm really well. At the time I was attending high school in the far reaches of Northern Ontario, where we regularly receive winter temperatures anywhere from 0C to -40C. A freezing rain storm is extremely unpleasant in those conditions, and this one was so large and prolonged... Luckily our town was out of the affected area, but having lived for so many years in similar, though less severe, conditions, one can't help but sympathize.