Ice storm 98
In early January 1998, just as people were getting back to work after the holidays, a major ice storm began over Montreal and surrounding areas. Between January 5 and January 10 some areas withstood as much as 100 mm of ice, a weight that pulled down trees and electrical transmission towers alike.
We had dealt with ice storms before, but never one that lasted five days and brought with it thunder and lightning: the mood was apocalyptic. One day a rumour started that the city was going to have to shut down the water filtration plants, and everyone ran around filling up containers until the news came that it would not have to be done after all. There were runs on supplies, stories of emergency candles being sold for five dollars apiece.
Much of Montreal and the surrounding areas were plunged into darkness. Indeed an area east of Montreal, nicknamed the Triangle of Darkness, was without power for almost three weeks. In the city some lucky people never lost power, while most dealt with power outages for several days, and some in the suburbs also had to cope with more than a week without electricity.
Meawhile the streets were full of ice and broken branches. The army was called in and began to help clear the dead trees. Parts of downtown were off limits because of the risk of ice slabs falling off buildings.
Things gradually returned to normal after vast repairs and expenditure by Hydro-Quebec.
We have a few photos showing scenes around the Plateau during the storm.
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