North American ice storm of 1998
Encyclopedia
The North American ice storm of 1998 (also known as Great Ice Storm of 1998 and Great Ice Storm '98) was a massive combination of five smaller successive ice storm
s which combined to strike a relatively narrow swath of land from eastern
Ontario
to southern Quebec
to Nova Scotia
in Canada
, and bordering areas from northern New York
to central Maine
in the United States
, in January 1998. It caused massive damage to trees and electrical infrastructure all over the area, leading to widespread long-term power outages. Millions were left in the dark for periods varying from days to weeks, leading to more than 30 fatalities, a shut down of activities in large cities like Montreal
and Ottawa
, and an unprecedented effort in reconstruction of the power grid. The ice storm led to the largest deployment of Canadian military personnel since the Korean War, with over 15,000 Canadian Forces
personnel deployed in Ontario, Québec and New Brunswick at the height of the crisis.
is common in Canada and New England
, generally occurring at the narrow boundary between cold air from the East and North and moist air from the South. Typically, a warm air mass will travel northward along the Mississippi Valley and overrun a shallow layer of cold air trapped at the surface. Such a favourable cold air damming happens with an east to northeasterly flow in the St. Lawrence and the Ottawa Valley
, and along the axis of the Appalachian Mountains
.
Snow is produced at upper level in such a winter storm system but it eventually melts into rain as it falls through the warm air layer, above freezing temperature, associated with the overrunning. The rain passes through colder air near the surface and supercools. When that rain touches the ground in the cold air below, the droplets freeze on contact, creating accumulations of ice. If the cold air layer is too thick, the droplets refreeze before hitting the ground and form ice pellets
which are less hazardous.
The Montreal
area typically receives freezing rain
between 12 and 17 times a year, averaging between 45 and 65 total hours of rain. However, a freezing rain storm usually lasts only a few hours and leaves a few millimetres of accumulations. It renders roads and sidewalks slippery, causing minor traffic collisions, but road crews use de-icing material to take care of it. Power lines and other equipment are built according to tough standards since large accumulation events happened many times prior to 1998. In Quebec, standards were reinforced after a storm left 30 to 40 millimeters (1 to 1.5 inches) of ice over Montreal in 1961.
Prior to the 1998 storm, the last major ice storm to hit Montreal (1961) deposited around 30 to 60 millimetres (1½ to 2¼ inches) of ice. However, the 1998 storm left deposits twice as thick, downing power lines all over the region, damaging most of the trees in Montreal, and leaving streets covered in a thick, impassable layer of ice.
On January 4, 1998, an upper level low system stalled over the Great Lakes
, pumping warm and moist air from the Gulf of Mexico
toward the upper St. Lawrence Valley. The upper flow then turned eastward, bringing this air mass down toward the Bay of Fundy
. At the same time, a high pressure center was sitting farther north in Labrador
, keeping an easterly flow of very cold air near the surface. For the winter, an unusually strong Bermuda
high pressure area
was anchored over the Atlantic Ocean
, which prevented these systems from moving further to the east, as most winter storms do when they pass over the Great Lakes–St. Lawrence region.
A series of surface low pressure systems passed in this atmospheric circulation
between January 5 and January 10, 1998. For more than 80 hours, steady freezing rain and drizzle fell over an area of several thousand square miles of Eastern Ontario
, including Ottawa and Kingston
, an extensive area in southern Quebec, northern New York, and northern New England (including parts of Vermont
, New Hampshire
and Maine
).
Farther to the south, southern Ontario and western New York, as well as much of the Appalachian region from Tennessee
northward, received heavy rain and severe flooding, while further east, the Canadian Maritimes
mostly received heavy snow. Exacerbating the problem was a steep drop in temperature that immediately followed the passage of the freezing rain, which combined with the extreme power outages led to numerous indirect deaths due to carbon monoxide
poisoning from generators and other sources as people desperately tried to remain warm.
collapsed in chain reactions under the weight of the ice, leaving more than 4 million people without electricity
, most of them in southern Quebec
, western New Brunswick
and Eastern Ontario
, some of them for an entire month. At least twenty-five people died in the areas affected by the ice, primarily from hypothermia
, according to Environment Canada
. Twelve more deaths and hundreds of millions of dollars in additional damage were caused by the flooding farther south from the same storm system.
The bridges and tunnels linking Montreal with the South Shore were closed because of concerns about weight tolerances or ice chunks falling from the superstructures. All but one power linkage to the island of Montreal were down for several days, disabling both of the city's water pumping stations. When power was restored, parts of Montreal remained impassable due to large chunks of ice falling from rooftops and endangering pedestrians and motorists; large portions of Old Montreal
and the downtown core were cordoned off by police, due to the dangers of large sheets of ice falling from buildings.
The area south of Montreal (Montérégie
) was so affected that the triangle formed by Saint-Hyacinthe
, Granby
and Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu was nicknamed the triangle noir ("dark or black triangle") by the French-language media, and the Triangle of Darkness in English media, for the total lack of electricity for weeks.
Cities such as Ottawa
, Smiths Falls
, and other Eastern Ontario
municipalities, that had never experienced such an amount of freezing rain, declared a state of emergency. On January 7, Ontario, Quebec, and New Brunswick called on the help of the Canadian Forces
, prompting the deployment of more than 15,000 military personnel at the peak of the crisis. In addition to help residents, CN
locomotive
s (CN3502 and CN3555) were moved off the tracks and used to provide power to residents of Boucherville
and Coteau-du-Lac
, south and west of Montreal respectively. A third locomotive was moved to Boucherville, but never actually put to use.
The loss of electrical power also greatly affected pig and cattle farmers, as they could no longer provide water or adequate ventilation to their barns full of livestock, leading to the death of many animals. Many barns also collapsed under the weight of the ice, killing the animals trapped inside.
Millions of trees were brought down by the weight of ice
around the affected areas. As many trees were damaged or fell by the heavy ice, the maple syrup
and orchard
regions suffered heavy blows and massive losses in the storm; Quebec's maple sugar industry, the largest in the world, was devastated. As another example, 5,000 trees in Montreal's Mount Royal Park
had to be cut, 80% (140,000) of the rest were damaged to different degrees and had to be trimmed, a large number severely. The mountain park looked more like a logging camp than a nature oasis for many weeks.
Critically, about 1,000 steel electrical pylons
(said, in Quebec, to be the most solid in the world) and 35,000 wooden utility pole
s were crushed and crumpled by the weight of the ice, further damaging power supply and hampering the return of electricity. Teams were brought in from places such as Prince Edward Island
and Nova Scotia
, along with teams from the United States and the Canadian Forces, to help restore power to affected homes in eastern Ontario and western Quebec.
Roughly 700,000 of Maine's 1.2 million residents were without electricity, the Maine National Guard
was mobilized, and hundreds of utility crews from as far away as North Carolina
arrived to help.
Three weeks after the end of the ice storm, there were still thousands of people without electricity. In Quebec alone, 150,000 persons were without electricity as of January 28. Estimates of material damages reached around $2 billion Canadian
for Quebec alone. Overall estimates are around $4–6 billion US for all the areas affected. Damage to the power grid was so severe that major rebuilding, not repairing, of the electrical grid had to be undertaken.
With many roads impassable due to heavy snowfall or fallen trees, broken power lines and coated with a heavy layer of ice, emergency vehicles could hardly move. On January 7, the provinces of New Brunswick, Ontario, and Quebec requested aid from the Canadian Forces (CF), and Operation Recuperation began on January 8. Over 15,000 troops were deployed. It was the largest deployment of troops ever to serve on Canadian soil in response to a natural disaster
, and the largest operational deployment of Canadian military personnel since the Korean War
.
CF members from about 200 units across Canada helped provincial and municipal workers clear roads, rescue people and animals trapped by storm wreckage, evacuate the sick, shelter and feed about 100,000 people frozen out of their homes, and ensure that farmers had the generators and fuel required to keep their operations going. CP-140 aircraft from 14 Wing Greenwood, NS conducted aerial imagery of the downed powerlines in Quebec and Ontario. Military engineer
s and technicians worked around the clock with hydro and telephone crews to repair and replace downed transmission towers and utility poles. On January 13, at the request of the Province of Quebec, CF members assumed the powers of peace officer
s in the most devastated areas around Montreal.
At the height of this crisis, Operation Recuperation involved 15,784 deployed personnel (including 3,740 Reservists) from all three CF commands; 10,550 in Quebec, 4,850 in Ontario and 384 in New Brunswick. In addition, 6,200 CF members and DND
employees working at their regular jobs provided the logistical support required to sustain the operation.
Ice storm
An ice storm is a type of winter storm characterized by freezing rain, also known as a glaze event or in some parts of the United States as a silver thaw. The U.S. National Weather Service defines an ice storm as a storm which results in the accumulation of at least of ice on exposed surfaces...
s which combined to strike a relatively narrow swath of land from eastern
Eastern Ontario
Eastern Ontario is a subregion of Southern Ontario in the Canadian province of Ontario which lies in a wedge-shaped area between the Ottawa River and St. Lawrence River...
Ontario
Ontario
Ontario is a province of Canada, located in east-central Canada. It is Canada's most populous province and second largest in total area. It is home to the nation's most populous city, Toronto, and the nation's capital, Ottawa....
to southern Quebec
Quebec
Quebec or is a province in east-central Canada. It is the only Canadian province with a predominantly French-speaking population and the only one whose sole official language is French at the provincial level....
to Nova Scotia
Nova Scotia
Nova Scotia is one of Canada's three Maritime provinces and is the most populous province in Atlantic Canada. The name of the province is Latin for "New Scotland," but "Nova Scotia" is the recognized, English-language name of the province. The provincial capital is Halifax. Nova Scotia is the...
in Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
, and bordering areas from northern New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
to central Maine
Maine
Maine is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States, bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the east and south, New Hampshire to the west, and the Canadian provinces of Quebec to the northwest and New Brunswick to the northeast. Maine is both the northernmost and easternmost...
in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
, in January 1998. It caused massive damage to trees and electrical infrastructure all over the area, leading to widespread long-term power outages. Millions were left in the dark for periods varying from days to weeks, leading to more than 30 fatalities, a shut down of activities in large cities like Montreal
Montreal
Montreal is a city in Canada. It is the largest city in the province of Quebec, the second-largest city in Canada and the seventh largest in North America...
and Ottawa
Ottawa
Ottawa is the capital of Canada, the second largest city in the Province of Ontario, and the fourth largest city in the country. The city is located on the south bank of the Ottawa River in the eastern portion of Southern Ontario...
, and an unprecedented effort in reconstruction of the power grid. The ice storm led to the largest deployment of Canadian military personnel since the Korean War, with over 15,000 Canadian Forces
Canadian Forces
The Canadian Forces , officially the Canadian Armed Forces , are the unified armed forces of Canada, as constituted by the National Defence Act, which states: "The Canadian Forces are the armed forces of Her Majesty raised by Canada and consist of one Service called the Canadian Armed Forces."...
personnel deployed in Ontario, Québec and New Brunswick at the height of the crisis.
Background
Freezing rainFreezing rain
Freezing rain is the name given to rain that falls when surface temperatures are below freezing. The raindrops become supercooled while passing through a sub-freezing layer of air, many hundred feet , just above the surface, and then freeze upon impact with any object they encounter. The resulting...
is common in Canada and New England
New England
New England is a region in the northeastern corner of the United States consisting of the six states of Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut...
, generally occurring at the narrow boundary between cold air from the East and North and moist air from the South. Typically, a warm air mass will travel northward along the Mississippi Valley and overrun a shallow layer of cold air trapped at the surface. Such a favourable cold air damming happens with an east to northeasterly flow in the St. Lawrence and the Ottawa Valley
Ottawa Valley
The Ottawa Valley is the valley along the boundary between Eastern Ontario and Western Quebec along the Ottawa River. The valley is the transition between the Saint Lawrence Lowlands and the Canadian Shield...
, and along the axis of the Appalachian Mountains
Appalachian Mountains
The Appalachian Mountains #Whether the stressed vowel is or ,#Whether the "ch" is pronounced as a fricative or an affricate , and#Whether the final vowel is the monophthong or the diphthong .), often called the Appalachians, are a system of mountains in eastern North America. The Appalachians...
.
Snow is produced at upper level in such a winter storm system but it eventually melts into rain as it falls through the warm air layer, above freezing temperature, associated with the overrunning. The rain passes through colder air near the surface and supercools. When that rain touches the ground in the cold air below, the droplets freeze on contact, creating accumulations of ice. If the cold air layer is too thick, the droplets refreeze before hitting the ground and form ice pellets
Ice pellets
Ice pellets are a form of precipitation consisting of small, translucent balls of ice. Ice pellets usually are smaller than hailstones. They often bounce when they hit the ground, and generally do not freeze into a solid mass unless mixed with freezing rain...
which are less hazardous.
The Montreal
Montreal
Montreal is a city in Canada. It is the largest city in the province of Quebec, the second-largest city in Canada and the seventh largest in North America...
area typically receives freezing rain
Freezing rain
Freezing rain is the name given to rain that falls when surface temperatures are below freezing. The raindrops become supercooled while passing through a sub-freezing layer of air, many hundred feet , just above the surface, and then freeze upon impact with any object they encounter. The resulting...
between 12 and 17 times a year, averaging between 45 and 65 total hours of rain. However, a freezing rain storm usually lasts only a few hours and leaves a few millimetres of accumulations. It renders roads and sidewalks slippery, causing minor traffic collisions, but road crews use de-icing material to take care of it. Power lines and other equipment are built according to tough standards since large accumulation events happened many times prior to 1998. In Quebec, standards were reinforced after a storm left 30 to 40 millimeters (1 to 1.5 inches) of ice over Montreal in 1961.
Prior to the 1998 storm, the last major ice storm to hit Montreal (1961) deposited around 30 to 60 millimetres (1½ to 2¼ inches) of ice. However, the 1998 storm left deposits twice as thick, downing power lines all over the region, damaging most of the trees in Montreal, and leaving streets covered in a thick, impassable layer of ice.
Meteorological synopsis
Great Lakes
The Great Lakes are a collection of freshwater lakes located in northeastern North America, on the Canada – United States border. Consisting of Lakes Superior, Michigan, Huron, Erie, and Ontario, they form the largest group of freshwater lakes on Earth by total surface, coming in second by volume...
, pumping warm and moist air from the Gulf of Mexico
Gulf of Mexico
The Gulf of Mexico is a partially landlocked ocean basin largely surrounded by the North American continent and the island of Cuba. It is bounded on the northeast, north and northwest by the Gulf Coast of the United States, on the southwest and south by Mexico, and on the southeast by Cuba. In...
toward the upper St. Lawrence Valley. The upper flow then turned eastward, bringing this air mass down toward the Bay of Fundy
Bay of Fundy
The Bay of Fundy is a bay on the Atlantic coast of North America, on the northeast end of the Gulf of Maine between the Canadian provinces of New Brunswick and Nova Scotia, with a small portion touching the U.S. state of Maine...
. At the same time, a high pressure center was sitting farther north in Labrador
Labrador
Labrador is the distinct, northerly region of the Canadian province of Newfoundland and Labrador. It comprises the mainland portion of the province, separated from the island of Newfoundland by the Strait of Belle Isle...
, keeping an easterly flow of very cold air near the surface. For the winter, an unusually strong Bermuda
Bermuda
Bermuda is a British overseas territory in the North Atlantic Ocean. Located off the east coast of the United States, its nearest landmass is Cape Hatteras, North Carolina, about to the west-northwest. It is about south of Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada, and northeast of Miami, Florida...
high pressure area
High pressure area
A high-pressure area is a region where the atmospheric pressure at the surface of the planet is greater than its surrounding environment. Winds within high-pressure areas flow outward due to the higher density air near their center and friction with land...
was anchored over the Atlantic Ocean
Atlantic Ocean
The Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's oceanic divisions. With a total area of about , it covers approximately 20% of the Earth's surface and about 26% of its water surface area...
, which prevented these systems from moving further to the east, as most winter storms do when they pass over the Great Lakes–St. Lawrence region.
A series of surface low pressure systems passed in this atmospheric circulation
Atmospheric circulation
Atmospheric circulation is the large-scale movement of air, and the means by which thermal energy is distributed on the surface of the Earth....
between January 5 and January 10, 1998. For more than 80 hours, steady freezing rain and drizzle fell over an area of several thousand square miles of Eastern Ontario
Eastern Ontario
Eastern Ontario is a subregion of Southern Ontario in the Canadian province of Ontario which lies in a wedge-shaped area between the Ottawa River and St. Lawrence River...
, including Ottawa and Kingston
Kingston, Ontario
Kingston, Ontario is a Canadian city located in Eastern Ontario where the St. Lawrence River flows out of Lake Ontario. Originally a First Nations settlement called "Katarowki," , growing European exploration in the 17th Century made it an important trading post...
, an extensive area in southern Quebec, northern New York, and northern New England (including parts of Vermont
Vermont
Vermont is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States of America. The state ranks 43rd in land area, , and 45th in total area. Its population according to the 2010 census, 630,337, is the second smallest in the country, larger only than Wyoming. It is the only New England...
, New Hampshire
New Hampshire
New Hampshire is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States of America. The state was named after the southern English county of Hampshire. It is bordered by Massachusetts to the south, Vermont to the west, Maine and the Atlantic Ocean to the east, and the Canadian...
and Maine
Maine
Maine is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States, bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the east and south, New Hampshire to the west, and the Canadian provinces of Quebec to the northwest and New Brunswick to the northeast. Maine is both the northernmost and easternmost...
).
Farther to the south, southern Ontario and western New York, as well as much of the Appalachian region from Tennessee
Tennessee
Tennessee is a U.S. state located in the Southeastern United States. It has a population of 6,346,105, making it the nation's 17th-largest state by population, and covers , making it the 36th-largest by total land area...
northward, received heavy rain and severe flooding, while further east, the Canadian Maritimes
Maritimes
The Maritime provinces, also called the Maritimes or the Canadian Maritimes, is a region of Eastern Canada consisting of three provinces, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, and Prince Edward Island. On the Atlantic coast, the Maritimes are a subregion of Atlantic Canada, which also includes the...
mostly received heavy snow. Exacerbating the problem was a steep drop in temperature that immediately followed the passage of the freezing rain, which combined with the extreme power outages led to numerous indirect deaths due to carbon monoxide
Carbon monoxide
Carbon monoxide , also called carbonous oxide, is a colorless, odorless, and tasteless gas that is slightly lighter than air. It is highly toxic to humans and animals in higher quantities, although it is also produced in normal animal metabolism in low quantities, and is thought to have some normal...
poisoning from generators and other sources as people desperately tried to remain warm.
Impact
Many power lines broke and over 1,000 pylonsElectricity pylon
A transmission tower is a tall structure, usually a steel lattice tower, used to support an overhead power line. They are used in high-voltage AC and DC systems, and come in a wide variety of shapes and sizes...
collapsed in chain reactions under the weight of the ice, leaving more than 4 million people without electricity
Electricity
Electricity is a general term encompassing a variety of phenomena resulting from the presence and flow of electric charge. These include many easily recognizable phenomena, such as lightning, static electricity, and the flow of electrical current in an electrical wire...
, most of them in southern Quebec
Quebec
Quebec or is a province in east-central Canada. It is the only Canadian province with a predominantly French-speaking population and the only one whose sole official language is French at the provincial level....
, western New Brunswick
New Brunswick
New Brunswick is one of Canada's three Maritime provinces and is the only province in the federation that is constitutionally bilingual . The provincial capital is Fredericton and Saint John is the most populous city. Greater Moncton is the largest Census Metropolitan Area...
and Eastern Ontario
Eastern Ontario
Eastern Ontario is a subregion of Southern Ontario in the Canadian province of Ontario which lies in a wedge-shaped area between the Ottawa River and St. Lawrence River...
, some of them for an entire month. At least twenty-five people died in the areas affected by the ice, primarily from hypothermia
Hypothermia
Hypothermia is a condition in which core temperature drops below the required temperature for normal metabolism and body functions which is defined as . Body temperature is usually maintained near a constant level of through biologic homeostasis or thermoregulation...
, according to Environment Canada
Environment Canada
Environment Canada , legally incorporated as the Department of the Environment under the Department of the Environment Act Environment Canada (EC) (French: Environnement Canada), legally incorporated as the Department of the Environment under the Department of the Environment Act Environment...
. Twelve more deaths and hundreds of millions of dollars in additional damage were caused by the flooding farther south from the same storm system.
The bridges and tunnels linking Montreal with the South Shore were closed because of concerns about weight tolerances or ice chunks falling from the superstructures. All but one power linkage to the island of Montreal were down for several days, disabling both of the city's water pumping stations. When power was restored, parts of Montreal remained impassable due to large chunks of ice falling from rooftops and endangering pedestrians and motorists; large portions of Old Montreal
Old Montreal
Old Montreal is the oldest area in the city of Montreal, Quebec, Canada, dating back to New France. Located in the borough of Ville-Marie, the area is bordered on the west by McGill St., on the north by Ruelle des Fortifications, on the east by Berri St. and on the south by the Saint Lawrence River...
and the downtown core were cordoned off by police, due to the dangers of large sheets of ice falling from buildings.
The area south of Montreal (Montérégie
Montérégie
Montérégie is an administrative region in southwest Québec. It includes the cities of Boucherville, Brossard, Granby, Longueuil, Salaberry-de-Valleyfield, Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu, Saint-Hyacinthe, Sorel-Tracy, and Vaudreuil-Dorion....
) was so affected that the triangle formed by Saint-Hyacinthe
Saint-Hyacinthe, Quebec
Saint-Hyacinthe is a city in southwestern Quebec east of Montreal on the Yamaska River. The population as of the Canada 2006 Census was 55,823. The city is located in Les Maskoutains Regional County Municipality of the Montérégie region, and is traversed by the Yamaska River which flows...
, Granby
Granby, Quebec
Granby is a city in southwestern Quebec, located east of Montreal. The population as of the Canada 2006 Census was 47,637. Granby is the seat of La Haute-Yamaska Regional County Municipality. It is the fifth most populated city in Montérégie after Longueuil, Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu, Brossard and...
and Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu was nicknamed the triangle noir ("dark or black triangle") by the French-language media, and the Triangle of Darkness in English media, for the total lack of electricity for weeks.
Cities such as Ottawa
Ottawa
Ottawa is the capital of Canada, the second largest city in the Province of Ontario, and the fourth largest city in the country. The city is located on the south bank of the Ottawa River in the eastern portion of Southern Ontario...
, Smiths Falls
Smiths Falls, Ontario
Smiths Falls is a town in Eastern Ontario, Canada. It is in the census division for Lanark County, but is considered a separated town and does not participate in county government...
, and other Eastern Ontario
Eastern Ontario
Eastern Ontario is a subregion of Southern Ontario in the Canadian province of Ontario which lies in a wedge-shaped area between the Ottawa River and St. Lawrence River...
municipalities, that had never experienced such an amount of freezing rain, declared a state of emergency. On January 7, Ontario, Quebec, and New Brunswick called on the help of the Canadian Forces
Canadian Forces
The Canadian Forces , officially the Canadian Armed Forces , are the unified armed forces of Canada, as constituted by the National Defence Act, which states: "The Canadian Forces are the armed forces of Her Majesty raised by Canada and consist of one Service called the Canadian Armed Forces."...
, prompting the deployment of more than 15,000 military personnel at the peak of the crisis. In addition to help residents, CN
Canadian National Railway
The Canadian National Railway Company is a Canadian Class I railway headquartered in Montreal, Quebec. CN's slogan is "North America's Railroad"....
locomotive
Locomotive
A locomotive is a railway vehicle that provides the motive power for a train. The word originates from the Latin loco – "from a place", ablative of locus, "place" + Medieval Latin motivus, "causing motion", and is a shortened form of the term locomotive engine, first used in the early 19th...
s (CN3502 and CN3555) were moved off the tracks and used to provide power to residents of Boucherville
Boucherville, Quebec
Boucherville is a city in the Montérégie region in Quebec, Canada. It is a suburb of Montreal on the South shore of the Saint Lawrence River....
and Coteau-du-Lac
Coteau-du-Lac, Quebec
Coteau-du-Lac is a small town in southwestern Quebec, Canada. It is on the north shore of the St. Lawrence River in the Vaudreuil-Soulanges Regional County Municipality....
, south and west of Montreal respectively. A third locomotive was moved to Boucherville, but never actually put to use.
The loss of electrical power also greatly affected pig and cattle farmers, as they could no longer provide water or adequate ventilation to their barns full of livestock, leading to the death of many animals. Many barns also collapsed under the weight of the ice, killing the animals trapped inside.
Millions of trees were brought down by the weight of ice
Ice
Ice is water frozen into the solid state. Usually ice is the phase known as ice Ih, which is the most abundant of the varying solid phases on the Earth's surface. It can appear transparent or opaque bluish-white color, depending on the presence of impurities or air inclusions...
around the affected areas. As many trees were damaged or fell by the heavy ice, the maple syrup
Maple syrup
Maple syrup is a syrup usually made from the xylem sap of sugar maple, red maple, or black maple trees, although it can also be made from other maple species such as the bigleaf maple. In cold climates, these trees store starch in their trunks and roots before the winter; the starch is then...
and orchard
Orchard
An orchard is an intentional planting of trees or shrubs that is maintained for food production. Orchards comprise fruit or nut-producing trees which are grown for commercial production. Orchards are also sometimes a feature of large gardens, where they serve an aesthetic as well as a productive...
regions suffered heavy blows and massive losses in the storm; Quebec's maple sugar industry, the largest in the world, was devastated. As another example, 5,000 trees in Montreal's Mount Royal Park
Mount Royal
Mount Royal is a mountain in the city of Montreal, immediately west of downtown Montreal, Quebec, Canada, the city to which it gave its name.The mountain is part of the Monteregian Hills situated between the Laurentians and the Appalachians...
had to be cut, 80% (140,000) of the rest were damaged to different degrees and had to be trimmed, a large number severely. The mountain park looked more like a logging camp than a nature oasis for many weeks.
Critically, about 1,000 steel electrical pylons
Electricity pylon
A transmission tower is a tall structure, usually a steel lattice tower, used to support an overhead power line. They are used in high-voltage AC and DC systems, and come in a wide variety of shapes and sizes...
(said, in Quebec, to be the most solid in the world) and 35,000 wooden utility pole
Utility pole
A utility pole is a pole used to support overhead power lines and various other public utilities, such as cable, fibre optic cable, and related equipment such as transformers and street lights. It can be referred to as a telephone pole, power pole, hydro pole, telegraph pole, or telegraph post,...
s were crushed and crumpled by the weight of the ice, further damaging power supply and hampering the return of electricity. Teams were brought in from places such as Prince Edward Island
Prince Edward Island
Prince Edward Island is a Canadian province consisting of an island of the same name, as well as other islands. The maritime province is the smallest in the nation in both land area and population...
and Nova Scotia
Nova Scotia
Nova Scotia is one of Canada's three Maritime provinces and is the most populous province in Atlantic Canada. The name of the province is Latin for "New Scotland," but "Nova Scotia" is the recognized, English-language name of the province. The provincial capital is Halifax. Nova Scotia is the...
, along with teams from the United States and the Canadian Forces, to help restore power to affected homes in eastern Ontario and western Quebec.
Roughly 700,000 of Maine's 1.2 million residents were without electricity, the Maine National Guard
Maine National Guard
The Maine Department of Defense, Veterans, and Emergency Management is a government agency of Maine. It comprises the two components of the Maine National Guard, the Maine Army National Guard and the Maine Air National Guard, the Bureau of Veterans' Affairs, and the Maine Emergency Management...
was mobilized, and hundreds of utility crews from as far away as North Carolina
North Carolina
North Carolina is a state located in the southeastern United States. The state borders South Carolina and Georgia to the south, Tennessee to the west and Virginia to the north. North Carolina contains 100 counties. Its capital is Raleigh, and its largest city is Charlotte...
arrived to help.
Three weeks after the end of the ice storm, there were still thousands of people without electricity. In Quebec alone, 150,000 persons were without electricity as of January 28. Estimates of material damages reached around $2 billion Canadian
Canadian dollar
The Canadian dollar is the currency of Canada. As of 2007, the Canadian dollar is the 7th most traded currency in the world. It is abbreviated with the dollar sign $, or C$ to distinguish it from other dollar-denominated currencies...
for Quebec alone. Overall estimates are around $4–6 billion US for all the areas affected. Damage to the power grid was so severe that major rebuilding, not repairing, of the electrical grid had to be undertaken.
Operation Recuperation
Natural disaster
A natural disaster is the effect of a natural hazard . It leads to financial, environmental or human losses...
, and the largest operational deployment of Canadian military personnel since the Korean War
Korean War
The Korean War was a conventional war between South Korea, supported by the United Nations, and North Korea, supported by the People's Republic of China , with military material aid from the Soviet Union...
.
CF members from about 200 units across Canada helped provincial and municipal workers clear roads, rescue people and animals trapped by storm wreckage, evacuate the sick, shelter and feed about 100,000 people frozen out of their homes, and ensure that farmers had the generators and fuel required to keep their operations going. CP-140 aircraft from 14 Wing Greenwood, NS conducted aerial imagery of the downed powerlines in Quebec and Ontario. Military engineer
Military engineer
In military science, engineering refers to the practice of designing, building, maintaining and dismantling military works, including offensive, defensive and logistical structures, to shape the physical operating environment in war...
s and technicians worked around the clock with hydro and telephone crews to repair and replace downed transmission towers and utility poles. On January 13, at the request of the Province of Quebec, CF members assumed the powers of peace officer
Peace officer
A law enforcement officer , in North America, is any public-sector employee or agent whose duties involve the enforcement of laws. The phrase can include police officers, prison officers, customs officers, immigration officers, bailiffs, probation officers, parole officers, auxiliary officers, and...
s in the most devastated areas around Montreal.
At the height of this crisis, Operation Recuperation involved 15,784 deployed personnel (including 3,740 Reservists) from all three CF commands; 10,550 in Quebec, 4,850 in Ontario and 384 in New Brunswick. In addition, 6,200 CF members and DND
Department of National Defence (Canada)
The Department of National Defence , frequently referred to by its acronym DND, is the department within the government of Canada with responsibility for all matters concerning the defence of Canada...
employees working at their regular jobs provided the logistical support required to sustain the operation.
See also
- Ice Storm of December 2005Ice Storm of December 2005The Ice storm of December 2005 was a damaging winter storm that produced extensive ice damage in a large portion of the Southern United States on December 14–16, 2005 while extensive snows were reported across portions of the Canadian provinces of Ontario and Quebec...
in the Appalachians - January 2007 North American ice stormJanuary 2007 North American ice stormThe North American ice storm of 2007 was a severe ice storm that impacted a large swath of North America from the Rio Grande Valley to New England and southeastern Canada starting on January 11, 2007 through January 16, followed by a second wave in the Southern United States from Texas to the...
External links
- Environment Canada's Website - Ice Storm 1998
- Ice Storm'98 images
- Ice Storm narrative
- Ice Storm of 1998
- Queen's University. Ice Storm Project '98 fonds at Queen’s University Archives
- 2008 summary of the 1998 Ice storm (courtesy of NWS Burlington, Vermont)
- Icestorm 10th anniversary (CBC News)
- The St. Lawrence River Valley 1998 ice storm: maps and facts (Statistics Canada)