A freak act of nature blew through the GTA, parts of Ontario and the USA on December 22, 2013. It caused literally every street to be littered with broken tree branches and made roads almost impassable due to wires and a slick coating of ice everywhere.
I was sitting in my warm and cozy house Dec 21 surfing the net and catching up with my Facebook friends. The Christmas lights on my tree (indoors and out) were twinkling and I was flipping through my Christmas CD’s, when BANG…out went everything, lights, music, computer and furnace. I cursed the fact that I was overloading the system with too many electronics running.
I peeked out through the curtains and besides the fact that the neighbourhood was pitch black, there seemed to be a glow and I as my eyes adjusted to the dark, I could see the trees were bathed in icicles and totally bent over from the weight of the ice.
And then another BANG…someone was at the front door and not waiting patiently for me to open it. I would not normally open the door at midnight, but I could hear the neighbours outside and knew it was them. They said they had to move trees off the road just to get home and I should move our car as the branches were dangerously close to it. I ran out to move it, slip sliding all the way – holy smokes – it was literally a skating rink out there.
I had a hard time falling asleep as I listened to the creaks and groans from the trees straining with the ice buildup, cracking from the weight and crashing down on the yard that was also coated in ice. Only then did I realize that we were being blanketed in Ice Storm 2013.
I eventually fell asleep and awoke with cold ears – odd as it sounds, when the furnace hasn’t run for 8 hours, your ears would be cold too. At least we had water, splashed some water on my face to wake up, pulled on an extra sweater and headed to the kitchen to put on the coffee pot – DUH – no power. Now that was tough. Hubby bargained with me…if I found a tin coffee can, he would boil water on the BBQ. Searching through oodles of craft supplies, luck was with us and we were able to boil water and make instant coffee! Boy, did that taste good!
I can eat peanut butter any day but that didn’t really appeal to hubby so out came the cast iron skillet and he created a marvellous breakfast of bacon and eggs once again prepared on the BBQ! This was so much fun, no inconvenience at all…or so I thought… and proceeded to pull on another sweater.
It was apparent the power wasn’t going to come on any time soon so hubby stoked a fire in the fireplace all afternoon and enjoyed a good book by the natural light of the patio doors. I kept busy cleaning & thought I’d try wrapping Christmas presents. The wrapping station was in the basement so I thought instead of bringing up all the bows and ribbons, I would see much work I could get done by candlelight. Candles…now where are they??? To my surprise, the basement was warmer than the rest of the house! I actually had to take off a sweater.
Hubby poked at the fire all day long and I ran up and down the stairs digging out more presents I had hidden under the beds…this really was no inconvenience at all…then it came time to search for a flashlight…found the flashlight but the batteries were dead…note to self to buy batteries and candles for the next ice storm.
Time for dinner…we threw a hodge podge of leftovers into the skillet and this time put it in the fire to heat…no complaints here…
Time for dinner…we threw a hodge podge of leftovers into the skillet and this time put it in the fire to heat…no complaints here…
With a few extra blankets on the bed, and a hot water bottle between the sheets, (yes, we still had hot water) we turned in early and hoped the morning would bring warmer ears, which thankfully it did.
Our neighbourhood had power restored after 24 hours, and what a thrill it was to wake up to the sound of the furnace humming. But it was so sad to hear how families had lost power for longer than that.
I could definitely see how hard it would be with small children and the elderly. I can only imagine the sense of helplessness while good food, much of it for Christmas entertaining, went bad and had to be thrown out.
The true shock of the storm was seeing the devastation of the trees, and I mean each and every tree in my neighbourhood was affected. Many words have been used to describe the sad sight. I am thankful that I have never experienced a tornado, flood or fire, but this really left a pit in my stomach. Every tree, was snapped, twisted and/or split. Branches covered my street, and dangled precariously over driveways narrowly missing parked cars. Every home in my neighbourhood has a pile of brush it seems a mile high on their yard waiting for hopefully the city to pick it up. We used saws and brute strength to clear up some of the mess, but quite frankly, this is beyond a homeowner’s expertise.
My neighbourhood street is entirely unrecognizable
Speaking of creeks and groans, what about those frost quakes!! When we heard the first boom we went running outside to check the damage, thinking it was a downed tree on the roof. The next day learned of the phenomenon frost quake. It's been 40 years since the GTA has seen an ice storm like this, so a frost quake is something new to most of us.
Speaking of creeks and groans, what about those frost quakes!! When we heard the first boom we went running outside to check the damage, thinking it was a downed tree on the roof. The next day learned of the phenomenon frost quake. It's been 40 years since the GTA has seen an ice storm like this, so a frost quake is something new to most of us.
As I write this, a week after the Ice Storm hit, some areas are still without power. Then there is the added stress of daycares being closed, parents re-arranging their work schedules, friends and families opening up their homes to unexpected guests and Christmas on top of it. The storm brought unexpected chaos, but also brought unity, where many neighbours pulled together to help one another, to share food, firewood, tools and companionship. It could have been a lot worse and I have many reasons to be thankful. Three cheers for the line-man! This will truly be a Christmas never to be forgotten.
