The Great Ice Storm of 1998, by the numbers

[guest]

What many recall of the Great Ice Storm of 1998: The sounds. It came quietly, a steady drizzle that in the cold, still air left trees, power and phone lines, sidewalks and roads coated with a glistening layer of ice. Absent the usual sounds of urban and rural life: the sharp crack of trees splintering, their broken limbs crashing to the ground with the sound of a million shattered crystal goblets, the rattle and hum of downed power lines, the groan of hydro towers collapsing under tonnes of ice.

The hardships, the tragedies, the losses:

5 million: People who lost power in Ontario, Quebec and the northeastern United States. In Eastern Ontario, about 600,000 lost power.

11,000: Hydro polls in Ontario destroyed, in addition to 1,000 transformers and 300 steel towers damaged or destroyed.

33: Days some rural areas were without power.

35: Deaths, by fire, hypothermia, falling ice and carbon monoxide poisoning. There were 22 in Quebec, four in Ontario, nine in U.S. states. The Ottawa Civic Hospital, as it was then known, revived an elderly man living alone whose core temperature fell to 20 C, which the hospital called “virtually incompatible with life.”

78: Greatest thickness of ice, in millimetres, measured at Farnham, Que. Environment Canada said as much as 100 mm of freezing rain might have fallen in an area without official monitors.

67.6: Millimetres of freezing rain recorded in Ottawa with no melting, most of which fell in the storm’s first 24 hours.

$1.1 billion-plus: Final insurance claims, according to the Insurance Bureau of Canada; $200 million of the damage was in Ontario.

$14 million: Loss suffered by dairy farmers — 17,000 in Quebec, 10,000 in Ontario — who had to dump milk when their power was off.

100: Cars that skidded off the Queensway between St. Laurent Boulevard and Greenbank Road before Ontario Provincial Police closed the entire highway.

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Photos: Ottawa ice storm of 1998

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  A pedestrian makes his way past downed branches in west end Ottawa on Jan. 8, 1998, after four days of freezing rain. Dave Chan/Ottawa Citizen
  
  
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  The low-hanging power lines at the Casselman exit, 50 km east of Ottawa, kept dozens of trucks at bay for hours. .
  
  
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  Jan 9, 1998-- Members of the Royal Canadian Dragoons pitch in to clear brush along Southern Dr in the Riverdale area.
  
  
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  Kim Dix (L) and his wife Joanne and kids Camero and Graham make their way to a corner store at Navaho & Laxton. Dave Chan OTTCIT
  
  
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  Jan 10, 1998-- Jennifer Kuiack of the Manotick Tea Room puts up a sign letting area residents know that they can get all the water they want and cook their own food at this Main St eatery. Although the restaurant is without power it does have a gas stove and like the sign says folks are more than welcome to use their facilities.
  
  
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  Cecile Fortin (L) and her son Hughes Fortin (C) and Julie Pelletier prepare dinner under candle light power at a emergency shelter in Chelsea, Quebec. Dave Chan OTTCIT
  
  
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  Two high-tension towers on Concession Rd 3-4 near Finch, Ont. downed by ice, pictured January 9, 1998. Pat McGrath/Ottawa Citizen
  
  
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  MCpl Pete Leadbeater, from CFB Petawawa, clears trees, hoping to restore power to rural Quebec. Pete is originally from Cagary where his parents George and Joyce still reside.
  
  
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  Ottawa streets strewn with fallen trees during the 1998 ice storm. /Tony Caldwell, Ottawa Sun
  
  
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  Scott Lucas on Churchill Ave in Ottawa removes large tree branches from a car after a severe ice storm hit Jan, 08,1998. More than three million people were affected by the ice storm that was devastating but also produced images of rare beauty. Errol McGihon/The Ottawa Sun; Errol McGihon
  
  
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  Ottawa 1998 Ice Storm - Allison Eagon, then 13, does her homework by candlelight in her family's Glebe Ave. home as sister Charlotte, 7, looks on Jan. 6, 1998. Tony Caldwell/The Ottawa Sun photo by Tony Caldwell
  
  
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  Ottawa 1998 Ice Storm - Tasha Geymonat gets kisses from paramedics Marc Lafleur, left, and Bill Magladry yesterday after they helped deliver her 8 lb. 4 oz. son in the back of a truck. PeterCulter/photo by Peter Cutler, Ottawa Sun
  
  
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  Ottawa 1998 Ice Storm - View of an ice covered bridge and a highway. Gord Carter/Ottawa Sun photo by Gord Carter
  
  
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  Ottawa 1998 Ice Storm - Doug Stevens, left, of Richmond helps unload some generators with Paul Robinson from Chatham at the Green Sales and Service depot in Richmond, On. Dairy farmers are in desperate need of generators in order to milk the cows, power is out due to the worst ice storm in Canadian history. /Jeff Bassett The London Free Press
  
  
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  Ottawa 1998 Ice Storm - Groceries being unloaded. /SunMediaArchive
  
  
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  Ottawa 1998 Ice Storm - Hyrdro worker. Errol McGihon/Ottawa Sun photo by Errol McGihon
  
  
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  Ottawa ice storm 1998 /OTTwp
  
  
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  Ginette Hebert, office manager of Machabee Animal Food Ltd. in St. Albert, walk past a pile of dead Holsteins which have died from storm-related causes. Dave Chan OTTCIT/OTTwp
  
  
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  Ottawa ice storm 1998 Peter Martin/MON
  
  
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  Jan 10, 1998--Arboritium--it only took a few hours of sunshine after this past weeks ice storm to get people outside enjoying the challenge of winter sports--Michael Hinton age 10 of Ottawa pulls his sled under a knocked over tree. Pat McGrath OTTCIT/OTTwp
  
  
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  98-12647 Jan 10, 1998--Western Parkway (near Carling Ave)-- Saturday, Jan. 10: first rays of sunshine in six days made trees sparkle, as Ottawa area emerges from ice storm. Pat McGrath OTTCIT/OTTwp
  
  
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  A series of Hydro towers high voltage towers near Marelville, Ontario Saturday that collapsed after a severe ice storm hit Eastern Ontario in this Jan.10, 1998. More than three million people were affected by the ice storm that was devastating but also produced images of rare beauty. Peter Cutler/Ottawa Sun photo by Peter Cutler
  
  
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  Ottawa 1998 Ice Storm Errol McGihon/Ottawa Sun photo by Errol McGihon
  
  
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  Ottawa 1998 Ice Storm - Doina Ghiteo looks through a bus shelter covered in ice in Ottawa. Tony Caldwell/Ottawa Sun photo by Tony Caldwell
  
  
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  Ottawa 1998 Ice Storm - Nick Scott (11 years of at the time) plays chess with Trooper Greg Nowak from Toronto's Queens York Rangers at the Highlands Community Center in Lanark. Tony Caldwell/Ottawa Sun photo by Tony Caldwell
  
  
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  Ottawa 1998 Ice Storm - Fallen trees sits on a car covered in ice. Derek Ruttan/photo by Derek Ruttan, Ottawa Sun
  
  
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  Ottawa 1998 Ice Storm - A man shovels the ice from his walkway. Tony Caldwell/Ottawa Sun photo by Tony Caldwell
  
  
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  Twenty years ago, nearly five million Canadians in southeastern Quebec, eastern Ontario and parts of the Maritimes were battered by three successive waves of freezing rain between Jan. 5 and 10. Members of the Canadian Armed Forces walk to their headquarters in Westmount on Friday, January 9, 1998. The military are to assist at shelters. This is the fifth day of freezing rain in Montreal. ROBERT GALBRAITH/THE CANADIAN PRESS
  
  
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  Twenty years ago, nearly five million Canadians in southeastern Quebec, eastern Ontario and parts of the Maritimes were battered by three successive waves of freezing rain between Jan. 5 and 10. Pedestrians make their way past downed trees as an ice storm ripped through Montreal Tuesday, January 6, 1998. The storm has left over 600,000 people without electricity as ice-covered trees crashed down on power lines. RYAN REMIORZ/THE CANADIAN PRESS
  
  
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  Ice storm Richard Arless/MON
  

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