Toronto Ice Storm

[CanDman]

What a time to be without electricity !!!! On Saturday Dec 21st....Sothern Ontario was hit with one of the worst Freezing rain storms in centuries.... They are calling it the worst storm (of its kind) to hit Toronto ever....... We live on a farm and everything is powered by electricity including our heat......and we have been without it for 4 days......we have a generator running the vitals and have been burning wood to keep from freezing... .... I have had to chainsaw the laneway several times from falling trees and branches.......and the property looks like it was hit by a bomb !!!!! We are surviving......and have tried to find out when power might be restored ...The emergency crews are so overwhelmed that they have had to post  automated updates. Two people have died trying to stay warm....but the entire GTA has just coming out of this minor state of emergency. Systems are slowly being restored but being on a farm...we may be without power for a week....so many downed trees ,branches and power lines.......don't know and can't find out when. Thank God that we were able to get our mitts on a generator or the basement would have eventually been under 4  feet of water...and I would have been playing "Octopus's Garden" on my drums..instead of "The Little Drummer Boy".. . I stole one of the generator lines long enough to log in and get updates and send out some messages. 

http://s1071.photobucket.com/user/photocandman/library/Ice%20Storm

In spite of everything.....we are faring well and I want to wish everyone a Merry Christmas and Happy New Years......and hope your holidays bring you and your family and friends as close together as these days have brought ours......lots of Love


Kev
 

[FJmonkey]

Wow!!!  That is some bad weather. Glad your doing OK and have the vital stuff sorted out. I hope you thaw out soon.

[oz.fj]

Merry Christmas CanDman.
Glad to hear you are all ok
Try to stay warm and dry.
Looking forward to catching up with you in March.

Darran

[PaulG]

In Scarborough (eastern Toronto), I was lucky as our power was only off for a couple of hours on Sunday morning.  We housed a few people overnight as they hadn't had power for over 24hrs.  Many parts of the city still don't have power and won't until the weekend.  It's now -10 degC going down to -15 tonight (14 to 5 degF).  Everything is as solid as a rock (or ice I guess).  Whacked my knee off the spruce in the front yard, thought I hit a brick wall.

I was at work Saturday night when it hit.  Didn't do much except scramble everytime the power went out.  Then the power went off completely by 2am.  We had to evacuate to the front office due to the fumes from the nitric acid, chromic acid, nickel and copper sulphate, as all the scrubber exhausts were down.  Eventually the fumes came into the front office so we had to go out to our cars at 4am.

All night we watched transformers and subtations explode and light up the sky with pretty blue arc lights, and the crackling and crashing of trees.  A man made borealis.

Finally make it home to this....  its 730am so the light was still dim, and my phone camera is obsolete (omg! it must be 2yrs old almost!)

http://s839.photobucket.com/user/pgirard005/library/2013%20XMas%20Ice%20Storm?sort=2&page=1

[rktmanfj]

Wow, hang in there...

Looks like the one we had here a couple of winters ago.  We ended up with 4" of solid ice on the ground.

Some of my neighbors in the complex thought I was crazy for moving my new Jeep from under one of the common carports.  That is, until one of the ones around the corner collapsed from the extra weight.

[CanDman]

Glad to hear you're ok Paul.....and thx guys for the encouragement........the wife and daughter had to stay at a friends so I am bunkered down in here......just cut some more wood...and stoked the fire....and got some more gas for the Genny.......I must say this has been one of the more interesting Christmas's I 've ever had.......in fact....I probably won't cook the bird until the ovens working...lol...but certainly not tooo hard to keep this bird frozen..... ...hopefully this will end soon......a hot shower would sure beat rolling in the snow again..... ////love you guys...and have a great Christmas for me......
Kev 

[Sabre093]

My borther lives by Downsview airport, and he is still without power...he's on my couch past 2 nights

[roverfj1200]

Stay safe and I hope you all get power back soon.

[CanDman]

DAY 6

........wow....feels like I'm writing a journal...Power Stream says I might get power back today....but there are still over 100,000 people without electricity....so I'm not alone......nice to hear from you Sab's and Rove.....warms my heart to read your well wishes....
Kev

[Firehawk068]

Stay warm and safe up there to the north guys...................Thinking about you guys. My brother in NY said the ice storm hit northern NY also.
Hoping you get your power back on soon.

[CanDman]

appreciate all the love....I am hoping to see the end soon.....it is wearing me down a bit........trying to keep positive......


KERRY LIVGREEN - UP FROM THE WASTELAND


this song ..says it all...... 

[Vsekvsek]

man i feel your pain. I live in a mtn community where we get windstorms every single winter/spring. trees falling and power outtages. By the third year I couldnt stand it anymore. I bought a $2000 generator , wired it into house and stock up on gas, food and basics like oil lanterns, back ups with even more back ups. Of course since I did that its been mild as hell-lol

[JMR]

My brother is a tree surgeon....many people think he is a dumb tree monkey until they are in the position you folks are in. It takes skill and brains/independent thinking to unF a lot of that stuff. Thank God you have a generator and the foresight to know what the weather can do....hope things are better for your community.

[Bob]

My brother is a tree surgeon....many people think he is a dumb tree monkey until they are in the position you folks are in. It takes skill and brains/independent thinking to unF a lot of that stuff. Thank God you have a generator and the foresight to know what the weather can do....hope things are better for your community.

I imagine the arborists will be busy; we'll be hiring one. It won't an easy job.

In Whitby (east of Toronto) we only lost power for an hour or so. Some people north of hwy.2 had to wait for 24 hours to get it restored. Compared to others in the GTA, we did fine.

This is our back yard...

[CanDman]

Day 7
My wife and daughter are coming home to check up on me....make sure there is no hint of a Howard Hughs thing coming down on  me...although I have found myself playing with my toy airplanes.....and I was talking to a few of the geese gathered under a row of Spruce trees....... ...........uh ohhh....well....I'm sure it will pass.......
The Genny has been a God send......I have an electric heater in the basement which I snuggle with when trying to sleep.....burnt my knob a few times...but it kind of felt nice.... . I steal power and hook up the computer for me to check in with the rest of the world...but it is cold up here....man I never I realized how much we depend on electricity....all our utilities are electric....I could use a hot shower...I'm starting to look like Grizzly Adams......or a hockey player during the Playoffs......or a World series Boston Red Sox.....
That's quite the downed Tree Bob.....looks like a job for Dr. Chainsaw........could use some surgery myself.
Thank you for the kind and encouraging words......I appreciate it very much
Kev