Ice Storm

[Zerlina]

Hey not sure if those of you around the world have seen the news, but Ontario just got hit with a massive ice storm.

So this is my obligatory "I'm alive" post, and if anyone else is in the region, they can check in here, too.

If any of you are curious, and want to know what it's like for writing purposes, or I suppose just general interest:

It's so surreal here. There's no power, heat, water, or electricity in my neighbourhood, everything's black and covered in ice; you can't see a few steps ahead of you once the sun goes down. There's power cables down everywhere and police tape cording off certain streets; the ambulances have stopped, but the first night they were all you could here. A lot of trees are down A LOT. One missed me last night by a couple metres (my friend luckily stopped me right before it came down), and people are sliding everywhere on the side streets that haven't been cleared yet (my street is a hill and the ice goes all the way down with lovely little electric wires and creaking trees to add to the fun). Everyone's out because they need to go get things or go to other peoples' houses or warming centres, but everyone's silent and just walking. It seriously looks like a zombie outbreak or something, everything's broken and there's just so many people out, saying nothing. 

Last night I walked my sister to her friend's to make sure she arrived alright. We climbed a HUGE hill that was completely ice by holding onto a cemetery fence. I tried to take an alternate route back which turned out to be a poor choice. First I had to go up some stairs (bad idea), then across a bridge (worse idea), only to arrive at a walkway that was covered in trees on both sides (worst idea). There were trees down everywhere and the ground was ice so there was no way I could run if something came down. I was climbing over branches on the ground, and just trying to go as quickly as possible. A branch came down behind me and blocked the way back. Seriously. If you can imagine walking down this long path, completely alone at night, with fences running down either side so you can't leave, while trees completely coated in ice are creaking above you every time the wind blows...then, yeah, you get what it was like.

I had bought some firewood, but they only had two logs left. I burned them, then some old cardboard boxes but the apartment's still freezing; it's so cold that when you step on the floor in bare feet it actually hurts.

Suffice to say I gave up on the idea of staying in my apartment. I got to a friend's house so I am warming up here. I hear downtown is clear now, so they should be working into the suburbs as the week goes on.

Surprisingly, the city's not in an official state of emergency, most likely because our mayor is smoking crack in a warm house somewhere.

[Prpl_Mage]

I heard about it on the news, but they made it sound kinda cool compared to this. Freezing rain isn't all that common here, but the phenomenon is kind of interesting. Rain falls and freeze solid upon touching something. Trees and power cables are the first things that go, being closer to the sky and kinda not really able to support an increased weight like this. And as you mentioned, everything is slippery because it's not snow nor sleet. It's actually just rain falling and freezing encasing or coating everything in a nearly perfect layer of ice. No friction at all.
It looks kind of awesome when it happens to flowers or statues. But I guess that it can't be that much fun when there's such serious damage as you are experiencing right now.

I guess I shouldn't complain that there's no snow or anything here in southern Sweden. This greyish weather sure beats freezing rain.

I hope your mayor gets his *** into work and fix this. try to have a great Christmas anyway!

[Moosetroop11]

Good to hear you're ok |\/|y keyboard is ha\/ing proble|\/|s or I'd write a |\/|ore substantial post

[Cerebus]

Surprisingly enough, I haven't heard about that despite being one of your closest neighbours. Though I haven't watched the news recently. But my radio is on 24/7 and the news come by every hour or so and still.

Good to know you are safe. Sounds like the kind of place that's cool (albeit dangerous) to wander around until you realize it's your hometown.

Glad the storm didn't come up here. They're having a hard time getting rid of the snow already...

[Zerlina]

Thanks guys.

And that's definitely what it's like, Cerberus. Cool, but when you look around and see your neighbourhood with tree branches impaled in your neighbour's roof and electric wires, police tape, and trees all over the street there's also this really surreal feeling, especially after night when a place that's usually pretty bright and clean is in pitch black.

Fred, it is quite beautiful, even the signs are completely encased in ice. But it's beautiful nonetheless.

I'm downtown right now at work, and down here it looks like nothing happened. My co-worker says she was without heat the last few days but hers came on this morning. I will leave the city to go to my parent's soon. My sister took some pictures so I'll see if I can get them posted.

[Archem]

I don't keep up with the news anymore, so I haven't heard a thing until now. I'm glad you're safe. It sounds a lot like the usual hurricanes that stop by down here, only with freezing on top of it. We don't usually have any ice (ever), but other than that, I can understand that surreal sensation of the world around you suddenly being transformed into some strange disaster movie set. A few years back, I remember having a pretty bad one roll through. There were trees and power lines downed everywhere, homes with peeled-back roofs, cars with all sorts of damage, rampant flooding, and the heat and humidity were killer (literally! Without power, people were dying from heat exposure). There's a mall near here that got power back quickly, and everyone flocked to it for relief from the heat. The wind was crazy, too. I remember standing in the middle of the street outside my home and feeling like the wind was ready to sweep me away (and this was after the brunt of the storm hit). It really was something else.

So in short, I'm glad to hear you're alright. Did you suffer any kind of property damage? How about friends and family? I'd love to hear that you and your loved ones are all largely unaffected and that the cold weather is your only real problem. Having this kind of disaster at this time of year is pretty rough.

[drenrin2120]

I like to think I'm on top of world news, but not so much lately. Glad to hear you guys are alright. I'm looking up information now, and just wow. Stay safe and try to still enjoy your Christmas!

[SaiKar]

Yeah this storm was massive and hit the vast majority of the mideast on one day or another. Michigan got slammed the past few days as well. It wasn't quite on "I'm alive" post levels, but still, rough work for the cleanup crews. Luckily most of it happened after dark and was able to be handled by midday.

[Zerlina]

Hey guys, no pics yet, sorry. My neighbourhood's clear of electric wires now but there's still no power or heat. They think the city should be up and running again by the weekend.

I've learned a lot from this experience...

For the record, if this ever happens to you- DO NOT bring your barbecue, generator, charcoal cooker or anything like that inside. There have been over 100 cases of carbon monoxide poisoning reported in the city over the last couple days, and a few people have even died (including a grandma and her 12 year old grandson ) People are also worried because there are elderly and disabled people trapped in high rises without heat, water, power, or phones, and without elevators they can't get out. If you have grandparents living independently, having a plan in place for events like this might be a good idea. My grandma was lucky to not lose power, but some of my friends' grandparents weren't; with no keys to the apartment and no buzzer system it can be very difficult to get in.

Gonna really suggest that if you don't already, seriously go out and buy an emergency kit including a battery powered radio, hot shots, etc. I honestly regret not doing that, because I thought nothing like this could ever happen to me as stupid as it sounds. The carbon monoxide poisoning numbers keep going up largely because people are cut off and not hearing the advisories; they also don't know about the heating stations that have been set up so they are staying in their homes.

I can understand that surreal sensation of the world around you suddenly being transformed into some strange disaster movie set.

Really good way of putting it. I'd be interested to hear about your experiences.

So in short, I'm glad to hear you're alright. Did you suffer any kind of property damage? How about friends and family? I'd love to hear that you and your loved ones are all largely unaffected and that the cold weather is your only real problem. Having this kind of disaster at this time of year is pretty rough.

I haven't been able to get in contact with all of my friends, but luckily a lot of them are not in the city right now because of Christmas. Most people who have no power have been able to get to friends or relatives; for example, in my neighbourhood, everything on top of the hill is a disaster scene, but many houses at the bottom of the hill have been cleared and had power restored, so a lot of people have opened their homes up. My apartment was unfortunately near the very top of the hill (thus all the damage), but there was no permanent property damage (next door neighbour wasn't so lucky).

My family's mostly okay. My sister and I were the only ones caught outside and we both managed to get safely to friends. Thanks for asking

Also Merry Christmas!

Yeah this storm was massive and hit the vast majority of the mideast on one day or another. Michigan got slammed the past few days as well. It wasn't quite on "I'm alive" post levels, but still, rough work for the cleanup crews. Luckily most of it happened after dark and was able to be handled by midday.

Glad you're okay and they were able to clean it up so fast Hope everyone there is having a Merry Christmas!

[drenrin2120]

Strange, living here in Massachusetts, we didn't get much of anything. I don't remember even hearing anything about Michigan or Canada.

Something similar to this happened to me a few years back, except it wasn't ice it was heavy wet snow at the end of October. Western Massachusetts was slammed by an early noreaster and we got record snowfall. The tree still had most of their leaves on them and the combination of that with the heavy snow caused them to all start coming down. Trees were down across every street, and I mean, EVERY street. It didn't feel real. The city streets I'd walked so many times were now closed or impassable because of power lines or massive trees blocking the road. IT was so bad there was pretty much no way to get out of town and the State Highways were shutdown by the State Government. We lost power for only a day but some people were without power and heat for as long as a week. The gas station I worked for at the time ran out of gas the first day after the storm before noon.

That's really sad about the carbon monoxide poisoning

[Archem]

The carbon monoxide poisonings are pretty awful, but isn't the idea of using a charcoal grill indoors obviously bad? I guess it isn't if it's such an issue, but I'd probably avoid doing something like that.

After the years of hurricanes and floodings and power outages and all sorts of **** like that, I'm pretty well prepared for disasters. Flashlights (some battery-powered, some wind-up chargeable), candles, batteries, radios, plenty of bottled water and non-perishable food, even a power generator. Everyone that lives in a disaster-vulnerable area should have at least some of these things, and it's not a bad idea to have some things anyway.

[Zerlina]

^ Glad you're so prepared, Archem. Is that normal for where you are or are you just really on the ball?

For those of you who are curious, here are a collection of 22 photos from the Ice Storm to give you an idea of what it was like. Some of it is really beautiful.
http://storify.com/anthonywx/10-amazing-photos-of-the-ontario-ice-storm

[SaiKar]

Is that normal for where you are or are you just really on the ball?

Hit and miss. I think it's mostly based on if the people have had to go through a disaster. I myself keep 2 gallons of water, several flashlights and some candles handy as my emergency hit. But I know lots of people with generators.

[Archem]

Hit and miss. I think it's mostly based on if the people have had to go through a disaster. I myself keep 2 gallons of water, several flashlights and some candles handy as my emergency hit. But I know lots of people with generators.

^
The longer you've lived in a disaster-prone area, the better prepared you are. If you've been through a disaster, you learn at an accelerated rate.

[Prpl_Mage]

^
The longer you've lived in a disaster-prone area, the better prepared you are. If you've been through a disaster, you learn at an accelerated rate.

In other words, Sweden is fucked if anything happens.