Early morning December 22 brought the reality of the Ice Storm. Tree branches laden with ice snapped and on the ground. In Toronto, many branches taking down hydro wires. In my neighbourhood the lines are underground. My hydro grid is on the hospital grid-Mackenzie Richmond Hill Hospital-Mackenzie Health! Many areas in Richmond Hill are still without power as I write this. Many of work colleagues do not have power and the joke at work is they can bring their stuff and use showers there. 70,000 customers had been without power in York Region which equates to more people as there are family groups. Many people in Toronto-an estimate of 250,000++ customers- will not have power until the end of the week. So who cooks Christmas dinner for many will have changed. With all the ice on the trees still very frozen, the worst is not over. A snowfall or wind or both will bring many more branches crashing down. All the streets have little piles of branches. We have some branches down. The good news is my neighbour cut many long branches that were hanging into my property back in September so I still have a roof!! What is always amazing is how we prepare! Even myself being through other acts of nature could have done a better job. Only 1/4 tank of gas in the car, 1 bag of milk, and could have had more salt and all my flashlights in working order. Of course, Adolph just shrugs it off since we were one of the lucky ones who only had the power off for 20 minutes then 10 minutes. If it was day 3 without power like many in the GTA perhaps he would not be shrugging! Luckily the schools are out, many people have taken time off work for the Christmas week, less cars. Pearson Airport with the largest de-icing system in the world has been getting as many people on their way. We may need Hydro crews from the States as we do have reciprocal agreements with them-we helped with Hurricane Sandy for example. So here's to the service providers-hydro, cable, phone, road and all the other crews working 24 hours non-stop to restore services to us. An added note-seeing the sky light up with a transformer blowing is a little eerie. Early Sunday morning since I awakened at 4 am I witnessed those flashes in the sky both south and north of us- lightening bolts can bring interesting imagery but transformers blowing really do not!
Will the trees survive all their breakage? Only time will tell. Anyone need some ice! There's plenty in the GTA!
It was such a a hectic time in the GTA. Remembering. Nov. 2021
ReplyDelete