Ice storm - Brampton, December 2013

Saturday 2:00 pm, December 21st., the phone rang. It was Joe G.; he informed us that the Christmas party at his house, in Brampton, this  evening,  was cancelled due to the weather. It had been raining, freezing rain, almost all day. Temperature was -2C and dropping. Ice were slowly building up, coating everything in sight.
We were a little disappointed, but we agreed it was a good call, the roads would become very slippery later in the evening.

That evening we had F. R., a friend who lived nearby, over for a simple dinner with us. After dinner and a few fun Kinect games, he went home. It was around 9:00 pm. Our front patio and drive way were coated with a few cm of ice. Theresia called him on his cell phone a couple minutes later, just to make sure that he made it to his car safely.
Usually, Sunday mornings, I walk to church, which is about 1.5 km from home, to attend the 8:00 am mass. Theresia suggested that I should come with her by car to attend the 9:30 am mass that Sunday. After seeing the icy condition of our patio and driveway, I agreed.

We went to bed rather early that day. Just after midnight I was awaken by a rather loud sound that sounded like a very strong gust of wind pushing freezing rain against the outside wall of our bedroom. Soon after, I heard another sound like it. The next day I realised they were the sounds of a couple of huge branches of a large Honey Locust tree in our backyard, breaking off and crashing down under the weight of the ice that had formed a thick coating around them.
At about 1:00 am I heard an electronic beeping noises; we found out it was coming from our computer power back-up. So we had lost power to the whole house. The whole neighbourhood was dark, without electric service.

Our hot water supply was not affected by the lost of hydro; it was heated by gas. We could still enjoy warm showers. Also our stove used gas. Although the electronics control did not work, we could still lit the burners up manually. This is very nice. We could cook! Theresia showered that morning under led battery light.

Twigs coated with thick ice.

Sunday morning, December 22nd, 8:00 am, I went outside. Everything is coated with ice. The once bare branches were full with ice crystals. It was BEAUTIFUL. I had never experience anything like this before; went back inside to get my camera.

Our street, Sunday Dec. 22nd 8:15 am.

Soon I realise, along with the beauty there were a lot of destruction. Many branches were broken, some trees were totally destroyed, split in two or no more branch left. As we left for church at 9:00 am, more branches had broken, fell and blocked our way. We had to turn around and find another way out to church.

Beautiful - like Cherry blossoms in Spring - taken Dec. 27 2013

The church had no electricity. Less than half of the choir members made to the service. The choir sang a Capella. Theresia choose "Here I am Lord" as one of the songs. The song has "snow and rain" in it's lyrics - how appropriate.

We told our neighbours that we had gas stove and that they were welcome to use it; our next door neighbour, they just moved in last summer, took us up on our offer. That was nice, we had the chance to know them better and we were happy to be able to help.

Power was restored to our neighbourhood close to midnight, we were without electricity for almost 24 hours. We were one of the lucky ones. After the second day there were still more than 15000 houses in Brampton without electricity. All of the GTA (Greater Toronto Area) were hit by this ice storm. Some areas suffered more than others. Our daugther, in downtown Toronto, was without electric service for 3 days. Some people had no power for over a week.

After more than 40 years living in Canada, I had never experienced this kind of winter. I was grateful for the experience and for the chance to see the beautiful crystal landscape. The bare trees looked like they were made of crystal, they sparkled and twinkled; what an amazing sight.

Tree split in two

Crystal bush 

Blocking the side-walk

The following Tuesday and Friday were sunny days without wind. I took advantage of the nice weather on both days to walk around and enjoyed the beautiful crystal landscape. Took some pictures, but none of the pictures came close to show how beautiful and unique the landscape was. The pictures could not capture the sparkles of the ice crystals.

Going North on Chingquacousy trail

 As I took a picture of a branch blocking the trail, a figure appeared from behind the fallen branches. An old man with a cane in one hand and a bag in the other, slowly negotiated his way around the blocked trail. I asked if he was all right. Cheerfully he answered that he was o.k. 

Blocked trail

We chatted. He told me that he had experienced another ice storm in the 1960s; he just got married and lived around Downsview at that time. One sunny morning he saw the ice crystals acted like a prism, and produced beautiful colours all around the bushes. I could only imagine what an awesome sight it was.

Senior with cane and shopping bag, negotiating blocked trail

Further down the trail, I heard noises from the creek to the left side of the trail. A flock of Canada geese were swimming and enjoying themselves in the stream. Lately, more and more of these birds stayed around and did not migrate South. So far this winter there were enough 'warm' days that the stream did not freeze completely. 

See the Canada Geese?

Thick coating of ice.

Evergreens withstand the load much better

Power lines and power poles, broke and fell due to the weight of the ice build up. Power transformers blew due to shorts along the power lines. The older sections of Brampton still has a number of above ground power lines. Many people suffered, living for days without power. I have learnt a few lessons from this experience. We will be better prepared................till next time.