Ice can be very beautiful when it's coating the trees and other things outside. But the beauty can be very destructive as well. This past week, we experienced the ice storm that blasted through the middle of the country. Freezing rain, lots of it, can be very destructive! The rain started freezing early last Tuesday morning. Because the temperature was hovering around 33 or 34 all day, the streets were not freezing, which was promising. However, it was freezing on the trees and power lines. Around lunchtime the power started failing at work. But it returned, which was great, but then it went out again. So we were sent home early.
During the night the freezing rain continued all night long! It was a steady rain. So the trees were getting coated with the ice. The power went out early in the evening. So during the quiet
night, we could hear the trees straining under the weight. Throughout the night we could hear cracking, popping, loud bangs in the neighborhood. The trees surrounding our yard were definitely breaking. The next morning, when the sun finally rose, we could see how bad the damage really was. And the ice was just as beautiful as the damage was terrible.
This tree in the neighbors yard, fell into our yard and put a branch through the roof of the storage building. Thankfully there was no damage to our house.
Our other neighbors were lucky too. This branch fell out of his tree, but missed the house.
The other neighbor had lots of branches down in his yard and this tree down in the street. Later I will post more pictures of the damage that was left behind, after the ice thawed out.
Hi Beth, your pictures look very familiar to me. I lived through the massive ice storm of 1998. It hit Ontario (my area was one of the worst areas hit), Quebec and New Brunswick. Transmission towers crumpled and people were left without power for days and days. My parents didn't have any power for 12 days. It was the most expensive natural disaster in Canadian history and it directly affected more people than any other previous weather event.
ReplyDeleteSuffice to say, ice storms are surreal - beautiful and a nightmare at the same time. The forest surrounding our home sustained a great deal of damage. The clean up took months and months. I can give you this encouraging news: the trees that managed to survived (i.e. they just lost a lot of limbs, the trees themselves didn't come down) they did go on to recover! Nature has an amazing ability to recover from the most severe situations.
So hang in there Beth! Things will get better eventually!!
Hi Teresa! Thanks for the encouraging news about the trees. I've noticed as the clean up begins that, besides the piles of branches along the streets, the trees look a little rough but enough left to survive.
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