◊ This is part of the ‘history’ series of articles ◊
The devastating ice storm of 1998 left a swath of destruction across eastern Ontario, southern Quebec, New Brunswick and Nova Scotia in Canada. Adjacent jurisdictions in the United States from northern New York to central Maine were also impacted.
Credit: NormanEinstein, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Impact
The Ontario system impact was described in the 1998-1999 Ontario Hydro Annual Report as follows:
“…over 600,000 people in an area of 25,000 square kilometres in Eastern Ontario lost power during the most severe ice storm on record. In five devastating days, the sheer weight of unprecedented accumulations of ice — nearly twice the typical amount for an entire year — literally crushed the electricity system. Hundreds of steel transmission towers crumpled. Seven thousand wooden distribution poles snapped like matchsticks, bringing 1,800 pole-top transformers down with them. By the time it was over, the storm had damaged 40% of Eastern Ontario’s transmission and distribution systems”
“At the peak of the effort, nearly 2,200 front-line workers laboured 16 hours a day, seven days a week, in piercing cold and sometimes blizzard-like snowstorms. Over half were Ontario Hydro staff; the rest were from other utilities in Ontario and elsewhere. Nearly 1,000 Canadian Armed
Forces personnel worked tirelessly alongside…”
“Within two weeks, over 90% of all affected Ontario Hydro residential and business customers had their power restored, an incredible feat by any standards.”
The event was catastrophic for the impacted areas and required military deployment to provide humanitarian aid and power restoration assistance. Repair crews from across the eastern portion of North America converged on the area and began an unprecedented restoration effort in the worst of winter conditions.
1998 Global News video
The Canadian insurance claims resulting from the storm amounted to $1.6 billion. The restoration cost to Ontario Hydro and Hydro Quebec was estimated at $1 billion for rebuilding the lines and replacing damaged equipment.
For additional reading, The Institute for Catastrophic Loss Reduction (ICLR) produced a publication “ICE STORM ’98” by Eugene L. Lecomte with Alan W. Pang and James W. Russell with extensive information about the event.
There have been many ice storms that impacted the Ontario Grid, however lets hope we never see one of this magnitude ever again!
Derek
