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Annie, Saint-Bruno-de-Montarville, January 5, 1998, 8:00 p.m.

The January Ice Storm

It was a Monday night. We’d had one last professional day before we were supposed to go back to school after the holidays.

It was dark and I was on my way home from my friend Mélanie’s house. We’d spent the evening surfing the fabulous new World Wide Web. It was mild out, but an icy rain had been falling since the afternoon. It was freezing rain, like we often get in winter. I kept slipping and I giggled a bit to myself. I heard cracking overhead. Tree branches were bending under the weight of the ice until they almost touched the ground. It was beautiful, poetic. Branches were falling near me. But I wasn’t afraid. I’d soon be safe and warm at home. And I’d see my friends back at school the next day.

Son désactivé

A surveyor takes measurements in preparation for the rebuilding of the transmission line.

Timeline of January 1998

  • January 5

    • 10 to 20 mm of freezing rain
  • January 6

    • 34 mm of freezing rain
    • 700,000 customers without power in the Outaouais, Beauce, Montérégie and Montréal regions
    • Eight transmission towers collapse along Highway 20 near Drummondville
  • January 7

    • 7.5 mm of freezing rain
    • 435,000 customers without power
    • 800 tree trimmers arrive from the United States to help out Hydro-Québec workers
  • January 8

    • 23 mm of freezing rain
    • 1,023,000 customers without power
    • Many high-voltage transmission lines collapse in Montérégie
    • 3,000 members of the Canadian Armed Forces arrive to help civil society organizations and Hydro-Québec
  • January 9

    • 14 mm of freezing rain, for a total of 78 mm
    • Downtown Montréal in the dark
    • Montréal metro stops running
    • All bridges between Montréal and the South Shore closed, except the Louis-Hippolyte-Lafontaine bridge-tunnel
    • Montréal water filtration plants shut down due to power failure
  • January 10

    • Rain stops, intense cold and snow
    • 1,393,000 customers without power
    • Rebuilding starts
    • Damage: 24,000 poles down, 900 steel towers and 3,000 km of lines to be rebuilt
    • 1,250 line workers arrive from the United States to lend a hand to Hydro-Québec crews
  • January 11

    • Shelters almost at full capacity
    • Québec Premier Lucien Bouchard calls for solidarity among all Quebecers
    • Power restored to downtown Montréal, but grid still unstable
  • January 12

    • Deicing starts in downtown Montréal
    • 100 more line crews arrive from Detroit
  • January 13

    • 380,000 customers still without power
    • Québec government issues an order in council establishing a financial assistance program for disaster victims
    • Hydro-Québec logo on head office turned off at 5:00 p.m.
  • January 14

    • Only 50,000 people left without power in Montréal, but still some 350,000 in Montérégie
    • Temperatures continue to drop
    • 97% of Hydro-Québec customers satisfied with handling of situation
  • January 15

    • Helicopter operation to reconnect Beauharnois generating station to Aqueduc substation and strengthen the grid
    • Deicing continues in downtown Montréal
  • January 16

    • Québec government and Hydro-Québec start countdown to rebuilding lines in Montérégie
  • January 17

    • 256,000 customers still without power
    • Generators, blankets, food and firewood arrive from all over Québec
  • January 27

    • 62,000 customers still without power
  • February 6

    • Power restored to last customer
    • Hydro-Québec logo on head office turned back on

Other stories

  • Pascal Meteorologist

  • Joyce Reporter

  • Francine Emergency Response Advisor

  • Guy Line worker

  • Pierre Researcher

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