Posted 11 years ago
freiheit
(1224 items)
Last night was one of the most frightful nights I have witnessed in a long, long time. Southern Ontario was hit with a devastating storm that brought the area an unimaginable amount of freezing rain. We also experienced two multi-hour power outages. No need to say that in this climate the house will get chilly quickly. I took some photos but the pictures show only some of the destruction, and definitely cannot show the fear I experienced over the past hours.
At 2 a.m., we found us moving our cars onto the street and on to a neighbor’s driveway because of the possibility of tree branches falling on to them.
I live in an older area of town, built in the mid-seventies. Most trees on our street are, or should I say were, rather tall. There is no house on our street without tree damage. In addition, we back onto a wooded area. A large number of trees lost branches or just collapsed under the weight of the ice.
My daughter’s trampoline got smashed by a tree I don’t even know where it came from.
All night long we heard the sound of collapsing of trees. It’s hard to explain, but it is very scary. Most of the time there was a deafening bang, then a fraction of a second of eerie silence, and finally a roaring noise of tree branches descending to the ground, taking down everything in their way. Once the trees or branches hit the ground, a crashing sound of smashing ice, sounding like broken crystal, followed. These sounds repeated themselves every minute or so.
Now the sounds have receded to the occasional appearance but there are nevertheless freighting.
We are still waiting for the big tree behind our house to come down. This tree is awfully close to our house and the part that is just dangling high up might hit my daughter’s room.
At a moment like this, I am very thankful that all of us are safe. After all, this is the only thing that counts.
Merry Christmas to all of you and a happy and healthy New Year!
Thanks for looking:)
Poor thing. I bet you are exhausted. Could you try to direct the falling tree by pulling it with ropes? Stay safe!
There is still some beauty to be seen from that bad storm.
Mother nature can be wicked . I hope you are all safe . We had a storm like that one year in May ! The ice took down most of tree's in our town because leaves were out and it looked scary because 50 ft tree's were bent down to 8ft and the cracking branches echoed in the silent day break . Stay warm and away from tree's until all the ice is off them . Sorry to see your mess but glad your ok .
Thanks to all of you for your thoughts. The tree waiting to fall is just too high to do anything about. We will have to call a company to deal with it but they are busy with more important things right now.
We had a BBQ on the porch - everyone but me loved it.
And yes, ther is a certain beauty in all of this. I will appreciate it when everything is over.
Happy Holidays to all of you!
Gudrun
We got hit with the same ice storm here on the south shore of Lake Ontario, our power was of from 3am Sun till 6pm Sun, we had a family Christmas party here with 27 of us, running on a generator I barrowed and candles! It was a hectic morning but the party turned out great and when the power came back on we joked "party's over!" lol Merry Christmas!
Merry Christmas, EJW-54! Right now the storm is over and power has been on for some time. But the branches keep falling and we will start the clean-up when the ice is gone. But it is really nice to see how an emergency like this can bring out the best in people. We spent most of the day around the fireplace talking and everyone on the street was offering help to the ones hit the hardest. That's the holiday spirit!
Good luck with the clean up and be carefull! I've got to clean up also, lots of branches down, your so right.. Holiday Spirit! I was out trying to trim some broken branches of my wires and a tree trim co. truck pulled up and trimmed it for me and wished me a Merry Christmas!
Merry Christmas! You were lucky. I called the city because some of the trees that fell and/or dangling over my fence belong to a city park. But I don't think they will come any time soon. When I was out today, there was not one street without damage. I hardly recognized some of the streets! I think it will take a long time to get back to normal.
Keep warm and safe.. as you say it's you!.. family and friends that are the most precious...thinking of you!...:-)
Valentino97, thanks so much for your kind words. I hope you had great holidays. Happy New Year. May all your wishes for the future become reality.
Gudrun
Inky, thanks so much for your special words. You are so correct, family and friends are the most precious thing in our life. I hope you you shared a wonderful time with yours and wish you a happy New Year!
Gudrun
Thanks, PhilDavidAlexanderMorris. Isn't it ironic that this horrible ice storm also delivered a very gracious splendor? When I walked in the neighborhood the following days, I had tears in my eyes not only because of the destruction but also because the unreal brilliance of the ice-covered landscape glittering in the sunshine under the most gorgeous blue sky. I have never seen something so dazzling like this before!