Ice Storm of 2025
 

So, after a nice warm spell and many days of rain to wash away all the snow we got hit with an ice storm. We lost power on Saturday 29th around 9:30p.m. Woke up to an ice covered mess. A neighbor three doors up had a healthy big tree in his front yard break at ground level and fall getting hung up on the lines and blocking the road. His neighbor had one of his cars damaged. Our front yard looked like a bomb had gone off leaving dozens of medium sized limbs and thousands of smaller ones cover everything. Our next door neighbor lost a huge limb off one of their trees and it was hollow in the middle with a nest of baby squirrels inside. Animal rescue was able to come and get them but we humans were left to fend for ourselves.
The wife took a walk, talked with neighbors and snapped some photos with her phone. Lots of bent trees lying over wires with many more broken. Some fell because the root system was not strong enough to hold the extra weight. Some areas were very pretty and would have been spectacular if the sun had come out.
She met an OPP officer who said the Quinte West Public Works was sending someone out to deal with the trees. We waited, we phoned and text and waited and waited but no one from the municipality showed up. Thankfully a neighbor from down the street came up with his pickup and chainsaw. He, with help from others was able to take off the top of the fallen tree so we could drive up the road to freedom. We live on a dead end road. So for three long days and nights we drove into town and back for coffees and to eat. We spent Monday afternoon with our youngest daughter and her significant other. We stayed for supper but left early to get back home to keep an eye on our sump hole. The water level never got to the top but if it had rained more it may have been another story.
We got into a routine. Start a good roaring fire in the big fireplace around 7:00 ish. Stir it up a couple of times during the night and add a bit if needed. It would still be glowing in the morning. Leave for a late coffee and running around before noon and return around 5-6 ish. Load up the fireplace and repeat.
Our poor dogs didn’t know what to make of things. Their routine was broken and they don’t do well with change. Do any of us, really?
Anyway, Hydro One Storm Center kept showing conflicting updates. We went from Power Resumption to be Sunday 30th at 6:00p.m. to unknown, to Monday. All day today, Tuesday April 1st they were showing Wednesday April 2nd at 6:00p.m.
Lucky for us crews showed up around noon today. Hydro One seemed to be taking the lead on clearing the lines of fallen trees. A second group called Holland Power Services from Nova Scotia seemed to be doing the actual electrical repairs.
Here are some the wife’s photos

YIKES! That looked like quite an ice storm!

What an adventure, glad you are OK.

Sucks! Glad you're ok.

I remember the time at my last house in SJ when a storm took out the power lines. They ended in my backyard, and it snapped the power pole like a twig. Took the power company 6 days to replace the pole. I had, and still have, a 1000 little Honda generator I bought for my duck hunting trailer. That thing saved us, and all the food and all in our freezer/fridges.

The last bad ice storm we had, no power for two weeks, is what convinced me to plumb natural gas to my porch for a tri fuel generator. It’s also nice I can plug the BBQ and outdoor heater to it.

What sucks in my house is our wells have no backup power. Power goes, so does the water. First thing you do when power goes is fill up a couple buckets while the tanks still have pressure. With 23 homes, it goes fast. Good thing is in 6 years worst outage was only about 2 hours.

We use bottled water for drinking, washing up and cooking. For the toilets we fill a bucket from our sump hole and leave them in the washrooms.
Two issues this year that we were lucky didn't cause us problems.
First, if the water table had been much higher we'd have had a flooded basement.
Second, With our new raised septic bed no effluent was being pumped from the tank to the weeping bed. I asked for a one way valve to be installed so effluent couldn't get back into the house but I don't think the added it as it wasn't listed on the bill. No effluent entered the house this time.

That’s why my buddy put the holding tank for his well uphill of his house. 1500 gal.