DON’T LET THE STORMS STOP YOU! GET OUTSIDE EXPLORE MORE. PLAN THAT NEXT ADVENTURE WITH 1TAC. STAY SAFE!

HIKE, HUNT, FISH, CLIMB, SKI, BIKE, BOAT.

The Ice Storm of 1998 came with no howling winds, no torrents of floodwater, no seismic convulsions, not even a clap of thunder. Just the steady patter of rain too cold to evaporate.

Later, in the cold and dark, there would be the creaks and groans of burdened trees, the buzz, and crackle of downed power lines, the metallic shriek of ice-rimmed hydro towers giving way to their icy burden. But at first, the enemy was noiseless, its aspect almost benign.

Its effect, however, was anything but:

• Thirty-five people, including four in Ontario, died as a result of the storm, succumbing to hypothermia, a house fire, carbon monoxide poisoning, and falling ice. Almost a thousand more were injured in car accidents, by falling limbs; emergency rooms dealt with everything from sprained ankles to chainsaw wounds.
• The death toll was three and a half times that of the flood in Saguenay, Que., in 1996, the next most deadly natural disaster in recent Canadian history.
• More than 1.2 million homes in Quebec (about half the population) and 250,000 homes in Ontario lost power. About 600,000 people were forced to leave areas where the blackout lingered.
• The storm inflicted as much as $5 billion in damage. Homes lost roofs, basements were flooded, cars were crushed by falling trees.
• An estimated 11,000 hydro poles, 1,000 transformers and 300 steel towers were damaged in Ontario alone. Forests of trees were toppled, split, or lost limbs.

But what the storm left most profusely in its wake are memories, some dreadful, some poignant, some wondrous, many warmed by the flame of human kindness that blazed everywhere icy fingers reached.