“Quiet” Ice storm hits the Land o' Lakes

Jeff Green | Jan 07, 2010

Skootamatta Lake Road, north of Cloyne.

“If this were happening in Napanee or Kingston, it would be all over the news, but since it is only out here, you don't hear anything about it.”

That's how Addington Highlands Reeve Henry Hogg describes the ice storm on December 26 that caused havoc on the roads and power outages in the region north and east of Northbrook, extending to Plevna, Cloyne, Ompah and Denbigh.

Hydro workers were out in force throughout the holidays, trudging through the snow and ice to remove trees that had fallen over hydro lines. For many residents the power returned for a few hours or days, only to go off again as new trees came down and the lines went down again.

“One fortunate thing about the damage being limited to a small region is that a lot of hydro crews were available to work here,” said Henry Hogg.

“My biggest concern right now is the trees over roads. It’s just as bad, or worse than ’98,” said Addington Highlands Roads Superintendent Royce Rosenblath at a council meeting on Monday. “A few of the roads are really treed in and the trees are leaning right over the road. If they break over a car or a car runs into them it could be really bad.”

The township crews cannot handle the amount of work that is required on some of the roads, including Ashby Lake Road and one of the Lennox and Addington County roads, and the township will be contracting out some of the work cutting down trees that are a threat to public safety. “It's going to be costly because there are a lot of trees, and we are going to get into some private property issues but we are going to have to do the work,” Rosenblath said. “We will only deal with the roads. Anything that will affect hydro we are going to have to leave to them. But they have put a lot of manpower on this.”

The ice load on the trees has not abated because the weather has remained cold and snow has continued to accumulate overtop the ice on twigs and branches. With forecasts for temperatures remaining well below the freezing point for the next couple of weeks, the possibility of more trees coming down on roads or hydro lines remains high.

Both the township and the hydro crews have been focussing on trees that are already down and trees that are leaning over roads. Hydro lines are only now being addressed.

North Frontenac Mayor Ron Maguire, who lives north west of Plevna, summed up how many residents are dealing with the threat of a further loss of power. “We are keeping our bathtub full of water, just in case,” he said.