Canada is used to freezing rain, but the Ice Storm of '98 was particularly dangerous and long. It affected people in Ontario, Western Quebec, the Eastern Townships, New Brunswick, and Nova Scotia. On January 4th, 5th, 6th, and 7th, freezing rain began to fall. There was ice everywhere, causing power outages. Many people were stuck in their houses without supplies. The government declared a state of emergency and the military was called in. Montreal and Ottawa are hit by freezing rain on an average of 45-65 hours a year. During the ice storm, they received more than 80 hours of freezing rain.     Freezing rain continued for four days, turning many places into disaster zones. The storm affected Canada in many ways, and many people were forced into shelters because of loss of electricity, there were at least 25 deaths caused by the cold and icy weather, 100,000 people in Ontario, and 900,000 people in Quebec were left without power. The storm cost Canada a large sum of money, from ruining approximately 30,000 wooden utility poles,which cost $3000 each, and 130 transmission towers, each of which cost $100,000. Many trees were damaged forever, and this especially affected the people who make maple syrup. Richelieu was the place worst hit by the freezing rain, where they experienced over 80mm of precipitation and a very long power outage. Millions of dollars of damage was afflicted as a result of the bad rain.    Back to Freezing Rain