From January 5 to 9, 1998, almost 180 millimeters of freezing rain paralyzed southern Quebec.
• Also read: 25 years ago the ice storm
Those who experienced the ice storm remember it like it was yesterday.
In Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu, in the so-called “black triangle”, those who have been without electricity the longest share their memories with our journalist Philippe Bessette.
“I said to my boy: ‘Put on your skates, we’re going skating outside’,” explains Pierre Rathé, a resident of Saint-Luc. “We skated all over the street, we had fun like it can’t be, but we didn’t expect what was going to happen in the next few days.”
“We have no idea how noisy all of our electronic devices are,” recalls Marie-Ève Landry, a Marieville resident. “There, black silence, you could hear the ice cracking and the trees cracking.”
“The feeling of having a shower after a week without washing was very pleasant,” says Josée Poissant, a resident of Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu.
Hundreds of citizens came to get their wood very close to the boulevard Saint-Luc in Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu.
“There were such huge queues at gas stations that were occasionally open,” Rathé said. “Once it opened, it was the big line.”
Some remember the rise in influenza cases
The doctors had to make up for the lack of resources in the hospital or in the pharmacies.
“We always say that we had a flashlight, three aspirins and five mattresses to treat our patients,” explains Dr. Richard Dumouchel. “That was pretty much what we had.”
The ice storm not only plunged many of the province’s residents into complete darkness, but also encouraged the spread of the influenza virus through the clusters.
“We had to group the elderly in residential centers because the different dormitories did not have access to electricity or generators,” explains Dr. Dumouchel. “At the time it led to a slaughter in this population where there were many cases of influenza.”
This weather event was one of the costliest in the province’s history.
Financial losses to Quebec businesses have been estimated at $250 million.
Immediate recovery and building reconstruction costs for Hydro-Québec following the ice storm were $1 billion.
In addition, 10,000 people were needed to rebuild the network, including soldiers, contractors and Hydro-Québec employees.