It was 20 years ago today . . . when the skies turned an eerie gray . . .

With apologies to John Lennon and Paul McCartney, it was 20 years ago that Eastern Ontario was hit with a devastating weather phenomenon — the Ice Storm of 1998.

Beginning in the evening of Jan. 4, 1998, low pressure, warm air currents from the Gulf of Mexico met high-pressure, cold currents from the Arctic. When the two systems collided, the warm air rose above the cold. Precipitation fell as rain, but as it reached lower altitudes or hit the ground — it froze.

And it continued for six days.

Coincidentally, January 1998 was significant for another reason. Most of the municipalities in Eastern Ontario had just gone through a restructuring process. Everything was new, the power was out and all hell was breaking loose.

“I had yet to be sworn into office,” said Bill MacDonald, who had been elected Mayor of the newly-created Central Frontenac Township. “I woke up in the middle of the night to the sound of tree limbs cracking throughout the sugar bush behind my house.

“I had a tough time just getting out of my driveway.”

Arriving at the Township office, MacDonald learned communications were sketchy at best.

“Not knowing the extent of it all, I told (clerk) Heather Fox and (roads superintendent) Ivan Duffy ‘I think we’ve got something we can’t handle,’” MacDonald said. “I declared a state of emergency.”

Further south, in the newly-formed South Frontenac Township, new Mayor Phil Leonard was in a similar boat. For Leonard though, things were even worse because as Warden (actually Chair of the new Frontenac Management Board), he was responsible for the entire County.

“When it started, we had the trucks out right away,” Leonard said. “But it just kept coming and coming.

“We didn’t have an emergency plan for the Township yet, but Portland Township (Leonard had been Reeve when Portland merged with Loughborough, Bedford and Storrington) was the only one of the four previous townships that did have one.

“I read the first page and immediately declared a state of emergency — which gave me more authority than I wanted.”

The Canadian military put a helicopter at Leonard’s disposal.

“They picked me up at the Keeley Road offices,” Leonard said. “(CBC reporter) Adrienne Arsenault was already on board.”

Their first destination was Camden East to see the western end of the devastation, Leonard said. The second stop was Tichborne, then Plevna, then back to South Frontenac where they landed at the Burridge Firehall.

“While we were there, a 911 call came in,” Leonard said. “An elderly gentleman had had a heart attack and they used the helicopter to airlift him to KGH.

“He survived but I had to hitch a ride back to Sydenham.”

Meanwhile, back in Central Frontenac, things were going from bad to worse.

“It seemed like all the roads were impassible,” MacDonald said. “You’d get a road cleared and next thing you’d know, it would be blocked by fallen branches again.”

But, Central did have a few things going for it.

First of all, like South, one of the former townships (Oso) did have an emergency plan and they wasted no time putting that into action.

Second, the Road 38 corridor still had power.

“It went from three-phase to two-phase but at least the high school had power and served as a shelter,” MacDonald said. “And we had the Township Hall as a command centre and the gas stations.

“That was a Godsend.”

And they had another resource to draw on — the people.

“I know it’s a bit of a cliché but we do have the pioneer spirit here,” MacDonald said. “I always thank the service clubs, the high school, the fire department — everybody.”

By way of example, MacDonald used this anecdote.

“Lindsay Burke lived at the end of Burke Settlement Road,” MacDonald said. “He needed medicine so Vern Crawford set off to get it to him.

“Vern was only able to drive partway down the road, so he walked the rest of the way to get Lindsay his medicine.”

Leonard echoed MacDonald’s sentiments.

“Ten minutes after I declared the state of emergency, the OPP came through the door saying ‘whatever you need, just tell us,’” Leonard said. “I can’t say enough good things about those people and especially Dave Willis.”

And even though South was up to its neck in ice, they still managed to send help to their neighbours.

“We had more big trucks than Central and we sent what we could spare up there,” he said. “We also arranged for help for Frontenac Islands and Kingston stood up to help there.

“Luckily, North Frontenac wasn’t hit as hard (essentially just the Snow Road area was hit bad) but keep in mind, when the power went out, everybody lost the electric pumps for the wells and so had no water.”

Luckily, Leonard knew Loblaw’s chief Galen Weston, having worked for him in the past.

“He delivered whatever I asked for.”

Leonard had praise for his constituents as well.

“Everybody helped out,” he said. “We created a system whereby if you needed help, you put something hanging out of your mailbox and we patrolled the roads with snowmobiles,” he said. “John Shabot of Hydro One was excellent, those people didn’t walk, they ran.

“Gary Davison was the fire chief in Loughborough and worked 24/7, Kingston helped out and Dupont gave us 20 5,500 watt generators that ended up all over the County.

“I can’t say enough about how everybody came together.”

It took a good month before things were returning to normal and the damage could be assessed.

“We did $5.3 million in repairs, most of which was paid by provincial and federal help,” said MacDonald.

“Our entire construction budget that year was ice-storm related,” said Leonard. “In one sense, it was a great time because of how everybody helped one another but it was the worst time in my 24 years in government.”

“I was a baptism under fire,” said MacDonald. “But I still believe from the bottom of my heart that because people in rural communities are used to doing for themselves, that set us up well.”

Kyle Shorrok was the youngest of the four crew members who died in a crash near Tweed last week, an event that Hydro One said is the most deadly accident in the history of the company. The crash took place on December 14th, which was his birthday. He turned 27 that day.

According to his posts on the James Reid funeral home website, Shorrok was very close with his mother, sisters and grandmother, and with the family of his fiancee, Brittany Robertson. In another cruel twist to this sad circumstance, Kyle and Brittany were to be married on January 17th in the Bahamas.

Janet Brooks of Ompah was one of over 60 protesters who attended the Enough is Enough Hydro One protest, which took place outside of the Hydro One offices in Perth on May 2. The event attracted local and area residents fed up with the high cost of their bills.

Brooks described her financial situation as desperate, and says she has had to put the home she bought seven years ago up for sale. Presently her outstanding Hydro One bill is $4,000. “My second mortgage people are repossessing my home and I have nowhere to go,” she said in tears. Brooks, who is a single mother, said that unfortunately her situation is not unique. “I know of others in the Ompah area who are experiencing the same kind of situation and I know of 10 other home owners in the area who are going to have to walk away from their homes.”

She approached drivers stopped at the corner of Highway 7 and Drummond St., asking them to sign a petition that will be presented in the Legislative Assembly at Queens Park on May 13 the same day that a large Enough is Enough Protest will be taking place there. “As a kid I used to be afraid of the dark, Brooks said, “ and now because of Hydro One I am scared of the light because I cannot afford it.”

The Saturday protest in Perth was organized by Jeanette Kosnaski of Barry's Bay and Jenny Gates, both administrators of the Enough is Enough Hydro One group, which to date has over 21,000 members. Kosnaski said that the group is fighting Hydro One's delivery charges for rural Ontarians, as well as the HST charge, the debt retirement charge and smart meters. The petition that the group was passing around at the demonstration demands “The removal of all hidden charges that make up the delivery charge, and its replacement with one standard charge for all Ontarians." The petition also demands the immediate replacement of smart meters by analog meters.

Randy Hillier, MPP for Lanark, Frontenac, Lennox and Addington, spoke at the protest and blamed Hydro One's inflated regulatory and delivery charges on mismanagement and exorbitant wages. He said that the Green Energy Act is also to blame because FIT contracts “compel Hydro One to purchase renewable energy at inflated over market rates”.

He listed a number of solutions that he believes would fix the problems. These included auditing the MDMR (Meter Data Management Repository) and either scrapping or altering it; trimming wages to employees at Ontario Power Generation and Hydro One; canceling the Green Energy Act; stopping all new FIT contracts and imposing a tax on the excess profits of FIT developers, with the proceeds reimbursing Hydro One customers. Hillier said that he welcomes “an end to the Hydro One monopoly to allow for competition in a free market place”.

Tracy Stewart-Simmons of Carp also spoke at the event. Kosnaski encouraged those present to join the Enough is Enough Hydro One group and invited all present to attend a larger protest that will take place at Queens Park in Toronto on May 13 from noon until 3pm. The group is arranging bus transportation for out-of-towners, and speakers at the event will include MPP Randy Hillier, Steve Clark, Parker Gallant, Cindy Moyer and others yet to be confirmed. Kosnaski hopes to see many bodies in Toronto on May 13. “We need to get out there and make the Ontario government know that this is no longer acceptable.” For more information visit Enough is Enough Hydro One on Facebook.

Jon Roberts from Hydro One's Kingston office presented $10,000 to the Hinchinbrooke District Recreation Committee and Central Frontenac Mayor Frances Smith on Tuesday. The money comes from the Hydro One Power Play granting program, and will help pay for a play structure in Parham.

“We operate equipment in almost every town in Ontario,” said Roberts, "and all of our employees ... are committed to making Hydro One a good corporate citizen. Hydro One invests in our communities to build and maintain safe, healthy places for healthy, active lifestyles.”

Power Play is a granting program that was established by Hydro One in 2008 to support and enhance sports and recreation facilities in Ontario.

The Hinchinbrooke Recreation Committee has raised $10,000 on their own towards the project, and there is $15,000 in the draft 2015 township budget as well. With the additional $10,000 from the Power Play grant, the committee is now planning to purchase a $33,000 play structure and spend a further $2,000 on either wood chips or sand to go under the new structure.

The township public works department as well as Rec. Committee volunteers will be doing site preparation in the spring as soon as the ground is ready to be worked. The entire project has been costed out at $35,000 in cash, plus up to $15,000 in volunteer and township labour.

“On behalf of the Township of Central Frontenac, I want to congratulate the Hinchinbrooke Recreation Committee for all their hard work and many hours of fundraising in order to provide new playground equipment to be placed at the ball field in Parham,” said Mayor Frances Smith.

Caption – (L to R) Jon Roberts from Hydro One; Mayor Frances Smith; Bob Teal of the Hinchinbrooke Rec. Committee; and Barrie Stanbury from Hydro One posing with a ceremonial $10,000 Power Play Cheque at the Central Frontenac Township office on February 24.