BY now, you all have heard the news of the incredible ice storm that has swept through the Northeast of the continent, hitting Quebec and eastern Ontario especially hard (all of you except for those living in the US, I gather. News reports there rarely detail much that happens outside the borders of that country I fear. But, I digress....).

I thought that I would take this opportunity to offer a kind of capsule of what really went on here, (and is still going on) and to reflect on what it has taught many of us in the affected areas.

First of all, some perspective.

Before this storm, the worst disaster to ever hit Montreal in recent decades, was the great flood of 1987. That July, the city was hill by an incredible daytime rain storm that flooded all of the major highways in and out of the city centre. As a result, no one was able to get out of downtown at the end of the workday and the city remained paralysed for two days before things dried out enough for life to return to normal.

As for winter storms, Montrealers are more than prepared for the worst types of blizzards. We often live through thirty or forty centimeter snowfalls without so much as batting an eye. We accept it as a fact of life. Even freezing rain is an annual nuisance. What then, made this storm so unusual and devastating? On Monday night, January the 5th, temperatures rose to just below freezing and freezing rain began to fall. Over the next five days, three inches of freezing rain fell, coating the entire city in a thick and heavy coat of ice. That first night brought many old tress down as they broke beneath the incredible weight of the ice. Unfortunately, as they fell, they had a nasty habit of taking powerlines down with them. The second night, sturdier trees and large limbs of many other trees also began to fall with the same results, such that when Thursday rolled around, half of the population of the province of Quebec, more than 3 million people, were without electricity, heating or hot water. Entire regions of the province were blacked out with absolutely no electricity coming in along the thousands of downed lines.

In Montreal, live power lines caused fires as they fell onto trees or homes or caused street closures as they danced on the street or homes or caused street closures as they danced on the street showering sparks. As Hydro Quebec struggled to restore power to the city, the massive high tension lines which carry power from the hydroelectric dams in the north began to crash to earth as well.

When the rain finally stopped, a thaw set in during which many people were injured by failing ice from buildings and trees. For two days, every bridge in and out of the city was closed because of either power lines down on the roadway or the threat of huge blocks of ice crashing down from the structures.

For three days, the entire downtown core of the city was blacked out and even now that power has been restored the downtown area is cordoned off and all businesses and schools are closed.

Throughout the province, emergency shelters sprang open, offering heated lodgings for the hundreds and thousands of people who had nowhere to go to escape the cold. The water supply in Montreal became endangered when the treatment plants lost power.

Hospitals were inundated with the elderly and the very young who were unable to stay warm, get to shelters or use their electrically powered home oxygen machines or aerosolisers.

Eventually the army was brought in to help in evacuating towns and aid in the massive cleanup. In Montreal, that cleanup involves the removals of hundreds of downed trees and thousands of branches and power poles.

Now, temperatures have dropped to the minus 20 level and the million or so still without power or healing are in dire straits indeed. The government has said that the damage is so bad, that it will be up to three weeks before all areas receive their power back. Furthermore, the cold temperatures after the thaw has left the city encased in about a foot of hard ice making the cleanup extremely difficult and slow.

Personally, I was affected by this storm much less than many others were.

We lost power here three separate times but never for more than 24 hours.

Friends and family without power have stayed with us fairly constantly for the last several days. My car was buried in ice and the clutch was partially burned in extracting it. At work, we were stressed to the max with an ER that was packed to the gills with cold, sick and anxious people. When the water was off, we were making do with sterile water and bottled water that was hand delivered. The trees around our house took a beating but I managed to save them by nightly bashing the ice off of them with a shovel.

What have we learned from all of this? I remember back in the spring, looking at what was going on in Winnipeg and elsewhere along the Red river and wondering what is must have felt like to live in the heart of a real natural disaster. Now I can say that I know! It feels downright stressful and overwhelming. Furthermore, I am sure that my friends in Winnepeg must surely appreciate how I felt in the spring as they now sit in the peg and watch what is going on here!

Of course, some of the most important lessons have been those that cannot be learned without a little suffering. For example; the spirit of community and helpfulness that abounded over that week has been wonderful. For ten days, we have had a much needed break from the stupid politics that are always a source of anxiety in this province. Three inches of ice will make even the staunchest federalists and separatists overlook their differences if only for a brief period.

And of course, there is the knowledge that no matter how bad it is now, this will all be over soon and then everyone will go home again. We should never forget that this is just a temporary inconvenience in the grand scheme of things and that elsewhere in the world, many others are not so fortunate to have that same ending to look forward to.

Oh well, that's just my version of things.