Icy weather makes for memorable weekend

Power outages lead to cold showers and acts of kindness

A large chunk of a tree down blocking Front Street.

Well, that was a weekend to remember, wasn’t it?

For me it will always be the Great Birthday Ice Storm of 2025™. From my perspective it will be handy, since after so many years and so many birthdays they all tend to blur together. Some years March 29 is sunny and warm, some years it’s snowy and cold, some years it’s Easter, some years it’s not even close. But who can remember which years match with what weather.

Not this year. In our 110-year-old home on Second Street we got off rather lightly. The power was off for 40 hours or so, but we didn’t have any broken branches or damage. The biggest problems were water in the basement and a temperature that dipped to 11 C.

We did get to experience human nature in all its glory – good and bad, well, at least odd.

First the good. We had a generator running to keep our sump pump emptying the basement and preventing flooding. One disadvantage of an old home built on a stone foundation is that the water always finds its way in. But it flows across the basement to the pump, so we just had to make sure the pump was working. We alternated the generator between running the pump and our freezer, which was filled with everything from the fridge upstairs, as well as its usual fare.

I didn’t have a big supply of gasoline for the generator but several friends came to our assistance and we were able to top things up and even keep a bit of spare fuel. This was particularly helpful on Monday as the power fluctuated between off and on and we kept turning the generator off and on.

On Sunday evening we had power for about 20 minutes before we slipped back to darkness. Neighbours just two doors up the street didn’t lose their power, at least not then, and offered us the chance to come over and get warm or take a shower.

Then, there was the odd behaviour I got to watch out my front window. My neighbour’s Eastlink cable was hanging down to shoulder level as it crossed the street to his house. So, our street was blocked by four orange cones at Doxsee Street and yellow police tape at Front Street to keep vehicles out.

But this didn’t stop at least a half dozen drivers from stopping between the cones, deciding there really was no reason for them to be on the road and gunning it as they headed west. A couple cars caught on the cable but no one actually tore it down.

But they all came to a sudden stop when they saw the police tape at Front St. and reality hit, forcing them to U turn and head back east.

On Sunday afternoon we did a walk around the downtown area and saw lots more trees down, including one that landed on an SUV parked in a driveway on Booth Street North. Another neighbour had a large branch crash through his glass greenhouse.

There were some large branches blocking sidewalks and some that had been dragged off the roadway.

The municipality warns that a few roads are closed until further notice:

• 8th Concession West from County Rd 45 to Ward Rd.

• Greenly Rd from Godolphin Rd to Concession 6 East

• Dunham Rd from 12th Line W to 11th Line West

If you spot any hazards, report them at 705-653-2610.

But all-in-all the damage in our area wasn’t too severe. A sister who lives near Coldwater reports she’s hoping to get power restored by Thursday or Friday. As she deals with the outage, she’s had to postpone a planned trip to Los Angeles to visit a daughter.

Oh, and the number you were wondering about – 73.

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