25th Anniversary of the Ice Storm of 1998

[thetrailboss]

25th Anniversary of the Devastating 1998 Ice Storm in the Northeast

www.weather.gov

One hell of a storm. We were on the very edge of it in the NEK but Quebec was absolutely trashed. Some places did not have electricity for two weeks. Did anyone directly experience it?

Burke had some significant damage to trees on the summit and below it. Some other mountains had similar damage.

 

[Terry]

My house was without power for 5 days but some of the people in the area were out for 2 weeks. Major forest damage everywhere. Only good thing that came out of it was my kids got vouchers to shawnee peak because the school ski program was canceled for 3 weeks so my wife took them night skiing and convinced me to give it a try. The rest is history.

 

[deadheadskier]

Definitely the worst regional weather beat down I've experienced in a lifetime of mostly living in New England.

I was a student at UVM at the time. That was the only time during my 4 years that they ever cancelled classes. Even when we had two foot snow storms, classes were still held.

I was living in an apartment in downtown Burlington. I had a job delivering pizzas for Leonardo's. The downtown core of Burlington was the only local area without extensive power losses. The owner of Leonardo's stayed open the first two days. We were slamming busy and made a bunch of money, but it was so sketchy driving around Btown dodging downed trees and limbs everywhere. Even more sketchy was the walk from the car to customers door. Just inches of ice everywhere. The owner finally closed for the third day realizing he was at risk of his delivery drivers getting seriously hurt or killed.

The most shocking images from that storm were the Quebec transmission lines that just crumpled from the weight of the ice.

Stowe took it hard. It basically ruined the tree skiing below 3k feet for the rest of the season. Even the next year wasn't back to normal due to all of the downed trees.

 

[Abominable]

I was a college student at the time too, a bit further south. One thing I remember were the stories about the impact on VT's dairy industry - they mobilized teams of college kids to go milk cows by hand as the power milkers (?) were all unable to operate, and cows can't go forever without being milked.

 

[ThatGuy]

Thanks, that’s just the information I’ve been looking for!

 

[BodeMiller1]

Concord wasn't too bad; we get ice all the time. Went up to New London, NH and picked up my grandmother so she wouldn't freeze to death. Had to wait for the roads to open. Yea many of the ski areas had huge problems, new glades where they weren't wanted...

One good thing that came from it was a far more aggressive effort to cut trees which could fall on the lines. Asplundh tree cutting (the guys in the beat-up orange trucks) have made a fortune since.

The Halloween snowstorm around 2005 was a pain. Lost several mature sugar maples.

On the bright side with the coal plant in Bow and hardening the transmission lines, we can still watch T.V. if there's a full-scale nuclear exchange. So, I got that going for me.