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Ice Storm: Christmas card front yard

Broadcast Date: Jan. 8, 1998

Outside of Susan Johnson's front window, it looks like a Christmas card. A silvery veneer of ice covers her mature trees. She lives in rural Old Chelsea, Que., a town east of Ottawa in the Gatineau Hills. Even though the view is beautiful, her patience is wearing thin. She and her family have been living without electricity or water for three days.

Johnson and her children spend most days at the local gym where they swim and take showers, returning in the evening to lots of "negotiations around candles" and to sleep on mattresses by the fire. But today, a large tree in their yard dangerously crashed onto the power line, blocking the driveway; their exit.

Ice Storm: Christmas card front yard

• On this day, the government declared a state of emergency and called in nearly 16,000 army troops. For 10 days, the soldiers delivered supplies, helped hydro crews and removed snow and ice in eastern Ontario and southern Quebec. Some troops stayed until Hydro restored power to the final residents in early February.
• The deployment was Canada's largest-ever during peacetime.

• During the storm, millions of residents moved to shelters, shared meals or lived temporarily with friends or family.
• Crowded shelters increased the spread of influenza and an outbreak erupted at hospitals. Shelters began mandatory flu shots.

Also on January 8:
1947: Toronto Maple Leafs' Howie Meeker ties an NHL rookie record when he scores five goals in one game against the Chicago Black Hawks.
1948: William Lyon Mackenzie King becomes the Commonwealth's longest serving prime minister, with 7,825 days in office. He retires later in the year.
1982: Statistics Canada announces that Canada's jobless rate at the end of 1981 is 8.6 per cent, matching a post-war record low.
1990: Canada formally joins the Organization of American States as its 33rd member.

Ice Storm: Christmas card front yard

Medium: Radio

Program: This Morning

Broadcast Date: Jan. 8, 1998

Guest(s): Susan Johnson

Interviewer: Avril Benoît

Duration: 4:25

Last updated:
July 30, 2009