Any Torontonians here...

[24KT]

Any Torontonians here negatively affected by the ice storm?

I tell ya working from home suuuure has it's benefits.

I knew the ice storm was coming, so I made sure I was stocked up and wouldn't have to leave the house for a while, ...but Holy Moley I did not expect it to be this bad. I don't think anyone did.  I was speaking with my Aunt, and one of her best friends lives down my street. My Aunt was surprised to hear me report such little damage, when her friend had described what to her sounded like a war-zone. Apparently the street and driveways were cordoned off with yellow police tape. No cars in or out, until crews could move trees off roadways, and take down precariously dangling branches. So I finally ventured outside for the first time since the storm. WOW!

I cannot believe the devastation around me. It looks like a tornado had ripped through my street.
Everywhere I turn, nothing but devastation, downed trees snapped like twigs, frozen in time.

I am feeling so incredibly blessed right now. It's like there was a little bubble of protection over my house, while the brunt of the storm ravaged my neighbours. So far as I can tell, only damage is one small branch from one tree in front of my house snapped. My neighbours weren't so lucky... Entire trees gone... Every single branch crudely ripped from their trunks... and frozen in place with nothing holding them together but ice. In some cases, nothing but crude 3 foot diameter spikes jutting from the ground. Each house probably has firewood for the next 5 years, possibly even longer.

Trees in the winter are bare, no foliage, just bare branches and twigs, ...yet the trees still standing look like they are in full bloom, bursting with foliage ... bunches upon bunches of ice cherries. Life sized pieces of Murano glass art. Everything, ...and i do mean everything is coated in a thick layer of crystal clear ice, flash frozen in time. I can't possibly describe how incredibly beautiful it all is. How can such beauty & such devastation exist as one? My mind is totally blown.  

[24KT]

Everywhere you turn, ...everything is coated in ice.   EVERYWHERE and EVERYTHING! 

[24KT]

And in what has got to be the freakiest vision of all... frozen, and covered with a fresh dusting of Christmas snow

[BikiniSlut]

WOW. 

Thanks for sharing the pics and experience. 

I'm in Western Canada....but my heart goes out to those affected. What an incredibly beautiful but devastating mess.

[RUDE BUOY]

WOW. 

Thanks for sharing the pics and experience. 

I'm in Western Canada....but my heart goes out to those affected. What an incredibly beautiful but devastating mess.

were in western canada

[The Missouri Surprise]

good thing global warming will take care of it 

[temple_of_dis]

good thing global warming will take care of it 

 

[24KT]

good thing global warming will take care of it  

Never mind, ...it's the thawing that is going to be the most dangerous part.

It's going to be an absolute nightmare for the downtown core as temperatures start warming things up.
Toronto's downtown is a sea of high-rise glass skyscrapers. Office towers and residential condominiums,  all encased in layers of ice. The 41 storey Royal Bank Tower downtown alone has 17,000 plus wall-to-wall, floor-to-ceiling glass panels. As soon as the temperatures start to rise, we'll be looking at potentially 17,000 sheets of ice sliding off the windows, and crashing down 41 stories to the street below. Dangerous as hell!!!

Already the building has been cordoned off, and I suspect that those with any smarts will enter and exit the building via the underground PATH system either from the subway or adjoining buildings, and completely forego all ground level entrances and exits.


Toronto's Royal Bank Tower

If you're wondering why the glass has a golden hue, that's not a sunset reflecting off it.
The glass panels for this building were manufactured with a few ounces of gold baked in.    no joke.










And then we have the most ironically appropriately named... "Ice Condos"



Just a few degrees above zero, ...and a few hours of sunshine, and large single sheets of ice will be sliding off those buildings crashing down on pedestrians. It will be mayhem!  

[a_ahmed]

Had power outtage, but we're good, but some people we know are still out in t-dot. Those areas with home depot all emergencies supplies were sold out, nothing.

Couldn't get water from super market, all sold out.

Ice is definetely freaky on everything. I mean many years past I've had ice cover the cars and have to smash it off, but this is next level lol.

[24KT]

Had power outtage, but we're good, but some people we know are still out in t-dot. Those areas with home depot all emergencies supplies were sold out, nothing.

Couldn't get water from super market, all sold out.

Ice is definetely freaky on everything. I mean many years past I've had ice cover the cars and have to smash it off, but this is next level lol.

Sorry you lost power. We were good, no power outage & minuscule damage, but some people are still without power since Saturday.

A friend of mine up in Thornhill celebrated Christmas with eggs & sausages he made on his propane BBQ in his garage. By mid afternoon, he got his heat & power back. I really wanted to see what a BBQ turkey would look like. I suppose it would probably look like a BBQ or rotisserie chicken, ...but the concept of BBQ turkey seems so weird.

Can you believe how bizarre, freaky and other worldly everything looked? ...especially prior to the Christmas snowfall? I have NEVER, EVER seen such amazingly bizarre sights. I'm sure you'll agree the pictures don't even capture the colossal screw job to the mind. Despite the lack of damage, I could barely even recognize my own home. I actually got lost on my way home yesterday because I didn't even recognize my own neighbourhood. I actually missed the entrance to my street, ...and was only able to find my own home based on searching the house numbers.

What do you think of the way the Ford haters are piling on the hate? I'm about to make a certain director's head explode. He seethed with anger that Mayor Ford who had been going 24/7 traversing the city, co-ordinating teams, visiting warming centres etc., all the while without heat or electricity at his own home, had the audacity to check into a hotel. According to him "A real leader would have waited until every single resident had their electricity back before he took a hot shower." HA! I wonder how he's going to feel when I tell him that his darling the unelected Deputy Mayor Norm Kelly actually jetted off to sunny Florida during the midst of this?

I tell ya... these blind rabid Ford haters are going to ensure his re-election. He may be an inarticulate crack smoking, hard drinking, reggae loving, foot in mouth screwup, ...but he sure performs well in a crisis. 

[24KT]

Some more mind blowing pics of the devastation in my neighbourhood

[24KT]

And yet a few more...

[24KT]

These ones are just random pics of objects flash frozen in time that are floating around the net.

Check out the ice build up on the twig. The hand really gives you a bit of a feel for the scale of the amount of ice, as well as how it literally encased EVERYTHING. This was just a little twig. Tree branches just couldn't hold up under the weight of all that ice. I simply cannot express how totally BIZARRE everything looks encased this way. It reminds me of those photos of the ancient ruins of Pompeii when Mt. Vesuvius erupted, and people were flash frozen (for want of a better word) in motion, in an instant by the lava flow. Except this wasn't lava, it was crystal clear glistening ice. There were times I had to use all my will power to not pull off an encased icicle or two and start sucking on them. They look sooo mouth wateringly refreshing.

Check out the pink balloon. That's how quickly the ice built up, ...and how solid it was. The ballon burst, but it's icy enclosure stayed intact. Too Much!

And then there was the lone red mitten stuck on the fence.   ...wild

Can you tell I'm obsessed with how other worldly it all looks. You guys seriously can't imagine how freakily fascinating it all is. Such incredible beauty. How could such devastating destruction be so hauntingly beautiful at the same time? I think that's the part that's blowing my mind. lol. I feel like I'm on another planet.

[24KT]

It's bad enough we had to endure the ice storm, ...now we're left dealing with "ice quakes"

Yep you heard correctly, ...the entire GTA is experiencing Ice Quakes.

If you feel like something is crash landing on your roof, or a slab of concrete is hitting your outside walls,
Or like the support beams under your floors are giving way... you're just experiencing an ice quake.

Seems the moisture in the ground is freezing, and as it expands, it needs room to grow.
Pressure builds up until it gives way, similar to tectonic shifting of earth plates that produce earthquakes.

Experienced a really powerful one the other night that saw me getting out of a nice warm bed at 3 am to bundle up and go outside to inspect my home. I thought my neighbours tree had crashed onto my roof. Thank Goodness I now know what these are. Hopefully the pictures stay on the walls, and the crystal remains on their shelves.