During the Great Ice Storm Canada was unprepared to manage many of the problems occurring during and after the Ice Storm. The Great Ice Storm occurred on January 5th 1998 and ended on the 10th. For more than 80 hours 120 mm of steady freezing rain and drizzle fell over several thousand square miles of land and accumulated on everything it landed such as branches and metal causing them to bend or break. Parts of Eastern Canada were affected such as Eastern Ontario, Quebec, New Brunswick and Nova Scotia as well as parts of North Eastern America (New York and Maine). Temperatures reached below 0 and with it came high wind pressures.
Thousands of people suffered from hypothermia as well as a shortage of foods due to power outages resulting in no heat in homes. There had been 25 deaths of hypothermia and over 600 000 people in parts of Eastern Canada were having to leave there homes to move into shelters for safety, warmth and food. The ice storm even caused over $500 million dollars worth of property damage in parts of Eastern Canada. It took 72 hours before the Canadian government realized the Great Ice Storm was going to be as savior as it was. If the government had warned or informed the people sooner then the population would have taken more preventative measures then what they did such as buying extra generators to maintain heat and light in the homes. Extra wood for wood fired stoves as well as insuring car vehicles were kept inside garages. People might have made provision for the elderly and children to move away from the danger zone to friends and relatives. These measures would have helped to reduce the amount of number of claims made to insurance companies and the government.
