My mother, Eveleen (nee Schell) Allen has always spoken of nature providing a major snow storm around March 20th. During her teenage years, there had been a blizzard on March 20th and her mother and sister had not been able to get home from a trip into Barrie Ontario (normally about a 15 minute drive - maybe 30 minutes in those days). They were snow bound, along with several other travellers, at someone's home for several days.
During my life time, even if the Canadian winter weather turned mild and it appeared as if spring had arrived, Mom would always maintain to not get too excited until after the 20th of March. And she has usually been right! The snow storm may not be a blizzard, but there would be a significant fall of snow.
My brothers usually drive from Kingston Ontario to Florida in early March to visit the baseball spring training camps. One year, they were snowed in for a couple of days in Pennsylvania enroute to Florida. That storm was in early March, so it does not necessarily fall into Mom's prediction.
Another storm that had impact on my family was the January 1998 ice storm in eastern Ontario and southern Quebec. The storm started during the night at my husband Terry and I were awakened to popping sounds - transformers on nearby hydrolines. I had a phone call from my supervisor informing me that our place of work, Queen's University, was closed. The university rarely closes as most of the student population lives on, or near, campus. My brother worked in the downtown area which still had power as the hydro lines in that section of Kingston were underground, so he had gone to work. But as the storm worsened and no let up in sight, he booked a room in a downtown hotel owned by his employers. His intention had only been for himself and our brother and mother who both live with him. Mom took it upon herself to invite me and Terry to join them.
Driving from our home to the downtown hotel should have only required a drive down one street, about 10 minutes. But we had to keep making detours due to fallen trees blocking roads, as well as hydro lines which had falled to the ground due to the weight of the ice.
My step-children were at their mother's but when they were going to have to evacuate to a shelter the following day, Terry and I picked them up and brought them to the hotel as well. On the Friday night, there were 7 of us staying in one hotel room. Talk about family togetherness!
Power was gradually being restored around the city. The power at my mother's house was back on by Saturday, so we relocated there. Her neighbours across the street were still without power, so they ran extension cords from her outside electrical outlet to their homes. The power to our house was restored the next day.
During the storm, a friend was planning on getting married. The power had only been restored to the church earlier in the day of the wedding, but the reception was in the suburbs were hydrolines were underground and therefore not affected. It was her third marriage and she took the ribbing well that only she would get married during an ice storm. Unfortunately, that marriage did not last either.
Some areas of the city were without power for many more days than I or my family experienced. And of course, we all had to deal with the after affects of freezers and refrigerators being without power for several days. Since it was an ice storm, the weather temperature was only around the freezing mark, which was not cold enough to maintain frozen food.
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