IceStorm 98 Study

George Horton says that a day after the power went out things really got rolling, after the power went out and his water pump quit on him just as he was finishing milking. He heard a forecast of bad weather and notified his local pump supplier -- and it was 3:00am by the time he got it working. Then the power went out and George Horton thought it would only be out for a while (a day or two at the most). George Horton phoned to rent a generator from his neighbor Thursday morning -- but the power never came on and things got drawn out.

The emergency just kept building and more power was going out -- at first George Horton thought it was only going to be a couple of days -- then the scenarios got worse (a week, a month, two months). By Friday George Horton was starting to see a lot of damage, he had a line go down on his farm and had to cut milking back to twice a day. He also had damage to his tractor and sugar-bush. All January and February he has had guys working on the cleanup and there's still a lot to do.

George Horton says he got a generator Thursday morning -- everyone needed one -- but he got one for two milkings as soon as he realized that it was going to be a long haul. His main concern was mastitis, not production which he was prepared to lose. George Horton says that his neighbor also needed his own generator and so he began trading around with other generators. George Horton says the milking schedule became very erratic -- but the community spirit was "really something." George Horton says that it was nice that neighbors helped each other out. George Horton says he shut his house down when the line came down -- although he does have a wood/oil furnace and could have made that work. So he moved his family into his mother's house -- she has a wood-burning stove. He kept a small fire going in his own house and checked on it regularly.

The routine settled down on Monday when the army arrived with portable generators for the farms -- and they did milking. They set up a regular milking schedule (5:00am and 5:00pm). Generators were blowing up all over the place so that when the army came in George Horton was glad that they brought their own units for which they took responsibility. George Horton "can't say enough about the army."

By Wednesday it was looking like the power was going to come on -- Thursday they powered up the main line. GH's main line to the house was down so he called an electrician to come to his place -- but he told George Horton that hydro was connecting to houses -- then the clean up crew told him that they did not put up lines to houses. George Horton "lost his cool at that point." So he got the line up himself with some friends, so Hydro "hitched up" the house and the barn. George Horton says that Hydro told him they would power the barn but that it would be another week before they could come back to power the house.

George Horton says, "the true colours of a lot of people came out during that storm" -- that some people "did a lot of good things" mostly in the transportation of generators and donations of food. Some people went in the other direction, hoarding and keeping to themselves.

George Horton says he had a good experience with the municipal authorities -- principally John Trudgen, Diane Hall, Gloria Crawford, Les Running and Wayne Forbes -- George Horton has praise for all of them. George Horton says the emergency plan saved the township a lot of trouble, criticism by others notwithstanding. George Horton got a little generator and circulated it up and down the road to keep freezers from getting warm. The township did a good job: they ran the shelter 24 hours a day, they keep in touch with people. George Horton says he lived well in his mother's place, "the fire just a-roaring" and it was a nice time for the whole family. It was a good bonding time, cooking over the fireplace and playing games rather than watching TV or playing on the computer.

George Horton says people should be looking for the positive lessons from this experience.

George Horton says the phone lines were erratic, up and down, and that made things difficult because of milk-pickup. The drivers could not contact the farmers. "They just came whenever they could get through." GH's nephew had a cell phone -- he works for George Horton -- and George Horton would use that cell phone and then borrow a generator to pump milk when the milk truck arrived. George Horton says he lived in his truck while running around with generators, his truck was on the road all the time. It was a big job, picking up batteries and feed -- and that was hard because everything was shut down. He would be out talking to people at 3:00am having a beer waiting for the generator to come available. George Horton says he talked to neighbors he had not spoken with in years.

George Horton says that the army worked well, as did the milk pickup system. George Horton did not have a lot of contact with the township, but what contact he did have was positive. The sharing of generators worked well.

George Horton says that having to milk at strange times, and worry about the welfare of the cows, was stressful and did not work well. George Horton was concerned that it was going to get cold and water would freeze and he could not water his cattle. He was also concerned that he would not be able to start his tractors, which he uses to feed his cattle. He does not have a lot of mechanization, but he needs to keep his tractors warm to keep his animals fed. Fortunately it never got too cold so he was all right.

George Horton has praise for the clerk and administrator of the township.

George Horton notes the stress of running around for generators and possibility of mastitis -- otherwise most things worked well. George Horton was angry at the electrician who told him that he could not power up GH's house.

George Horton says he is looking into purchasing a used generator -- he knows he needs one but a new one is very expensive for an event that may not re-occur for another 50 years. He says a used system is going to run between 35 and 45 hundred dollars. George Horton says people might get too excited about the risk of the power going out again. He says that so much equipment has been replaced in this event that it's unlikely to happen again. George Horton says it does not make sense to get excited over flukes -- and this storm was a fluke.

The animals did not like the switch from three milkings to two. George Horton says that it was important not to express too much excitement around the animals cause that would stress them. The animals recovered to their normal production within three days, even though his "high-production" herd is sensitive. George Horton says he did lose production, but he did not care.

George Horton says he spent some money on generators and running his truck around, he bought batteries and "lots of pizza." The unusual costs (cleanup of the sugar bush) is coming now.

The event was stressful for the family, it was tough and his family were glad to move home again, his wife was stuck at home rather than coming to her Queen's job (in Richardson), and she was glad to get back to her routine.

George Horton says he remembers falling asleep one very peaceful night in front of his mother's fireplace and then being awakened with a shock when the roving team showed up for his generator. George Horton had a lot of fun with the army, they had lots of coffee and cookies for them. He says they always wanted to help out. George Horton says the army was well-organized and that they "did well by us.”