From wildfires in California, to typhoons in Asia, natural disasters have become a constant presence in our daily news. Through the power of the internet we can get a front row seat to what is happening around the world. But it happens to other people in other places. Until a natural disaster arrives at your doorstep.

The massive storm to hit my region was being forecast a week in advance. To those living north of us, the temperature would be a bit colder. Precipitation was to come as a large accumulation of snow. To those living south of us, the temperatures would be a bit milder. Precipitation would come as lots of rain. In between where I live would carry a different variety of precipitation. Up to two days worth of freezing rain. My location was smack in the middle of this upcoming ice storm. This heaviest hit area where I live would be a band around 70-80 kilometers wide.

The timing of this ice storm was very much an eye opener for myself and a few other Hillsdale residents who have a closely knit bond with the iconic Hillsdale maple tree (picture of it alive in all its’ glory found in my previous post). The Hillsdale Guardian Tree was very likely alive before Hillsdale even started to exist in the early 1800’s. Just days before the extreme weather announcement, developers came in and destroyed the tree. A tree that has captured the hearts and minds of generations of Hillsdale residents. A wonderful neighbor named Mark who like myself is also heartbroken said to me, “The timing of the ice storm makes me feel Mother Nature was getting its revenge”. His wife Kassandra shared with me her processing of the destruction of the Hillsdale Guardian Tree just days before the ice storm hit as the “Mourning of Mother Nature and reminder how fragile it is… and that it needs to be protected when it’s within our power to do so.”

Each day I would check the weather forecast to see if there was any change in the weather. No change. We have lived in the same house in the village of Hillsdale for 33 years and we have had only one flooded basement. The year was 1998. Due to me being laid off each winter, I was out in Western Canada at the time looking for work. My wife Lynne went downstairs in the morning to find the basement flooded. What happened is the float on the sump pump stuck so it wouldn’t turn on. Sump pumps are typically located in a pit at the lowest point in the basement. This device helps to keep our basement dry by pumping water out of it and away from the foundation of our home. 

The spring runoff mid to late March/early April for the 1st 25 years was challenging. The sump pump during those times at the worst would be cycling every 90 seconds. I would personally go around the roadside ditches to remove any obstructions to try and get the surface water moving. I would do that right down to the Sturgeon River, almost a kilometer way. Our sump pump would come on all year long, but not as often in the summertime. You could tell by the sound of the motor when it was nearing the end of it’s life. We would have to replace a sump pump every three years. It ran that much.

We had a close call one year when I was working nights. The power went out and my wife was on her own. While keeping an eye on our 4 young children, she was frantically bailing water from the sump hole. Knowing she couldn’t last much longer, in desperation she called my brother after midnight who has a well drilling business. My brother brought over a generator and got it set up. Lynne said the sound of the generator was one of the sweetest sounds she has ever heard. We then went out and bought a battery backup. The battery capacity would last depending on how long the sump pump came on. If the sump pump came on every 10 minutes, the battery backup would last 30 hours. If the sump pump came on every 2 minutes, the battery backup would last 5 hours. Over many, many years, we never had a power outage that outlasted our backup battery capacity. Then the backup battery system broke. The batteries were still fine. It was to do with the electronics. I couldn’t get replacement parts and they didn’t make the system anymore. It was obsolete. So I ended up buying a small, cheap offshore generator. You get what you pay for. With only sporadic use it was burning oil like crazy. After only 2 years it had quit working altogether.

But by then things were looking up. In the fall of 2018 we had major roadwork done on our street. This included installing storm drains. After 25 years I no longer needed to take a spade and clear ditches to get the surface water moving each spring. The biggest noticeable difference was how less frequent the sump pump was coming on. It was like a day and night difference. The sump pump still came on fairly frequently for about 4 to 6 weeks during our annual spring snow melt. The important thing is you stay close to home during that time. But for several months of the year the water table would drop enough that the sump pump wouldn’t come on at all. It was great. And I got complacent and lulled in to thinking I would be okay without a backup system. For seven straight years we never once had to bail water. That is until the Ice Storm of 2025 hit.

The ground was already fully saturated from the melting of a massive 460 centimeters of snow. I learned an average winter in this area receives 292 centimeters of snow. The ice storm initially hit here on the late afternoon of Friday March 28th as a steady rain. Temperatures were just hovering around the freezing mark. During that night I would check outside every couple of hours and check on the sump pump. It was running a cycle every 2 minutes and 40 seconds (160 seconds). The pump would pump for 20 seconds and pump the sump hole dry, 140 seconds later the water had come up enough that the pump would come back on again. Some areas like Oro-Medonte Township, Ramara Township and Orillia had already had already transitioned from rain to freezing rain before us.

Rain changed here from rain to freezing rain later on Saturday afternoon. It was quite amazing watching the landscape transform into an ice palace. Having hardly slept at all the night before, I told Lynne I was going to try and catch some sleep. I had a gut feeling I was going to be up soon. After an hour of sleep I was wide awake. The power had just gone out. It was 11:45pm. It is really weird how this happens after 33 years in this same house. Even though I was fast asleep, I am still subconsciously listening for the sump pump. When it failed to come on for it’s regular cycle, I was wide awake. I immediately went downstairs to begin bailing. Fill up a 5 gallon bucket, walk up 6 stairs and then 50 feet to road and dump the water on the road so it goes down the storm drains. Then back downstairs and immediately start bailing. Repeat. I could just barely keep up. Lynne went to bed around 11:30pm Saturday evening and woke up at 1:15. Though she only slept an hour of that time. She had told me to wake her if the power went out, but she needed some sleep as well. Having both of us bailing and taking water outside helped. We would get about a minute rest every 10 minutes.

Throughout the night every time I would go outside with a bucket of water I would hear the explosive sound of branches snapping from the weight of the ice on the trees throughout the village. It sounded like a war zone. I knew this was extremely serious. On Sunday morning my son Curtis and his girlfriend Hannah relieved Lynne and myself and took a turn bailing. It was decided we would work in 2 hour shifts. I was so exhausted. Even though I tried to sleep during my 2 hour break, my mind wasn’t shutting down. By afternoon Lynne was getting updates on her phone that it could be at least another 30 hours before power was restored. We both knew we wouldn’t last that long. We knew we needed a generator. But where? Every generator was sold or rented out for at least 120 kilometers away. Lynne suggested my nephew Gavin. Gavin had taken over my brothers well drilling business. Gavin, who lives in hard hit Oro-Medonte township also had no power. When I called he said he had a spare generator. It was too big to pick up with our car. So Gavin dropped it off and helped set us up. Twenty years ago Gavin’s dad (my brother) dropped off a generator when we were so desperate. Now his son Gavin was doing that very same thing. I agree with my wife. After bailing for fifteen and a half hours, hearing that generator when so desperate is one of the sweetest sounds you will ever hear. I didn’t have my GPS engaged on my watch, but in 15 hours I walked over 17,000 steps, 14.2 kilometers carrying a 5 gallon bucket of water up the stairs and outside, and back downstairs again. One third of that time I was actually bailing while Lynne did the trip outside. That’s how much water we carried out. Gavin was so kind saying, “That is what family is for. We’re here for each other”.

There was a quarter a tank of gas in the generator that Gavin dropped off, enough for 2 hours run time. The challenge was to find a gas station open. Gas stations require electricity to run their gas pumps. Curtis and Hannah got in the car and headed south, to the area where they got rain and not freezing rain. Eighty minutes later they returned with 40 liters of fuel. By Monday afternoon we had used up most of the 40 liters. It was learned that Coldwater, a village 20 kilometers away had their power restored. Lynne and Curtis went out. Along with the gas they also returned with a full tank of propane for the barbeque and a coffee and hot takeout meal for myself. It tasted so good. The biggest pleasant surprise was the power was restored here while they were gone. As I powered down the generator, I was so grateful for Gavin in how he literally saved us from a flood. The accumulation of ice from the ice storm was melting. With the extra water entering the ground from melting ice, the sump pump was cycling just under 2 minutes or 115 seconds.

With power restored on Monday I took the opportunity to go on my desktop computer to check how other areas were faring with their outages. The hardest hit nearby areas were Oro-Medonte Township, the city of Orillia and Ramara Township. These were three of the six areas that were put in a State of Emergency. Oro-Medonte is where my sister lives and Oro-Medonte and Ramara are where the 3 rural churches where I lay pastor at are located. A few of the church members also live in the city of Orillia, which is located in between my 2nd and 3rd churches. Damage was very extensive. It would be several more days before power would be restored there. I also checked the weather forecast only to learn of another major storm heading right towards us on Wednesday night. So grateful we still had Gavin’s generator.

The storm on Wednesday started off with several hours of ice pellets. The overworked Ontario Provincial Police was urging motorists to stay off the roads during that time. Then there was a bit of a lull for about 3 hours while temperatures rose to above freezing. Then back into rain. At 9 pm the power went out here and I went out to fire up Gavin’s generator. At 11pm it was raining heavier. There was torrential rain coming that earlier showed on the radar. I wanted to fill up the generator with gas before then. Lynne went out to help me with filling the gas tank by leaning over me to block rainwater so no rainwater could go in the gas tank. With 20 years of working in well drilling, we would run pump tests using generators for 24 , 48, 72 hours or even longer for commercial wells to determine what sustainable volume they can be pumped at. We would usually work 12 hour shifts. While on shift, I was always listening to the generator and would never sleep during those times, knowing if the generator stalls, the pump test has to be done all over again. So when at just before midnight on Wednesday I heard the generator sputter and then stall, I was immediately out the door. I was met with a wall of water coming down. It was raining so hard, I could barely see. The ground was so saturated it couldn’t absorb anymore water and I was sloshing through 5 centimeters of water to the back yard. Lynne was right on my heels. My heart was racing. I tried starting the generator. It ran for a few seconds and stalled. I tried starting it again. Pulled and pulled on the recoil. Nothing. I knew I probably flooded it. I dragged the heavy generator under the deck and put some plywood over the deck boards to keep the rain off. Lynne went downstairs to resume bailing, but suggested if I do get it going keep a bit more choke on. After a long 5 minutes, I pulled the generator out from under the deck and tried starting it again. It started first pull. For the next two minutes I was tweaking the adjustment of the choke until the engine was running smoothly. Then I clicked the breaker on the generator to power the sump pump. It was working. I dragged the generator back under the deck and put the plywood back on the deck boards. Then the tears flowed freely as I returned to the house looking like a drowned rat. I continually was thanking God for helping me get the generator back running.

It took the longest time for my racing heart to slow down. After a half hour I did another sump pump reading. The pump was cycling every 80 seconds. Every 80 seconds the pump was pumping out 6 gallons of water. It would only take a few minutes to have a flooded basement without that generator and the working sump pump. In 33 years living at this house water has never come in that fast. Despite infrastructure improvements with storm drains installed seven years earlier. Not including the 5 centimeters in ice pellets we received earlier Wednesday, not including two days of rain and freezing rain from Friday to Sunday, and not including the melting of record snowfalls, I later learned we received a months worth of rain in the 4 hours late Wednesday night and into early Thursday morning. By 3 am the heavy rain tapered. Shortly after the power came back on. I let the generator run for 15 more minutes just to make sure our power stayed on. It did. Then I went out wearing my running headlamp to turn the generator off. I leaned under the deck and turned it off. While on my knees I gave that generator an awkward hug, being careful not to burn myself on the still hot exhaust. This was definitely a first for me.

Thursday was a warm day with temperatures reaching 18 Celsius. There was wind gusts up to 85 kilometers an hour. Which kept me greatly on edge. By now I managed a mere 5 hours sleep in the past 130 hours. The Hillsdale school had now reopened and I would be up at the highway for school crosswalk duty. But would race home after to make sure everything was still good. To have a bit more peace of mind, on Thursday Lynne stayed home from her work at the post office. Both Thursday and Friday morning crosswalk there were at least a dozen hydro trucks from out of area utility companies driving through both days. All here to help in the recovery efforts. The back of our yard drains into the field behind. Believe it or not, this field is approved for building 430 homes. After my afternoon crosswalk, I went out into the field with my shovel to try and get the surface water moving there. On Friday it was sunny and very calm. The wind had died right down. For the 1st time in a week I felt comfortable enough to leave the house for more than an hour. And I went for a run.

Several people have asked if I have had any tree damage. I did have multiple limbs come down, but they were not a concern. After Lynne and I moved here in 1992 I strategically planted hardwoods closer to the house and softwoods at the back of the property. Softwood trees are simply that…soft wood. Homeowners and builders like to plant them because they grow fast. Because the wood is soft they are much more likely of breakage in a storm. My two hard maples in front of the house and four black walnuts close to the house at the back fortunately never lost a limb. Almost a third of the limbs of my two soft Manitoba maples at the back ended up on the ground. There was a fair bit of fallen trees in Hillsdale. Here are a few photos.

With this ice storm there were over 1 million customers without power. My story shared is only one of over one million stories out there. My story pales in comparison to so many others. Eight days after the storm hit there were still 100,000 customers without power. Including my sister Linda who lives at the end of a dead end road in Oro-Medonte, she also had no landline phone or cell service. We heard from her six days after the storm hit. She just got her landline phone back. She was okay. Eight days and four hours after losing power, her power was restored.

I had been keeping tabs with members of the three churches I am lay pastor at. Mostly elderly congregations, but extremely resilient people. They were living in the most devastated, hardest hit areas. Some members in that area, it ended up being as much as ten days without power. With all our modern technology it cannot be emphasized enough the value of simple things. Sheila, an elder at my 1st church at Willis lives on a farm with her husband Robert. They were using a hand pump to pump water. They have a wood stove and use it not only for heat, but also to boil water. As I thought about this, you could not only make tea, but also porridge and soup with those instant soup mixes.

I love the message from Laura at the 3rd church at Uptergrove. This is part of it. I added the italics part to add more context. “So pleased you and Lynne have power.  The latest hydro update for us is next Tuesday (10 days after losing power).  We are keeping in touch with our family and neighbours.  Everyone is helping each other.  My sister and hubby from Mississauga went to Hamilton (a staggering 188 kilometers away from Uptergrove) to get a generator for us and drove it up.  We have our oldest son and family next door and they have been such a help.  I have two sisters close by, so we are all in this together.” Laura concluded her message mentioning her husband “Joe had a 35-year career as a power lineman and has worked these types of disasters before – Barrie tornado, Ottawa ice storm of 1998, etc. The difference this time is it is happening to us.” 

By the numbers the worst hit areas here in Central Ontario endured as much as 35 hours of freezing rain. Trees (particularly softwood trees) cannot support the weight of that much ice build up. So branches and entire trees came crashing down. Sometimes taking hydro lines down with them, plunging over 1 million hydro customers into the dark. Two thousand four hundred power poles were snapped off throughout the region. To put this ice storm in perspective with the other two ice storms I remember, the 2013 ice storm that hit Toronto knocked out power for 600,000 customers. The biggest ice storm in Canadian history was in 1998 in Quebec and Eastern Ontario, knocking out power for 4 million customers. With over 5 billion dollars in damage, many historians say the 1998 Ice Storm is one of the worst natural disasters in our history of Canada. Damage from both those storms was minimal here. The Central Ontario ice storm for me has been a once in a lifetime event. We still don’t know how costly this one will be.

I live just down from the Hillsdale firehall which is located at the corner of my street and Highway 93. Each trip outside while bailing water, the blasts of sirens as fire trucks, police and paramedics made their way to the endless calls for service is still vivid in my mind. In talking with my firefighter friends, there were several calls to do with carbon monoxide from the gas generators. Some area fire departments also attended fires stemming from overloaded extension cords. And of course calls to do with power lines down. Firefighters were run off their feet. Something I would never have thought of was our local firefighters needed to refuel the backup generator for the communication tower every four hours so emergency services could keep communication open. The big tower is just over a kilometer outside the village. With fuel stations shut down locally, it was a two hour round trip to get diesel. The next 5 photos are from one of my wonderful Hillsdale Fire Department friends. Really incredible seeing the hydro lines arching in 2 of the photos. I see this wonderful volunteer fireman (who provided the following 5 photos) and his family each day at my crosswalk. No matter the weather…rain, snow, winds…this dear family always walk to school without fail. As I really try to promote active transportation, they are such an encouragement to me. Their example of sustainable travel makes me want to continue with my crosswalk duties.

I cannot emphasize enough how appreciated the hydro workers are. They worked around the clock in tough conditions. Their progress was set back at least a couple times with being punched in the face with that second storm and then the high winds. There were 4,800 pairs of boots on the ground with lineman workers coming in from all over the province of Ontario. Plus from as far away as the provinces of Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Quebec and New Brunswick. Of the 30 utility partners that joined in the recovery efforts, there were several utility companies I have never seen before. Joe, the retired lineman from my 3rd church mentioned that through the signing of an Order of Parliament, linemen workers were allowed to work up to 16 hour shifts, which overrides the labour laws. Four helicopters were in use when it was safe to do so. On top of all that there were 18 Local Distribution Companies (LDC’s) providing mutual assistance. In many places damage was so extensive, sections of the local distribution grid had to be completely rebuilt. Hydro One often repeated these safety alerts: Stay safe: Keep 10 metres away from fallen power lines. Report them to 911 and call 1-800-434-1235. Flooding safety: If water reaches electrical outlets, heaters or furnaces, call us to disconnect power. Do not enter flooded areas until power is disconnected.

Each municipality affected by the ice storm operated warming stations where residents without power could go and charge up their devices. They were places to warm up in the cool weather. They offered bottled water, snacks, soup, treats, blankets, and more to support those in need during this difficult time. For myself I couldn’t leave the house given the sump pump situation. But was well prepared with everything else otherwise.

Two weeks after the ice storm hit, power has been restored to 99% of its customers. Roads have reopened. Emergency warming stations are closing and State of Emergency’s are being lifted around the region. Then begins the cleanup efforts. Seventeen days after the storm, Oro-Medonte is the only municipality still under a State of Emergency. City and town parks and trails are mostly still closed. There will still be several weeks and up to a few months of clearing of tree debris from roadside ditches, parks and trails all around the region.

I am a member of Copeland Forest Friends Association and the other day I received this memo. “The ice storm has caused significant damage to the trees in Copeland Forest. Both the double and single-track trails have significant amounts of tree fall and brush making many of them impassable. There are also many hanging limbs and the potential for more trees to fall in their weakened condition. As such, the Copeland Forest Friends are advising that CFFA members and the general public do not enter the forest until the trails are cleared of brush and dangerous hanging limbs and trees. This hazardous condition could extend for some time. Based on some initial trail clean-up efforts, it is expected that cleanup of the forest trails is likely to require 100’s of volunteer hours. It may not be possible to clean-up all the trails this year.”

Trees are so important in communities. Jessica Kaknevicius, CEO of Forests Canada, mentions in a Global News article, “Tree canopies help block a lot of rainfall from reaching the ground. For communities with less trees, the risk of flooding increases. With the absence of trees’ shade, temperatures may also increase in surrounding areas, and snow may melt at a higher speed, saturating the ground.”

Jessica Kaknevicius added, ” I would say it could take a couple of years to really understand the full extent of tree loss. In Southern Ontario, we really can’t afford to lose more forest cover here. We should really be looking at new and innovative ways to keep what we have, and restore what was lost.” When I look out my backyard and see a very healthy mature sugar maple tree destroyed by developers, it is devastating. We have to preserve what we have. Destroying what trees we have to make way for subdivisions and paving more and more land over for automobiles is still the old way of thinking. Asphalt can get as hot as 140–170°F (60–77°C) on a sunny day. Which leads to heating our earth even more. Leading to more extreme weather events. We have to change.

With this ice storm it was amazing to see the efforts taken while under the State of Emergency. People giving of themselves above and beyond. With normality returning, it appears to be back to “business as usual”. I sincerely do wish we as a society would make the same effort to address our planet’s current climate emergency. A United Nations Environment Program article mentions, “In 2013 the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) provided a globally peer-reviewed report about the role of human activities in climate change when it released its Fifth Assessment Report. The report was categorical in its conclusion: climate change is real and human activities, largely the release of polluting gases from burning fossil fuel (coal, oil, gas), is the main cause. Later in that same report it mentions, “Ten years ago, if countries had acted on this science, governments would have needed to reduce emissions by 3.3% each year. Every year we fail to act, the level of difficulty and cost to reduce emissions goes up. To prevent warming that pushes beyond 1.5°C, we need to reduce emissions by 7.6% every year from this year to 2030.” A reminder this report was written in 2013. We haven’t even come close to reducing emissions.”

Climate scientist and mutual Bluesky follow Katharine Hayhoe in a CBC article mentions “In the early 1990’s climate change moved from a comfortably future issue to an issue that we had to do something about now, that is when the political polarization began. It’s when science implies societal action that people begin to try to reject the science in order to avoid the need for action.” It was based on a scientific peer reviewed article called “Challenging the Neutrality Myth in Climate Science and Activism” found here.

Here in Canada in 2019 the House of Commons passed a motion to declare a national climate emergency. The motion was put forward by Environment and Climate Change Minister Catherine McKenna and it passed with 186 votes to 63. It declares a national climate emergency and supports the country’s commitment to meeting the emissions targets outlined in the Paris Agreement. It is so frustrating to me that we are not treating this like an emergency. We are not meeting our emissions targets. Global leaders and citizens alike don’t seem to care. We are losing our planet.

On March 19, 2025 the World Meteorological Organization’s (WMO) released their State of the Global Climate 2024 report. The report identifies 2024 as the hottest year ever recorded globally, with widespread consequences for ecosystems, agriculture, and human health. In a warning aimed at global leaders and citizens alike, the United Nations has revealed that 2024 saw an alarming escalation in climate-related disasters, with more than 150 significant events recorded worldwide. The new data confirms that the world is on a dangerous path, driven by greenhouse gas emissions and ongoing dependence on fossil fuels.

Damian Carrington, Environmental Editor of The Guardian writes in an article titled, “Climate Crises on Track to Destroy Capitalism“. “The world is fast approaching temperature levels where insurers will no longer be able to offer cover for many climate risks, said Günther Thallinger, on the board of Allianz SE, one of the world’s biggest insurance companies. He said that without insurance, which is already being pulled in some places, many other financial services become unviable, from mortgages to investments.”