Ten years ago this week, winter in some sections of New England and Canada turned especially cruel.
By January 8, 2 inches of freezing rain had fallen on an already wet region, forging thick layers of ice that downed power lines, bent trees and caused millions of dollars in damage.
AP Photo/Jacques Boissinet: utility towers in Quebec.
The Ice Storm of ’98 was also responsible for at least 7 deaths in New England, and the National Guard was called in as parts of Vermont, New Hampshire, Maine, and New York were declared disaster areas. The storm was particular, leaving some parts of centra Vermont unscathed, while wreaking havoc up north.
In Quebec, power was knocked out to thousands of people for nearly a month.
Sean Jouaire and Robert LaBombard remember the storm better than most. Jouaire was a rookie lineman for the Vermont Electric Co-op and LoBombard the road crew foreman for the town of Alburgh.
Jouaire says there was little time to react to the Ice Storm of ’98 and he’s never seen anything like it since.
Click listen to hear the entire interview.
AP Photo/Joel Page: lines down in Guilford, New Hampshire.
AP Photo: A pedestrian in downtown Burlington.