The Ice Storm of 1998

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The Ice Storm of 1998 Tuesday, January 30, 2018 • A special supplement of the PRESS-REPUBLICAN

Grace Avenue Falls

Neighborly Helpers

War Zone in Peru

Find out how residents who lived on this street in Plattsburgh managed after the destructive weather.

Page 6

Learn how neighbors across the North Country helped each other during one of the region’s biggest storms.

Page 12

See how Peru Community Church took charge and helped the community during a North Country crisis.

Page 14

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Table of

Press-rePublican • The Ice Storm of 1998

Contents Ice Storm crystal clear in North Country memory ......................... 5 The destruction of Grace Avenue ................................................... 6 Northern Insuring president and CEO reflects on Ice Storm .......... 7 Ham radio called into action in Wilmington ................................... 9 The Ice Storm of 1998 timeline of events ..................................... 10 Chazy couple takes in neighbors ..............................................

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War zone in Peru ......................................................................... 14 Former city mayor reflects on the Ice Storm ............................... 18

The Ice Storm of 1998 Brad Bailey Publisher Lois Clermont Editor Suzanne Moore News Editor Teah Dowling Special Publications Coordinator CONTRIBUTORS Robin Caudell Deena McCullough Clyde Rabideau The Ice Storm of 1998 is published as a supplement to the

Press-rePublican Contact Information email: specialpubs@pressrepublican.com or tdowling@pressrepublican.com

January 30, 2018

January 30, 2018

Press-rePublican • The Ice Storm of 1998

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Press-rePublican • The Ice Storm of 1998

Jim Washburn gathers up branches still coated in ice, trying to make way for vehicles on Murtagh Hill Road in Altona. He and others cut through a half mile of debris to reach neighbors on the other side.

P-R File Photo

January 30, 2018

January 30, 2018

Press-rePublican • The Ice Storm of 1998

The Ice Storm of 1998

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Crystal clear in North Country memory

BY SUZANNE MOORE

E

ven 20 years later, we remember it so clearly.

The sound of branches, cracking, shattering, falling. The silence of a new world — without television, without telephone, with no traffic rumbling by on the street.

The ice gave us a warning, glazing the streets for a couple of nights ahead of time and then thawing in the daytime. It built up on trees, power and phone lines, though, gathering strength.

The weather forecast warned the ice could bring power outages, but we couldn't conceive of any widespread or long lasting issues.

This was the North Country — we'd handle whatever came.

Just in case, though, I filled our bathtub with water that last night before the electricity shut down. My husband and kids laughed at me, so I laughed, too, and, albeit reluctantly, pulled the plug.

How handy that water would have been at the start of our 13 days in the dark. Instead, we collected runoff from the barn roof to water our horses, flush toilets.

When the roads were cleared of trees and

power poles, we hauled water from elsewhere in plastic jugs.

So many memories remain crystal clear — gathering in one bedroom with my daughter Britt's candle collection keeping us warm, skidding precariously across the frozen-hard snow to find a cellphone signal to phone in my stories to the newsroom, the amazing breakfast served up by friends to share their good fortune when their power was restored.

We here in the North Country all have our 1998 Ice Storm stories.

Many are of triumphing over adversity, finding ways to run our households without modern conveniences. We came together as neighbors to share heating devices, food, company, and ended up close and forever friends.

Others are tragic.

Four people died of carbon-monoxide poisoning after running generators indoors.

An elderly man succumbed to hypothermia; another man died of an apparent heart attack while trying to cut up a tree blocking his driveway.

There could have been so many more.

But we had the American Red Cross, local

Yarborough Square

churches and others running shelters, cooking meals.

We had dedicated first responders working nonstop in response to flooding, fires, illnesses — real life didn't halt because of the ice.

And help came from all over to restore normalcy to the North Country, crews braving bitter cold to repair electric and phone connections; the National Guard clearing roads and checking on families without power.

There aren't enough words to adequately praise all those folks. But appreciation for them has lasted all of two decades and will continue to do so.

When we asked readers to share their Ice Storm memories, the responses poured in.

We have collected them here, with some stories and photographs that capture that tense and challenging time.

For staff here, just writing or editing those stories, sorting through the many photos, has put memories in sharper relief, heightened awareness of the weather and the power it can have over us.

Next time, I will fill the bathtub — and lots of plastic jugs, too. May I suggest you do the same?

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Press-rePublican • The Ice Storm of 1998

The destruction of Grace

January 30, 2018

Avenue

BY ROBIN CAUDELL

Grace Avenue in the City of Plattsburgh after ice buildup caused branches and entire trees to come down.

P-R File Photo

PLATTSBURGH — The tinkling sound of ice-encased tree limbs falling is one of Tom Welch's distinctive memories of the storm.

He and his wife, Tina, and their three daughters, Katie, Sarah and Emmy, camped out through a four-day power outage in their Grace Avenue residence in Plattsburgh.

"That's what it amounted to," Tom said.

"We did borrow a kerosene-space heater, but we also had to open the windows to make sure it was ventilated properly so we didn't risk carbon-monoxide poisoning. We made sure there was plenty of cross ventilation.”

FORMER BEAUTY

Grace Avenue was one of the city's most beautiful streets before the 1998 Ice Storm.

“There was a canopy of deciduous trees that used to create a tunnel effect on the street,” Tom said.

But then came the once-in-a-lifetime weather event.

“It sounded a lot like a normal rainstorm,” said Tom, who worked then as a counselor at Clinton Correctional Facility in Dannemora.

“You could hear the water hitting, but what made that unique, after

the precipitation had sustained for a while, you could hear the tinkling of branches falling that were encased in ice. It sounded almost like glass breaking. That started overnight, and it went on into the next day.”

“Most of them fell into the street. I recall that you had to pick a slalom route just to get through our street."

NARROW MISS

The storm came a month after a new addition was complete at the Welch's ranch-style house.

“One of the trees, about a 65-foot aspen or poplar, actually came down from the corner of our house and fell,” Tom said.

“It came so close to our new addition the branches scraped along the windows but didn't cause any damage."

"The next day, we had to have friends come over with chainsaws to section it up and get it carted away.”

Twenty years later, Grace Avenue has half of its former canopy.

“Most of the trees are much smaller,” Tom said.

“Some weren't replaced, but it still has a little bit of that cozy kind of look. It's still tree lined but not what it was.”

Press-rePublican • The Ice Storm of 1998

January 30, 2018

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Northern Insuring president and CEO reflects I

am sure that anyone that was in this area Jan. 7 through 10, 1998, will never forget the sound of trees crashing to the ground.

The ice continued for days, and the loss of power and services was even longer.

So began the catasBY DEENA McCULLOUGH trophe, labeled by the Insurance Services Office "CAT Loss #036," which at that time meant losses covering a wide geographic area and expected to exceed $5 million.

People first struggled with their own basic needs — food, warmth, shelter — then came the reality of getting back to normal.

As the storm ended and some degree of normalcy began, the insurance industry and our specific companies got ready for the claims.

SO MANY CLAIMS

We housed two adjusters here in our office at Northern Insuring who were authorized to write checks to clients on the spot.

We had so many claims that we had any staff that could get here safely taking calls, logging basic information and giving people advice. We advised our people to do whatever they could to further protect their property.

Go ahead with any work, take photos, keep all receipts, invoices and written quotations for work being done, we told them. This was in the time before the internet, so it was a highly manual process, though handled beautifully.

What were you doing during the Ice Storm?

BUSINESS LOSSES

The other challenge was business income losses for our business clients.

As an agency, we did a lot of research on Civil Authority coverage, ultimately utilizing our state association, the Independent Agents and Brokers of New York State, to help us make the case to our companies and advocate for our clients that claims should be paid.

We secured the Declarations of the States of Emergency from Clinton and Franklin counties (I still have a copy of these, too) and were ultimately successful in helping many businesses cover their lost income during this time.

WELL IN HAND

RECALL PLAN

We did realize that as an agency we could do better with our own disaster preparedness, and to this day we have a manual that we keep that is easily accessible.

We learned that one of the most important items to have is a recall plan with the employee names and phone numbers.

We keep this information updated to this day and test it periodically.

STRONGER TEAM

Through the 1998 Ice Storm, we grew stronger together as a team.

I am forever grateful to the companies that responded quickly, the partners that we have that helped us to advocate for our clients and mostly to our terrific team of employees.

I have often felt I am a better insurance professional because of what happened locally.

This was my first disaster, and in my 32year career, the only CAT loss I have ever been a part of.

My dad was president at the time, though was out of the e are area and not in touch with watching the news. By the time he happened to walk by a television a few days • MEDICAL after the storm, he APPOINTMENTS called me with all kinds of advice on what we • PHARMACY needed to do.

By then, we had it NEEDS well in hand and had already proceeded • RECREATIONAL with the necessary RIDES steps.

"I went in to labor and had my youngest baby through the ice storm! Labor started January 8th, and I finally gave birth on the 13th. Luckily, I was admitted to the hospital so I went through it all with heat and power."

— Rebecca LaFountain

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Press-rePublican • The Ice Storm of 1998

January 30, 2018

John and Dorothy Ferguson lived off the grid, down a 1,500-foot driveway in 1998...

"It took me almost three days with a chain saw to cut my way out," John said.

And he could only cut short sections of branches, he said, because the ice was so thick it made them exceptionally heavy.

There were 2 or 3 inches of ice on his solar panels, Ferguson added.

“But the sun was still getting through and charging the batteries," John said.

And with power at their home, he said, "my wife would make cookies and cupcakes" for the NYSEG and other workers restoring electricity in the neighborhood — those workers were amazed that someone in the midst of the ice-paralyzed North Country could be baking.

“Neighbors showed up I didn't even know to take a shower," John said, laughing.

What was it like for you during the Ice Storm of 1998?

“My husband and I were renting the house next to the Cadyville Beach when the Ice Storm occurred. I remember standing at our side door, facing the trees, at 2 a.m., hearing the weight of the ice on the trees snap them like gunshots. Anyone who goes to the beach can still see the height of the one tree that was spared.

We had no power for 2 1/2 days, so for one of them, those of us in our neighborhood who were close went over to Helen Miller’s house. She had a generator. We brought ingredients for a communal soup, & Rick Halliday (whose sense of humor is unparalleled) asked if anyone would like a cappuccino. We’re all, like, ‘Cappuccino! What! In an ice storm!?’ He turned to the coffeemaker, and, with his back to us, make very authentic, cappuccino-machine gurgling sounds. Had us all in stitches!!”

— Sharon Bandhold of Morrisonville

January 30, 2018

Press-rePublican • The Ice Storm of 1998

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Ham radio called into action in Wilmington

BY ROBIN CAUDELL WILMINGTON — Everything stopped.

No school. No shopping. No anything.

That's the biggest memory of Jasen Lawrence of Loon Lake.

“Everybody just hunkered down and stayed where they were,” said Jasen, who was a sophomore at AuSable Valley Central School.

But Jasen and buddy Jonathan Bausman rode out the storm at the Wilmington Volunteer Fire Department station.

The teens were ham-radio operators, and they worked around the clock dispatching critical information to first responders.

The teens played a lot of cards in the middle of the night.

“For the most part, it was just the two of us manning the Wilmington relay station,” Jasen said.

“There were a couple of relay stations scattered around because what essentially happened when there was no power for that long, state troopers and other emergency services' communications weren't working across the region because they rely on repeaters on these mountaintops that essentially ran out of generator power or had other issues.

"They were relying on hams like us.”

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BOYS TO MEN

Two decades later, Jonathan is a pediatrician in Maine.

Jasen is the director of digital strategy for the Regional Office of Sustainable Tourism.

He still remains at the ham-radio technician level, though there has been an expansion of his license's capabilities.

Gov. George Pataki visited the teens and mentioned he was a ham, too, with a general license.

“He took the time out to talk to both Jonathan and I independently," Jasen said.

"He didn't just stop in and wave and run off, which was really nice.”

The other etched memory is how Jasen felt older all of a sudden.

“When you are on the radio, people don't know that you're 15 most of the time,” Jasen said.

“So, here we are relaying life-threatening, important communications. That was a very heavy responsibility for that age when you start to think about it.

Kent Martin was a firefighter for the Beekmantown Volunteer Fire Department when the storm hit the North Country....

"My memories of the Ice Storm include things like using chain saws to clear driveways to get the ambulance in.

"We would travel through town at night looking for big "x"'s on front doors or flashing light in a window to indicate someone needing help. Pumping out basements, clearing roads and even a structure fire we had to drive the trucks down a farmer's field to get to because power lines blocked the road. As a volunteer firefighter we spent twenty hour days helping our community and a few hours checking on our own families.

"Our station in Beekmantown was used as a shelter. Those community members staying there would cook for the residents and the firefighters as well as bag dry ice as needed for those that chose to stay home. The generator ran 24 hours a day.

"Crews were sent out in all directions to help. Miss Barb, as she was called, manned our command center, keeping the never ending list of people needing our help. As we finished one task we would call in on radio for our next assignment. I remember directing traffic (not that there was much) on Jersey Swamp, watching telephone poles fall over and electric lines being pulled from homes, and my gear actually froze solid. I had to be helped into a truck to get back to our station.

"What kept us going were the hugs of gratitude from those we were helping, a very sincere thanks. Long hours and a very long couple of weeks."

— Kent Martin

Press-rePublican • The Ice

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The Ice Storm of 1998 timeline of ev Champlain, Chateaugay among whole communities without electricity. Outages double over Jan. 6.

Businesses close early; stores packed as shoppers stock up.

About a foot of snow falls on the North Country, joined by freezing rain Monday morning.

are without power in five 100,000 people counties.

Guardsmen are mobilized to 1,500 National help the North Country. vehicles with thousands of pounds of food from the state head north.

500 emergency

Many schools are closed.

Dozens of cars slide off the roads Monday night.

Jan. 4+5

Jan. 6

Jan. 7

Jan. 8

Jan. 9

Freezing rain around the region fells trees, causes power outages to about 400 NYSEG customers in Clinton and Essex counties and about 800 Niagara Mohawk customers around Malone.

Jan. 10

40,000 customers in the tri-county area still have no power.

The City of Plattsburgh Municipal Lighting Department has 75 percent of power restored.

President Bill Clinton declares the North Country a federal disaster area, making counties eligible for federal aid.

Tens of thousands in the tri-county area are without electricity.

Gov. George Pataki declares the region a disaster area, asking state agencies to lend aid.

Shelters are established in the three counties for those driven from their homes by lack of power and/or flooding.

Niagra M custom are wit NYSE

Schools and S

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Storm of 1998 • January 30, 2018

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vents

Elizabeth and George Carpenter succumb to carbon-monxide poisoning after running a gaspowered generator in their Beekmantown home.

Boil-water orders are in place in many communities, as contamination of public water systems may be an issue.

Miranda Megan Rabideau is born on the couch to Mary Rabideau at her Dannemora home.

National Guard members are being housed on the former Plattsburgh Air Force Base at a cost of $12,500 weekly.

Plattsburgh Airbase Redevelopment Corp. is hoping for federal reimbursement.

With no power to milk cows, production from 1,400 North Country farms has been cut in half.

Generators are trucked in, with more than 1,200 sold in Peru and Champlain.

Thousands of meals are prepared for storm victims.

Jan. 11

Jan. 12

Jan. 13

Jan. 14

Four more lives are claimed by the storm.

•

James “Chris” Hamilton, 48, of Keeseville - carbon monoxide poisoning.

•

Genevieve Murtagh, 71, of Chateaugay carbon monoxide poisoning.

•

Walter Brady, 79, of Burke - hypothermia in his unheated home.

•

Walter Dumville, 80 - apparent heart attack while chopping up a tree blocking the road.

Jan. 15

Jan. 16

Jan. 17

The federal Department of Housing and Urban Renewal approves $12 million for the five counties hit by the Ice Storm.

A storm bringing lots of snow is approaching, and officials are concerned it will complicate repairs to utilities, increase danger to Ice Storm victims.

Mohawk estimates 92,000 mers in the North Country thout power, with 24,500 EG customers still out.

s reopen in the Tri-Lakes Southern Essex County.

S. Postal Service resumes ervice wherever possible.

Dozens of cars and trucks carrying a total of 250 cords of firewood head across the border to bring relief to the Quebec town of Iberville. There is no firewood in all of Quebec, and the supply brought from the North Country will be rationed at 30 or so pieces a day.

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Press-rePublican • The Ice Storm of 1998

January 30, 2018

Chazy couple take in neighbors

BY ROBIN CAUDELL

CHAZY — The morning the 1998 Ice Storm hit hardest, Alex and said. “So, a friend of his put spikes on his foot so he could walk on the ice. He and his friend Tim Howley, they would take that truck, Linda Misiazek were recuperating. and they would just go around all day and all night.”

She was post-hysterectomy, and he, an offshore oil-rig worker, They helped residents pump out their cellars, towed people out of had come home from the Gulf of Mexico two days before, with a ditches and checked on seniors, among broken leg in a full cast. them a Mrs. Fisher. “(But) we were the only ones that had a “She lived at the end of our road,” Linda generator among all our friends and neighsaid. “She was, I want to say, at that time bors, ” Linda said.

We were the only ones probably 80. We laughed because it didn't “I believe there were 22 people that that had a generator bother her one bit. She said she rememcame to the house. They ranged in age bered having to live like that, with no lights from 2 to 76.” among all of our friends and no heat.”

The storm refugees brought their own and neighbors. It was a After the storm, the Misiazeks sold their food and changes of clothes to the two-stosmall generator, and it house to purchase a historic stone home ry residence on Sheldon Lane in Chazy. right in the village. They later downsized “We had three or four grills,” Linda said. was mainly for heat and into a smaller place.

“We used the generator. It was a small one light.

Their storm memories of survival along generator, and it was mainly for heat and the quarry were emblazoned on T-shirts: “I and one light.”

Survived Ice Storm '98 at Lake Alex.”

— Linda Misiazek “We had, of course, 22 made up, (one) DANGER ZONE for everyone that stayed at the house,” Alex did recon in his rollback truck.

Linda said.

“Of course, he had that cast on,” Linda

“

”

Helen Yardley Legood was on her honeymoon when the Ice Storm struck the region...

"Twenty years ago, we set off from England on our honeymoon to America, with plans to detour through Northern New York.

"We did wonder why lots of service vehicles we heading up north on Interstate 87, as we proceeded to see our friends, Ann and Cyril Novoselec, in Chazy, but we thought perhaps a service vehicle convention was taking place. What did we know!

"It was pretty snowy as we drove, and as night approached, we drove slowly through the streets of Chazy, where we hoped our friends were expecting us. We had been unable to contact them on route, but thought it was our ineptitude at using U.S. phones.

We were a little alarmed as we wove through broken power line poles and almost total darkness. The only lights were those of other vehicles.

"I’d remembered their turn off from a

previous visit and carefully drove onto their drive, amazed at the broken trees that were highlighted in our headlights. We couldn’t get any further, so we walked to the house, much to the amazement of Ann and Cyril.

"The day we arrived was January 10, Ann’s birthday, and she should have been at a matinee performance of a ballet in Montreal.

Instead she was entombed by an ice storm, and found two weary British waifs and strays, who had arrived on her doorstep.

The Novoselecs were about to sit down to a hearty stew, which they had cooked on a camping stove, and gladly shared their meal with us. They had the wood burner roaring away, and we spent a jolly evening catching up and sharing stories of the ice storm.

As it got late, we were issued plenty of hot water bottles and mountains of blankets to snuggle down for a good sleep.

"The next morning we awoke to a magical world, sunshine, but also devastation. We took many photos of twigs heavily laden with ice. The water butt was our only source of water, so we broke the ice from the top and made a refreshing cup of tea to start the day.

"Later in the day, we enjoyed the hospitality of a soup kitchen provided in Plattsburgh.

"This year, we returned to help celebrate Ann’s 90th birthday, as a surprise. Just as 20 years ago, she took it in her stride, and greeted us as if we had just called in for afternoon tea. Ann later admitted that she was speechless, but so happy to see us.

"Ann and Cyril treated us to another dose of unpredictable North Country weather in January 2018, adding more memories, when we come again."

— Helen Yardley Legood, a former Plattsburgh SUNY Exchange student from Chester College in England, 1985/86

January 30, 2018

Press-rePublican • The Ice Storm of 1998

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Once the crisis was over for Jim and Anne Bailey of the City of Plattsburgh...

A convoy carrying firewood arrives at Iberville, Quebec, brought to the paralyzed community by folks from the North Country in spite of their own Ice Storm troubles.

Photo courtesy of Jim and Anne Bailey

"We managed to clean out the driveway and join the effort to help neighbors who were less fortunate. That included our Quebec neighbors, who suffered greatly from the storm.

"By Saturday, January 17, many of the roads in Clinton County were clear. It was a sunny day, and a convoy was formed to deliver wood north of the border. All who had trucks were invited to be at the Forrence Orchard at 6:30 a.m., load up firewood, and deliver it to Iberville for distribution. Jim and I gladly joined the caravan, and we were astonished to see the utter devastation, as we headed north. It got worse and worse, with broken trees everywhere and tall metal transmission towers crumpled like straws. Driving on the frozen roads resembled an endless trek through the car wash: once in the track, it was impossible to turn the steering wheel or exit the deep icy rut.

"There must have at least 50 trucks bearing wood, and the mountain of wood stacked up in Iberville, for all who needed fuel, was visible across the city. We dumped our apple tree prunings, turned right around and were home by 2 p.m. Thinking back 20 years, it is heartening that we could stretch helping hands across the border, neighbor to neighbor. We probably took our passports, maybe not, and nobody thought twice about inspecting those loads of firewood.”

— Anne Bailey

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Press-rePublican • The Ice Storm of 1998

“War Zone” in Peru

January 30, 2018

Peru Community Church’s Fellowship Hall was a busy place in the days after ice knocked out power throughout the area. It was not only a shelter but a central spot for meals for locals and those working to clean up roads and get the power back on.

Photo provided

BY ROBIN CAUDELL

PERU — When the power went out about 4:30 a.m., the Rev. Dr. Ken Parker went outside and surveyed the landscape around his wife, Helle, and his Butternut Ridge Farm in Peru.

About 8 a.m., neighbor Bob Elmore stepped out of his home.

“It sounded like a war zone, snapping branches and falling trees and ice cascading down to the ground,” writes Ken in his recollection of the storm.

“When a tree crossed over the line to (Elmore's) house about 30 feet from where we were standing and tore down the power line, we each agreed: 'Time to go inside!'”

As Ken turned to leave, a New York State trooper pulled up in front of my house.

“Are you Rev. Parker?” the trooper said.

“Yes.” “You are needed at the church now!”

Parker told his wife, Helle, he would "be gone a bit and be in touch.”

Ken didn't return home for two weeks and slept on a cot in his office.

CHURCH SHELTER

He was the then pastor of the Peru Community Church, and its five-year-old Fellowship Center was an ideal shelter.

When he arrived, people were already drifting in, wanting to help, seeking help.

Sandra Foley was in charge of the kitchen, which saw double duty as the canteen for NYSEG line workers as well as storm refugees.

Roy Perry charted space arrangements.

Families with children under the age of 10 camped downstairs in the large classrooms.

Virginia Pierce, a Peru Central School teacher, sat at the front desk, monitored all newcomers and recorded whether they were visiting or staying.

TENDING THE MASSES

Nearly 400, maybe more, stayed a day, days or a week.

Their needs were not only met by the church but through a coor-

dinated community effort that included the St. Augustine's Roman Catholic Church and the Peru Lions Club.

Food offerings were meals such as turkey dinners, lasagna, sandwiches and gallons of soup, plus snacks and treats.

Board games and card games were organized for adults and children.

Midway through the storm recovery, a man came looking for his father, a Peaseleeville resident.

Virginia directed him into the center.

“Dad,” the son said.

“Son, what are you doing here?”

“I am here to take you home to New Jersey and rescue you from this tragic situation.”

“You should have called, son. I am having the time of my life here teaching people to play chess, working with these young children.”

“But Dad, you are sleeping on the floor! This is a shelter!”

“I know what it is. This is also the most fun I've had in my life. You go on back to New Jersey. Say hi to my grandchildren, and I'll be in touch when this is over.”

Continued on page 15

January 30, 2018

Press-rePublican • The Ice Storm of 1998

Continued from page 14

CROSS BORDER AID

As conditions improved, the Peru community became aware of the dire straits of people in southern Quebec, which was at the very fringe of the Canadian relief effort.

“We heard rumors that people were burning porches and garages for wood heat, and so a recon team went up via Rouses Point to see what was true and what the embellished rumor was,” Ken writes.

They arrived with two pickup trucks filled with wood, but the people wouldn't take it because they thought it was a scam.

Helle, who was teaching French at the time at Chazy Central Rural School, convinced them the wood was free.

Through church connections, an 18-wheeler packed with wood arrived from the Binghamton area.

The truck arrived at midnight, and its driver steadfastly refused to go to Canada.

Telephones started ringing, and volunteers arrived to unload the wood for almost three hours on the center's front lawn.

"Temperature was minus-15F!,” Ken writes.

The next day, 15 or 20 pickup trucks were loaded and joined a caravan from the City of Plattsburgh that crossed the border to deliver the wood to a church.

In the summer, the Peru community went back for a picnic barbecue to celebrate with their sister community.

“I served the Peru Community Church for 33 years, and the Ice Storm was the high point of the entire time I was in Peru,” Ken writes.

“It showed me the open hearts and spirits of everyone in the community."

15

Win “Chief” Belanger was living in New Hampshire in 1997 when an ice storm struck there...

"It was a terrible winter, living for weeks with just the wood stove," he said. "What a great relief when spring came and we were leaving NH, and (that) ice storm. It would be good to settle into our house in Willsboro once and for all.

"Who could have forecast that the worst ice storm was yet to come? For the first couple days, it was funny that our neighbors chided us about bringing the storm to NY. Then the jokes turned to serious business as folks realized this was not going away anytime soon.

"Since the house had a wood stove, we felt like seasoned professionals — melting snow to flush the toilet, making coffee in the old percolator and getting the cast iron skillets out to make meals.

My wife (Polly) always had coffee ready for anyone and I used some of my electrician skills to help whenever we could.

"Living next to the Sayward Farm was a life learning lesson we had never witnessed previously. Milking cows can be a challenge in a small farming area with so many farmers without power. I witnessed several of the local farmers gather up the only generator, load it on a truck and as a group in a caravan they went from farm to farm milking everyone’s cows.

"This travelling milking crew made up of the farmers themselves continued this chore twice a day, day after day until power could be restored. A day and night feat of proportion involving hundreds and hundreds of cows.

"To see neighbors come together cutting and supplying cord word, sharing skills and resources to overcome the adversity was heartwarming to say the least. I seem to recall it was morning when I heard the commotion. NYSEG was working on our road. We gathered for camaraderie and celebratory cocktails that fine day, a neighborhood like many coming together, as I have learned, like only the North Country can do!"

— Win “Chief” Belanger

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Press-rePublican • The Ice Storm of 1998

January 30, 2018

Bruce Kennedy brings an elderly friend to stay at his home in Peru after a couple of days with no power. Neighbors helped neighbors throughout the Ice Storm crisis, providing shelter, sharing heating devices, food and often just good company.

Photo provided by Joanne Kennedy

January 30, 2018

Press-rePublican • The Ice Storm of 1998

17

Dwarfed but undaunted by the task that lay before (and above and all around) him, George Arnold of Keeseville surveys his options and plans his next move as cleanup began 20 years ago following the devastation of the Ice Storm. A knowledgeable forester, Arnold was deeply disturbed by the destruction but employed his skills to help many friends and family members recover from the event and harvest firewood for years to come.

Photo provided by Allison Arnold

Allison Arnold couldn’t stay at her home in Harkness during the Ice Storm...

"I was without electricity in Harkness for 13 days," wrote Allison Arnold.

"Ironically, my home phone worked, but in the process of clearing trees from my yard, my dad (George Arnold) accidentally cut the phone cable, and that took a few weeks longer to repair. I used a Kero-Sun heater to keep the house warm enough to prevent pipes from freezing. During that time, I stayed at my parents' house in Keeseville.

"We were fortunate there because many of the line crews that came from other areas of the state to help repair and replace downed power lines stayed at motels in Keeseville; thus the village was one of the places the electricity was restored first; only about twenty hours total outage.

"Another reason Keeseville was a good place to take shelter — the water system is a gravity feed from Butternut Pond, so we had running water all through the event. Having a gas hot water heater meant hot showers, and we offered that luxury to many friends and family. Cable TV service went dark of course; it took ten days to restore that service.

At one time or another we had about a half-dozen additional friends or relatives staying at my parents’ house; since I had no power at my home, I raided my freezer and brought thawing food to provide meals.

It created an odd combination at times; spaghetti, pork chops, chicken, zucchini bread, chili, brownies, etc. No one complained!

"My dad, being an experienced forester, spent a great deal of time utilizing his expertise cutting trees that trapped people in their homes.”

— Allison Arnold

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Press-rePublican • The Ice Storm of 1998

18

January 30, 2018

Former city mayor reflects on The Ice Storm of 1998

F

irst, the lights went out.

Early the first evening (of the Ice Storm), we made the conference room of the Plattsburgh City Police Station into a command center and, as I was directing staff, the power went out and all went

BY CLYDE RABIDEAU black except for the blue glows and lighting flashes of falling power lines beaming through the room’s windows.

Talk abruptly halted, and it was eerily silent until the chief said, with some uncertainty in his voice: "The auxiliary power should kick on."

Six or seven of the longest seconds silently passed as we all thought, though no one said it aloud, of the dire consequences and helplessness we would have if the power did not go back on. A dull motor hum followed by a full flash of overhead lights ended our scare as we collectively sighed and went immediately back to work.

IMPASSABLE

The next morning, I drove from our cold and dark house, as everyone’s house in Plattsburgh was cold and dark that morning, with my four-wheel-drive truck over the ice and down Cornelia to the police station through the French Quarter, and as I looked down Lafayette Street, Champlain Street and Montcalm Avenue, the scene was the same: Trees were broken over the streets as far as the eye could see with branches and tree debris everywhere — totally impassable; a big reality check as I more fully understood what was ahead of us.

After the first couple of days of city employees and volunteers working 24/7 with little rest, I called Terry Norcross at Campus Corner restaurant, as it was one of the few

restaurants still open, centrally located and near our MLD compound, and told him to run a tab for all our workers and volunteers who would eat there, and we would take care of it at the end.

Terry dished out a few hundred meals and a tanker load of coffee over the next few days to our exhausted workers and, I don’t remember the exact amount of the tab, but only that he reduced the bill and did not charge us much.

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of us helping someone else and it gave me so much relief that I cried.'

MAYOR'S PREROGATIVE

Bishop Paul Loverde, the Catholic bishop of the Diocese of Ogdensburg, stopped by Plattsburgh ... when we were almost back to normal, and he and I met at Our Lady of Victory Church. He asked me about the welfare of our workers and I explained to him that they had worked long hours, seven days a week, since the storm hit. The bishop suggested, “You should do something nice for them and their families since they’ve been apart for so long.

Taking his advice to heart, I decided to divide our workforce in half, giving the first half the following Friday off, paid, and the other half the following Monday off, paid, so the workers would each have a three-day weekend; their first free weekend since the storm hit.

Our chamberlain was little aghast, but agreed it was “the mayor’s prerogative,” asking only, 'What are we going to call this day?'

"I thought a moment and answered, 'Call it a Clyde Day.' Interestingly, Melissa McManus was mayor of Rouses Point at the time, and she did the very same thing. And she, too, called it a Clyde Day. We laugh about that even now.”

The emotional ending of the Ice Storm, I believe, happened a week or so later when we put together a volunteer, civilian, 90-truck convoy of firewood bound for Iberville, Quebec, which got clobbered much worse than we and still had no power.

I remember pulling up to the Canadian customs window at the Rouses Point border crossing in the first truck and telling the official who we were and what we were doing. He flashed a big grin and waived all 90 trucks through without any stops or inspections whatsoever.

The Iberville townspeople were very glad we came and after dumping our firewood into a large pile in the center of the city, an older lady asked a group of us into her small apartment, where she poured each of us a glass of port wine and toasted us in French.

— Clyde Rabideau, mayor of the Village of The Press-Republican ran a front-page Saranac Lake. photograph in the next day’s edition Serving the North Country since 1999 showing the whole Andrew Bordeau Andrew Bordeau convoy, in a line Owner Owner stretching a mile, taken from an overpass on I-87.

A Plattsburgh lady Autobody & Collision Repair called me later that 8674 Route 9 day in tears, saying, 'I West Chazy, NY 12992 knew our ordeal was andysrecon@yahoo.com over when I saw that 518-846-3600 Quality Speaks for Itself picture in the paper

January 30, 2018

Press-rePublican • The Ice Storm of 1998

Leonard Avenue in the City of Plattsburgh is unrecognizable as a crew cleans it of fallen trees and branches on Monday, Jan. 12, 1998.

P-R File Photo

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Press-rePublican • The Ice Storm of 1998

20

January 30, 2018

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