Township lauded for ice storm cleanup

January 7, 2014 · 0 Comments

The freezing rain started with a vengeance late Saturday before Christmas and I had been keeping an eye on a favoured Locust tree across our little dirt road. It had been leaning precariously for years and I knew it would be an ice storm that would bring it down. Sadly, I heard it fall with that eerie clinking of ice, like glass smashing, and that slow fall that would, for the next few days, characterize the devastating sound all around us as the freezing rain did its dirty deed.
It was 3:30 early Sunday morning and as the big Locust fell right across our Mill Road making the road impassible. I thought I’d join the cue of messages awaiting the Township roads work crew for Monday and called our municipality. Much to my surprise, a “real” person answered the phone and took down the location and details. And much to my amazement, around 4 a.m., a lone fellow with a chain saw arrived to do the job of getting the tree off the road. As I went out in the dead of night to thank him, a huge branch came thundering down to the right of my path then another to the left. It was dangerous out there!
I realized what risks this solitary man was taking being out there in the uncertain world of night and trees being strained beyond their limits. I want to thank this fellow again, whose name I do not know, all the others who helped free passage and get the power back on, and the Township for being on the other end of the phone line after midnight in the crisis.
A postscript: What I have realized over the last couple of weeks is that not all the broken branches have fallen to the ground and we must be wary of those “widow makers” falling unpredictably with a trajectory that could be right onto our heads! With the weight of the new extra snow, these limbs could be making their way groundward anytime soon.
Does anyone know how animals are surviving this long time with so little access to ground food when everything is sealed up like a drum and inches of ice cover everything?
Mary Bromley
Mill Road