Natural Hazards: A Case Study
North America Ice Storm of 1998
Introduction
Ice storms or freezing rains are common events in Canada. They happen to occur 7-8 times a year and the effects can become really dangerous sometimes.
When rain falls into the cold surface, it freezes almost immediately. This is most fatal, because what is left is thick ice that could be covering everything. For an ice storm to happen it must be very humid with air coming upwards. Also, three layers of air in the atmosphere must form, one really cold on the surface, then above that, a warm one, where the snow actually melts and turns into rain, and finally really cold layer, above the other two, where snow forms and falls. The effects could become deathly. As the water droplets fall into any surface, they freeze, causing the branches of the trees to break, as ice gets heavier. The ground becomes slippery, so it is really hard to walk, and no cars could travel on ice, especially in the cities. All wires, including telephone and electricity become frozen, leaving the city with no connection. Fallen trees could block the roads and houses could end up with no heating at all. The only heat people could get is from the clothes they have and hand made fire.
A street in Elora, Ontario, after an Ice Storm, 1900s
This affects northern part of the world, which includes Canada, Scotland and Russia. MEDC’s could cope with this storm well, if they are prepared, meaning evacuating people and keeping in storage food and warm clothes. LEDC’s could face serious problems especially if the connection with the world and electricity is down. If the city is being badly damaged and many people died, the government would have to find money to afford the rebuild of what is been affected.
People live in the areas where the ice storms could occur because they do not really have any big fear of it. Most of the time this hazard did not go as far as making roads slippery and leaving all trees frozen, people didn’t really think that it could be an worse. But it did become worse back in 1998, when several big cities in Canada, like Elora, Ontario, became affected by the most striking ice storm in years.
Specific disaster: North American Ice Storm, 1998
North American ice storm affected several cities in Canada, to the East-South part of the country. Big cities like Ottawa and Montreal are located there. The causes of this huge ice storm are the high pressures in the air above the Gulf of Mexico and the Great Lakes, that couldn’t move away to the west because of the unusual high pressure form the Atlantic Ocean. The wind from Bermuda High Pressures area prevented the high pressure from the lakes to move further, so they stayed, causing unusual heavy rains and snow.
Area that has been affected by the ice storm and freezing rain
The effects of the storm caused deaths, destruction of many wires and power lines, including telephone and electricity, closing of roads, tunnels and bridges, and closing facilities, like offices and schools. The deaths occurred due to poisoning of the carbon monoxide coming from the generators. The electricity was down, and it was really cold and freezing in the buildings, so people tried to remain warm using the generators. Several cities declared the state of emergency as they were almost totally cut out from the world. The power stations were covered in ice, distracting the energy to reach cities. Roads were closed because of the ice that made them slippery. Trees blocked the way as well; the weight of the ice brought them down, destroying many parks and resorts in the area. Vegetation and animals were sadly affected and many industries suffered this damage.
An area affected by the ice storm after the hazard
The storm lasted several days, causing devastated damage in such short time. Although in the affected areas, emergency vehicles could hardly move, slowing down the whole process of the rebuilding and repairing, many organizations helped people to clean the roads, evacuate injured and give shelter to those who needed. Animal rescue crew was also helping, as well as engineers and technicians, who repaired generators, transmission towers and utility poles for further usage. Medical crew help saved many lives, as they worked day and night to help those who needed. It cost about 4-6 billion US dollars to repair the damage.
Emergency crews cleaning up the road
Conclusion
Global warming is a big issue that is going to change the world and apparently some natural elements of the earth itself would come to an end. Ice storms happen at low temperatures and knowing that everything is melting would simply say that no more danger from ice storms and other natural hazards connected with snow would affect people. It becomes a rare event and many countries in the north like Canada, Russia and Kazakhstan noticed how winters became much warmer than they were before. Therefore, ice storms would eventually make less impact on the people and their activities later on, as time passes by. The event of 1998 in north America will be the memory of the most dangerous ice storm that affected people in a long time.
Global Warming would stop ice storms in many areas of the planet
Bibliography:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ice_storm
http://windupradio.com/icestorm98/
http://del.icio.us/kaitman/ExtremeWeather
http://www.meteo.mcgill.ca/extreme/ice_storm.GIF
http://www.spiritofmaat.com/announce/ann_dryice.htm
