Fire and Ice

The poet Robert Frost once wrote, "Some say the earth will end in fire, Some say in ice." Both fire and ice are capable of wreaking mass devastation, especially when neither is expected or prepared for.

The Toronto Snow Storm: A severe winter storm dumped 48 cm of snow on Toronto's downtown, while gale-force winds piled the snow into huge drifts. A total of 57.2 cm fell over 2 days. In all, 21 people died--13 form overexertion. Funerals were postponed, expectant mothers walked to hospitals, and there were no home deliveries of milk, ice or fuel. One Toronto man was killed when a streetcar overturned on Queen Street.

British Columbia Forest Fires: By August of 2003, the fears of thousands of British Columbians were realized as the summer's raging forest fires began to approach towns and cities in the Okanagan Valley. The spring had been hot and dry, turning the forests to tinder, and soon thousands of fires were burning all over the southern part of the province. The province declared a state of emergency, evacuating teens of thousands of frightened residents. People living on the edges of Kelowna watched helplessly as the homes and lives that they built were consumed by fire. By the time the state of emergency was lifted in mid-September, 250 000 hectares of forest had been turned to ash. It was the worst fire season in British Columbia in the last 100 years.