🚀 go-pugleaf

Pierre Cloutier wrote:

> Depuis quelques jours la ville de Montr�al et plusieurs autres r�gions
> de la province de Qu�bec sont dans une situation d'urgence. Car une
> forte pluie accompagn�e de vent s'est transform�e en glace. Tout les
> arbres et les fils du r�seaux  �lectriques ont �t� recouverts d'une
> couche de glace, pr�s d'un pouce. Le poids de la glace a cass� des
> arbres, des fils �lectriques. Au moment,. o� j'�cris  pr�s d'un million
> de foyers sont priv�s d'�lectricit�.

That's about the size of it and it sucks.  Fortunately people are
pulling together and making the best of a very bad and steadily
worsening situation.  States of emergency have been declared in many
municipalities on the island of Montreal, but the South Shore has been
hit even harder than the city of Montreal (if you can believe it)  In
Montral all hotels are currently at 100% capacity.  Many older people
who thought they could weather out the situation at home with their
fireplaces and heating stoves are running out of firewood.  Multiple
deaths and injury have been reported due to the unwise use of things
like Bar B Q's and Kerosene heaters in unventilated areas -- and of
course the inevitable parade of fires as the result of candles.  

> Des �tats d'urgence ont �t� d�cr�t�s dans la capitale nationale Ottawa.
> Des centres d'urgence ont �t� ouverts pour acceuillir les gens, car sans
> �lectricit� les maisons n'ont  pas de chauffage et les gens ne peuvent
> pas pr�parer de repas.
> Des �quipes d'�lectriciens en provenance des Etats-Unies sont venus
> s'ajout�s au �quipes d'Hydro Qu�vec environ 4,000 hommes, qui travaille
> jours et nuits.
> L'arm�e canadienne participe aux mesures d'urgence.

Things can get much worse as Saturday approaches.  My home has been
without power since early Tuesday morning and the word is that it could
be as long as five days before power is restored to all parts of the
province.  Emergency crews from Quebec, Ontario, New York and Vermont
are putting in serious overtime to try and get things up and running. 
But Saturday approaches with temperatures expected to hit 20 below C.  

A very old Yiddish saying sort of sums it up: Things are never so bad
that they couldn't get worse.