Power off and on for hours at a time since yesterday. House got down to 18C, so not much to complain about. The ice on my car was 1 1/2" thick - seriously.

Lots of downed limbs and trees here north of Toronto. No salt in the stores. People skating on the sidewalks.

London was far enough West to miss the worst of it, just got a few mm of freezing rain that melted by yesterday afternoon. Some FB friends in the GTA are reporting power our for over 24 hours, though.

Mendalla

Safe and sound here in Fredericton - despite heavy snow and ice the last two days - not nearly as bad as Toronto area.  Our power has not been off. 

I see my niece and family from Toronto are on Facebook and reporting that their power is back on.   They're safe.

I hope everybody is okay. 

Chanson, you must worry about medical emergencies at a time like this.  I hope Carter, and everybody, stays well.

Not really. If he arrests again, the only people who have a realistic shot at saving him is us. We just keep him going until EMS arrives.

Ice, ice, ice.  I'm in west Toronto and there's no power in areas around me (we're lucky to still have it). Can;'t get gas in the neighbourhood because of the outage.

When I walked out the door this morning, there were downed branches - pieces of trees - on the walkway. 

I've been pondering how this Christmas will be remembered. So many plans gone awry and people depending on others for warmth, light and cooking food. 

I hope everyone's okay, too. Stay safe and warm! We had some snow a couple of days ago in Vancouver. It's now mainly clear and sunny and a balmy 10 degrees, wouldn't even know it snowed- which feels too warm for Christmas, even here. When it comes to Canadian winter, we don't count.

How is the weather affecting people's travel/ visiting plans?

We're good - thanks for asking!  Despite being in an area with lots of big trees, we have (so far!) not lost power, although many streets in our area have not been so lucky.   Weather has remained cold though, and so the ice is still laden heavily on all the trees - what we need is a day of 'warmth' to melt that - but none in sight for a while - so still possibilities of more branches coming down. 

When I came out of work this afternoon the sun was shining - a brilliant glistening world awaited me!  The beauty is astounding, but dangerous too.  

Carolla, our area also has lots of trees and branches came down but no power outage just a flicker.  Hoping it stays.  Worried about the ice, the snow and the wind.

I'm thinking you got more ice than us, Chansen, as mine was no where near an inch thick, let alone 1.5".

The north side of the 401 in Cambridge got hit harder than the south side( where I am ).  My work is on the north side and there are a number of trees broken in 1/2 there.

Hi CH

My highrise bldg.  had no power, no heat and  no water from late Sat. night Dec. 21 until  Boxing Day Dec. 26.  Lucky my daughter picked me up and I stayed with her in Barrie. It was my cat Mitzi's first trip away from home. She was quite bewildered....:).

My friend in TO still doesn't have power (apparently part of his neighbourhood came back, but not his part). He and his and their 2 cats are in a hotel.

Mendalla

Hoping everyone is safe and sound. It's awfully quiet on WC.

It was pretty creepy when the power first failed last Sat. night. My bldg. is 16 floors high  and the emergency lights went out in the halls and stairs, pitch black, later restored by generator probably but no elevators in service  until yesterday. Lucky I live on the 8th. floor so not too bad. I only had to walk down to my daughter's waiting car. I'm reading horror  stories in today's Star, lots of people mad at Rob Ford for not calling it an  emergency.

duplicate

I have been traveling, too busy for WC, while I am with my nephews in PEI this week, and New Brunswick this weekend.

 It's the snowiest Christmas I can remebr, both in PEI and Ottawa. Both places mssied the freezeing rain, and just had snow. ALthrough taking off in Halifax it was freezing rain , and in a small 20 seater, you never know.

The back of my parents house, in PEI

The front of the house.

We had good roads, there and back.  Not much to the freezing rain warnings we keep getting here.  I didn't end up with any emergency allergic reactions either.

Glad to hear that those further East are doing ok!

Regarding Toronto, I understood that Rob Ford is just a figure head. He is not making decisions. If everything is being done that can be then why would you call a state of emergency. Someone else is making the decisions and he is reading them. Why are they mad at him?

Looks beautiful, Alex. Glad you're ok.

Glad your daughter was there for you stardust. I have a family member who's been in BC for 2 weeks, who's supposed to be going back to TO today. She doesn't know what she's going home to.

Glad your daughter was there for you stardust. I have a family member who's been in BC for 2 weeks, who's supposed to be going back to TO today. She doesn't know what she's going home to. She might try to extend her stay out here.

Wet snow/sleet/rain most of our Seattle drive-thru the mountians twice. But front wheel drive, great snow tires and the sense to stop one night rather than pushing on kept us safe.And we were home on the 23rd.

Snow falling at home now but all is well.

I'm starting to hear some stories of hardship among those I know.  The worst - a friend who lives out of town.  No power for four or five days now.  Her lungs are bad - only 40% capacity at the best of times.  Using a keroscene camp stove for heat.  Her husband left the house early.  A few hours later her sister phoned and got a confused message that 'something is wrong with me and my house'.  She rushed over to find my friend, her little dog, and the interior of the house covered with black soot from the stove backing up.   Her sister quickly got her out, called 911, and an ambulance took her to hospital.  She had very little oxygen in her blood.  She's since had a heart attack.  And will remain in te hospital indefinately.

The little dog is at her sisters and is ok.  

I'm afraid for my friend.

Stories like this make the 'packing up the turkey and taking it across town to a friend's place to cook for Christmas dinner' sound like an inconvenience.

It's nearly a week now that some people are without power.  The glisening ice and fresh snow on the trees is beautiful in the sunlight - but it's doing a lot of damage to trees and lives.

Wow Seeler - that is very scary indeed. I am so thankful that her sister was able to help her.

Seeler, may she recover.

I'm sorry to hear that seeler. I hope she makes a full recovery soon.

Seeler, sorry to hear about your friend.  Hopefully she'll recover.

Are things being done to try to prevent things like that from happening?  I've caught a bit of news while visiting with people, but hadn't heard too much other than the fact that some people don't have power.

Unfortunately, if she recovers from this, she will still have all the health issues she is plagued with - part of the parcel of growing old (although I don't think she is any older than I am).

I was far enough north (Orillia) that we missed the storm.  The power was out for a couple hours on December 24, but it was early enough in the morning that I just stayed snug in my bed until it came back on.  The roads were fine and my flights did not have any weather-related delays.

I'm glad to hear that everyone else has pulled through safely as well.