The floodgates opened this morning on ice storm anniversary stories. Every major local media outlet has something, and many have a lot.

Part of that is because there isn’t much news on the 5th of January. Part is because they’ve had 10 years (with constant electricity) to prepare. And part is because it had such a profound impact on everyone’s lives for two weeks to a month.

This is perhaps the first big project among local media relying on reader-generated content. It’s easy to see why: Everyone remembers the ice storm. The supply of stories is practically infinite.

The problem is that everyone’s story sounds about the same. We were without power. The roads were hard to drive. We had to leave our home and move in with a family member who had power. We communicated with our neighbours for the first time ever. We helped people in need. We were happy to see electricians from the U.S. who came to help. There was a lot of snow and ice.

That’s the problem with user-generated content. It can produce some stunning gems, but most of it is boring filler not worth our time to read.

The archives are fun to look at (particularly the audio/video from the CBC and the PDF pages from The Gazette), to see how different the media and the world was just 10 years ago (67 cents/litre for gas was considered gouging).

Here’s what I’ve found so far (some links via mtlweblog), recommended reading highlighted in bold:

The Gazette

• SPECIAL SECTION: Frozen in time:
  • Archives: PDFs of Gazette newspaper pages and Global Quebec newscasts from Jan. 5 to Jan. 12, 1998 (except Jan. 11 which gives a 404 error was fixed after I pointed it out to them)
  • Stories: Day-by-day lookbacks from reporters Linda Gyulai and Peggy Curran (full stories will be uploaded as the week progresses).
  • Reader-submitted pictures from the ice storm
  • Archived news photos from the ice storm
  • Reader-submitted stories
• Peggy Curran looks at how the ice storm brought us together as a community.
• Linda Gyulai profiles Hydro-Quebec president André Caillé and his turtlenecks.
• We’re not ready for another storm
• An unintentionally hilarious letter from an insurance adjuster asking us to remember their sacrifice after the ice storm finding ways to deny people’s claims.

La Presse

• General look back from Mario Girard
• People who were generous, and companies who exploited the situation
• Kids remember the ice storm much better than adults
• A profile of Steve Flanagan, Hydro-Quebec spokesperson who was very busy in January 1998
• Another article on André Caillé’s turtleneck
• Hydro-Quebec has spent $2 billion fortifying the system, adding “anti-cascading” towers and developing a way to de-ice wires by electric heating
• People never learn: If another ice storm were to happen today, we’d still be searching for generators, flashlights and other emergency supplies after we need them
• Five Quebecers tell their stories
  
• Reader-generated content:
  • A very disorganized page of user-generated content
  • Gallery of user-submitted photos
  • Stéphane Laporte asks on his blog for readers’ memories

Journal de Montréal

• SPECIAL SECTION: La crise du verglas: 10 ans déjà
  • Photo gallery from the archives
    
  • Discussion forum
  • A car wash becomes a makeshift shower

Le Devoir

• The politics of the ice storm
• What trees look like 10 years later
• The ecological disaster of the ice storm (yes, folks, two articles on trees)
• The costs of improvements to the Hydro-Quebec network, some of which still haven’t been finished
• Quebec’s still waiting for $435 million from Ottawa
• The ice storm in Rawdon, and a look at some past ice storms in the Montreal area

LCN

• SPECIAL SECTION: Crise du verglas
• VIDEO: Les leçons d’un vendredi noir (interviews with Lucien Bouchard, Pierre Bourque and other important decision-makers from 1998): Part 1, Part 2
• VIDEO: Interviews with Hydro-Quebec workers (and another video of the same workers being asked different questions)
  
• VIDEO: Hydro PR flak Flavie Côté discusses the things that have changed at Hydro-Quebec since 1998
• VIDEO: An interview with “Mr. Hydro” Steve Flanagan, who did hundreds of interviews over two weeks.
• VIDEO: Réjean Léveillé has a cop, a firefighter and a paramedic stand out in the cold while they tell him how the ice storm forced emergency services to work together.
• VIDEO: Réjean Léveillé has former mayor Pierre Bourque stand out in the cold while he tells him about the secret water crisis.
• VIDEO: A look at St. Jean sur Richelieu, which was at the heart of the storm’s impact.
• VIDEO: How the public security department has organized itself since the ice storm (apparently it involves a lot of flat-screen monitors)

TQS

• A TV special is planned for Monday at 9pm
• A three-and-a-half-minute news report featuring a voice-over and archive footage
• Caféine tackles the anniversary with all the fake-blonde-bimbo giggling that a natural disaster requires
• Lucien Bouchard didn’t hesitate to call the army

Radio-Canada

• SPECIAL SECTION: La crise du verglas: 10 ans après
  • By the numbers
  • Chronology, with links to archives
  • AUDIO: An interview with Roger Nicolet about the Nicolet Commission report
  • Archives of look-back stories from radio and television
  • Links
• 5-year anniversary story from 2003
• Information for teachers about ice-storm-related lessons
• AUDIO: Radio-Canada defends itself from accusations it kept running regular programming through the storm
• Water system still relies on power grid

CBC

• SPECIAL SECTION: Ice Storm 10th Anniversary
• Audio and video clips from the archives
• Lessons learned from the ice storm, including some people who decided to switch from electric heating to oil, a short-sighted decision in my opinion.
• A behind-the-scenes essay from CBC Montreal executive producer Sally Caudwell
• Ontario’s Hydro One has stronger transmission lines (Real Media audio), and farmers and municipalities are better organized
• Quebec municipalities still don’t have emergency plans

CTV

• Look-back summary story
• VIDEO: Geneviève Beauchemin looks back (Windows Media)

Global Quebec

• Basically abdicates its responsibility here to The Gazette. The Gazette’s special section in turn takes video clips from Global’s archives.

Ottawa Citizen

• SPECIAL SECTION: The Great Ice Storm of ’98
  • A 13-day review of the events of the ice storm.
    
  • Reader-submitted photo gallery: Part 1, Part 2
  • VIDEO: Reed Collacott and his wife Pam go through their photo album with all the excitement of … well, anyone else going through a photo album.
  • A reader-submitted poem — well, actually more like a short story told in a bunch of short sentences. (The same reader, Isobel McDonald, also offers a long diary)
  • Another poem. And another. And another.
  • Reader-submitted stories
  • An “interactive” map (really just an animated Flash map with a completely unnecessary wind sound-effect), showing the weather patterns that led to the ice storm, and which seems to give the misleading impression that Ottawa was the centre of this storm instead of the south shore of Montreal.
  • Speaking of completely unnecessary things, a “welcome to this website” video from a Citizen reporter talking about how this was the “most disruptive natural disaster in Canadian history” (was it?) and the story needed to be told though interviews with important people and memories from the commoners.
• How Ontario worked together

Ottawa Sun

• A lookback diary from a Sun Media columnist
• A restaurant becomes a sanctuary for people without power, and its owner becomes a hero
• Some human stories of the storm, with a couple of sidebars with daily headlines and fast facts.
• News photo archive

The Toronto National Post

• As far as I can tell, this newspaper hasn’t even mentioned the ice storm’s anniversary beyond this CanWest News Service story, preferring to concentrate on American politics.

The Toronto Globe and Mail

• No apparent original coverage either. They seem to be relying on Canadian Press for stories.

Canadian Press

• A video report of the anniversary: interviews with David Phillips of Environment Canada and some guy from Kirkland.
• A brief story (compared to the rest of the offerings) from Sid Banerjee talking about the ice storm “from hell.”
• Archive photo gallery from Montreal, Ottawa and surrounding areas
• A look at the Nicolet Commission that studied the ice storm and made recommendations to the government
• Roger Nicolet says it’s time to review emergency plans

Transcontinental community weeklies

• The Westmount Examiner talks to Westmount ex-mayor Peter Trent
• The West Island Chronicle briefly looks at Kirkland and Dollard-des-Ormeaux’s ice storm stories
• West Island Chronicle editor Albert Kramberger looks back at ICE SIEGE 98: The “best issue The Chronicle ever produced.”

Environment Canada

• SPECIAL SECTION: Ice Storm of 1998
  • David Phillips argues this was the worst storm of Canadian history
  • Did El Niño contribute to the ice storm?
  • Will climate change mean more storms like this?
  • Weather advisories explained
    
  • Map of freezing rain accumulations

Other media

• Roger Nicolet tells Info 690 that Hydro-Quebec might not be ready for another storm
• Memories from readers of the Sun Journal in Lewiston, Maine
• Looking back with government officials, from the Bangor Daily News in Bangor, Maine, plus a slide show of archival photos
• The Brockville Recorder and Times promises stories up on Monday
• Comments about the anniversary from Vermont Public Radio
• A Maine government press release remembering the storm
• 940 News’s Jim Duff talks to an engineer who says it was a predictable disaster and Hydro-Quebec should have been ready for it.

YouTube

• Canadian Forces footage
• Dramatic photos set to even more dramatic music
• A clip from a National Geographic Channel show about a mythical “perfect storm” that uses Montreal as an example. Includes an interview with The Gazette’s Alan Hustak.
• News report from WMTW in Maine
• A collection of home videos
• This is what a convoy of power workers looks like
• Another montage with annoyingly overdramatic music

Blogs

• Metroblogging Montreal
• Chicagoan in Montreal
• Walking Turcot Yards (and again)
  
• Bonni’s
• Dr. Roy
• Dark Roasted Blend
• Zura Rants
• The Scrawl at the End of the Hall

Resources

• Full Nicolet Commission report (PDF)
• Photos from the ice storm
• Statistics Canada: Learning resources about the ice storm
  • Maps and facts
• The Canadian Encyclopedia: Ice storm
• Wikipedia: North American ice storm of 1998
• About.com: Ice storm
• Option consommateurs: Class-action lawsuit against insurance companies
• Tips for preparing for an upcoming ice storm from the Ministry of Public Security

My comments

Wow, there’s a lot of stuff out there, especially from unexpected sources like Environment Canada and Maine newspapers. And there’s just going to be more added as the anniversary goes on.

The most impressive special sections come from The Gazette and the Ottawa Citizen. Both rely heavily on reader-generated content. CBC/Radio-Canada, who have the advantage of existing archive sections, come out disappointing.

The Journal de Montréal stands out, because they have lots of stories written by journalists. Le Devoir also tries to look at interesting issues beyond “OMG we were out of power.”

Did I miss anything? Post it in the comments.