1991 Ice Storm Marked The Beginning Of A Memorable Decade In Northern New York From Mother Nature

The 1991 Ice Storm that hit a good portion of Upstate New York began in earnest the afternoon of Sunday, March 3 following a high of 62º on Saturday.  The Sunday’s forecast in the Watertown Daily Times for Jefferson, Lewis and Oswego Counties predicted cloudy skies with periods of rain, drizzle and areas of fog and a high of 40º during the day… and a chance of some freezing rain over night.

That afternoon, with temperatures hovering around and slightly above the freezing mark, the light rainfall had already started to accumulate and form a thin, yet noticeable, layer of ice on tree branches and twigs that would keep accumulating well after dark fall.

For those who slept peacefully throughout the night, they awoke to an apocalyptic scene of ice-laden trees bent over, if not entirely fallen, and countless tree limbs and phone lines strewn about the streets and roads.  Many woke up with a noticeable chill in the air and no heat or power.

Others, aka night owls, witnessed and heard all the excitement of the 1991 Ice Storm as it unfurled across the North Country.  At approximately 12:30 am, the distinct sound of limbs crashing down from towering Poplar trees in the neighborhood began.  Walking out into the backyard away from the trees,  every step taken sounded like it was landing on broken glass.  The branches periodically would strain and CRACK under the weight of ice until they could bear no more and come crashing down.

As the frequency of falling limbs picked up, the entire neighborhood would be lit up with brilliant flashes of colorful light, primarily blue, some yellow, and slight auras of purple as the first transformer casualty of the 1991 ice storm in the neighborhood a half mile away or so was struck.  The light show would go on and off for about 10 minutes, the power and street lights fluctuating with every flash until, finally, the power went out.

The following morning, residents, and visitors stuck in hotels, would take the storm in stride.  The Watertown Daily Times reported–

Guests at the Holiday Inn on Washington Street were calling last night’s ice storm “the mother of all storms.”

About 20 people were eating breakfast in the hotel restaurant at about 9 a.m.  Most were keeping in good sense of humor about the storm that threatened to keep them confined to the building.

“Are we guests or prisoners?” laughed Patrick F. MacRae, an attorney from Syracuse.  “Saddam had guests.”

The comment, in reference to the Persian Gulf War at the time, poked fun at Saddam Hussein’s calling hostages staying at Iraqi hotels “Guests.”

A state of emergency was declared at 4 a.m. that morning by the city of Watertown and Jefferson County and conditions were expected to worsen later Monday evening.  Many residents without heat and electricity would seek out mass shelters without knowing how long it may take to have services restored.  Jefferson County seemed to take the brunt of the storm locally, with less severe conditions in St. Lawrence and Lewis Counties, though Rochester and surrounding areas were also hit hard in Western New York.

By Tuesday, March 5, a small army of Niagara Mohawk workers had arrived on the scene per the Daily Times.

The company had well over 500 workers from throughout the utility, southern Ontario, New England and private contractors working to restore power to an estimated 14,000 customers.

Tens of thousands of people throughout Jefferson County in their second day without power after the worst ice storm in memory hit the region Sunday night.

Besides power, between 8,000 and 9,000 New York Telephone Co. customers were without services, according to Clifford P. Lee, Albany.

He estimated it could be two to three weeks before crews from Utica, Syracuse, Johnson city and Buffalo had everyone back in service.  Crews would be following Niagara Mohawk, working on telephone lines after electrical work was complete.

The 1991 ice storm forced an estimated 1,200 people to spend the night in area shelters organized by the American Red Cross, with approximately 100 of those at the State Office Building downtown.  Other shelters in the city of Watertown included Watertown High School and the North Side Improvement League with another just outside of town at the Northpole Fire department on Route 11 north of the city.

Local hotels saw rooms booked to capacity with a combination of the stranded, those without heat and/or power, and workers from out of the area restoring services.  Restaurants that could open were busy while others, like O’Toole’s at the Salmon Run Mall, would make efforts to provide what food they could to the local Red Cross to feed about 50 people according to the Daily Times.

By Friday, March 8, much of the power had been restored and Governor Cuomo toured the city to view the damage having sent a preliminary letter to President Bush the previous day asking for Jefferson County and other counties in Northern and Western New York to be declared as major disaster areas.  According to weather.gov, 18 counties in total were declared State Disaster areas while 12 would become Federal Disaster areas in what was the most costly natural disaster in the history of New York State at the time.

Many would make comparisons to the area’s last major Mother Nature event, the Blizzard of ’77, while others contrasted the two stating the 1991 Ice Storm was much more severe and as if the area had been hit by a hurricane.  The Daily Times would note the distinction of events in their March 10, 1991 Ice Storm special–

In contrast, the wreckage of the recent ice storm brought hours or days of physical discomfort and hardship to 32,400 residents who went without heat and lights in Jefferson, St. Lawrence and Lewis counties.  Rural roads and highways and city streets were left impassable by dangerously dangling “hot” wires, tree limbs and fallen utility poles.

Especially in Watertown last week, walking and driving were potentially fatal exercises, and at times, illegal as nightly curfews and driving bans were enforced.

Fortunately, neither the Blizzard of ’77 nor the 1991 Ice Storm had any fatalities directly associated with them.

Unfortunately, the 1991 Ice Storm would mark the beginning of a decade marked by significant weather events locally.  Following on the heels of the worst ice storm in recent memory was the March 1993 Nor’easter that resulted in a Blizzard for much of the state and east coast; the 1995 Microburst; and the 1998 Ice Storm that plagued much of Northern New York, Northern New England, and Southern Ontario, along with its subsequent flooding, costing nearly 5.5 Billion dollars of damage.

The following video from YouTuber Mike Newell details the efforts by New York Telephone to restore service in the Watertown, NY, area after the 1991 Ice Storm.