Date: Sun, 11 Jan 1998 15:09:25 -0400 (AST) Subject: iced categories Date: Sun, 11 Jan 1998 09:56:26 -0500 (EST) From: Peter Freyd Since a good fraction of the world's category theorists are witnessing an historic ice-storm, can they tell us how they're faring? Date: Mon, 12 Jan 1998 14:38:01 -0400 (AST) Subject: Re: iced categories Date: Mon, 12 Jan 1998 09:39:46 -0500 From: P. Scott Dear Colleagues: Peter asked how things are going, so I thought I would mention what I know. As you all know, eastern Ontario and Quebec were hit by a massive ice storm: Montreal island was particularly badly hit. Downtown Montreal is apparently in very bad shape, with large areas still without power. The island was cut-off physically (all the bridges were down) for several days, and many downtown hotels are now without power. Many streets still have downed power-lines, and it is unsafe in some cases to walk near trees, buildings, or powerlines because of falling ice. Triples (and McGill) is down, so there is no e-mail contact for now. In terms of individuals, I have spoken to many of the categorists and everyone is ok although several people (Barr, Prakash,...) are without heat and power in their homes. They are either staying with friends or rigged-up some kind of power line from neighbours with electricity at least to run a heater. But basically Montreal and nearby communities are a disaster area. the entire South Shore off Montreal has lost its power grid (i.e. transmission towers twisted like pretzels because of ice); the same happened in parts of Eastern Ontario as far as Kingston, with disastrous effects on dairy farmers, etc. Here in Ottawa, the situation was bad, although not quite as disastrous as Montreal. Forty percent of the trees in Ottawa are damaged, and parts of Ottawa are still without power (for example, my house since Thursday!). But downtown is getting back in shape, and Carleton and University of Ottawa have managed to keep heat. I am still camping-out here in my office for the near future... Keep warm-- Phil Scott Date: Mon, 12 Jan 1998 14:39:51 -0400 (AST) Subject: Re: iced categories Date: Mon, 12 Jan 1998 16:05:33 +0000 (GMT) From: J.M. Egger > > Date: Sun, 11 Jan 1998 09:56:26 -0500 (EST) > From: Peter Freyd > > Since a good fraction of the world's category theorists are witnessing > an historic ice-storm, can they tell us how they're faring? > > Probably not... `triples.math.mcgill.ca' has been inoperative since before the ice-storm began, which means that many category-theorists in Montreal have not been receiving e-mail from this mailing list even before the [ note from moderator: actually, the list has been reaching the McGill people - until last week of course...] blackouts, etc. began. I think power has been restored to most of the island of Montreal (the downtown area lost power at 3pm on Friday, and was still without it when I left on Saturday evening), but the electrical infrastructure of the South Shore has been destroyed to the point that it must be replaced from scratch. Now that temperatures have dropped to the more usual range for this time of year, mass evacuation of the hardest-hit areas by the army is a distinct possibility. Date: Wed, 14 Jan 1998 19:37:45 -0400 (AST) Subject: Non-well-powered Date: Wed, 14 Jan 1998 16:39:27 -0500 (EST) From: Michael Barr As most of you know, we at McGill are offline since about a week. McGill's main computer seems to be online and I was able to telnet to an old account I had at Penn. Anyway, I think we are all well. I was without power for a week (less 4 four hours). We spent part of that time in my office (sleeping bag and couch) and then the power was shut off at McGill (where it still is) and we went to the Foxes until we got our power back on Tuesday morning. We are now back home and everything is back to normal. I know there have been some inquiries, whence this note. Michael