This week marks the 10th anniversary of one of Canada's worst-ever weather disasters -- the 1998 ice storms that crippled much of Quebec and eastern Ontario.

The Globe and Mail covered it, as did other major Canadian news outlets.

Many Globe reporters are worldly, sophisticated people who have been to some of the worst, most conflict-ridden hellholes on Earth -- places like Somalia, Bosnia and Chechnya.

Their worldliness may have worked against their empathy.

I seem to remember a Globe story from the ice storm's early days which essentially said that on a global scale, the ice storm wasn't that bad a disaster!

Oopsie.

I tried to find the original story, but globeandmail.com's archives only go back to 2000.

For a round-up of ice storm coverage, check out this Fagstein posting.