Close call for Point Prim cottage after massive sheets of ice wash ashore
'It would have no trouble, if it came in any farther, ripping a cottage off posts'
When Ivy Gillis-White went for a drive near her cottage in Point Prim, P.E.I. on Sunday, she couldn't believe her eyes. Massive blocks of ice had pushed up onto the shore from the Northumberland Strait — and came very close to her neighbour's cottage.
"I said, 'it looks like there's icebergs all up on the lawn.' And sure enough, there was," Gillis-White said.
The blocks of ice were taller than her, and she guesses they came less than three metres from her neighbour's cottage.
Never seen anything like it
Gillis-White says she goes to the beach often in the winter, to see what the ice conditions are like and how the shoreline looks. She says this is the first time she's seen ice come up on the shore.
"I've seen the ridges off the end of the point by the lighthouse, where there's great big ridges of ice out on the ice, but not up on the land like that ever. And we've owned that land since 1960," Gillis-White said.
The blocks of ice were so large that they even picked up part of a cement retaining wall. Seeing that damage, Gillis-White was glad the ice didn't hit any cottages.
"It would have no trouble, if it came in any farther, ripping a cottage off posts, that's for sure."
Gillis-White says she was "baffled" to see the tide come up so high, and she hopes changing weather patterns don't make this more common.
"I wouldn't want to see it if it was a full moon and the tides were really high, then it would be worse."