The sale of Cornwall Electric was set to occur in February 1998 but was delayed due to the January 1998 North American ice storm. During the prolonged ice storm, much of Eastern Ontario and Western Quebec was without electricity. Cornwall which is situated on the banks of the Saint Lawrence River, which supplies water to the neighbouring hydroelectric R.H. Saunders Power Generating Station, also had no electricity, until existing wires connecting the Moses-Saunders Power Dam to Cornwall were for the first time energized with electricity generated by the local power plant. Two of the three wires were weighted down by ice and were hazardously close. A Cornwall Electric employee who was also an archer, used a bow and arrow to throw a line over the arcing wires. Workers were then able to bounce the wires, causing the ice to fall off and the hydro lines to separate from each other. This allowed Cornwall residents to have enough power to meet seventy-five percent of their electricity needs during the ice storm.