IceStorm 98 Study

Brad McDonald has accumulated 20 years of experience with Ontario Hydro where he has served in a variety of positions. With the amalgamation of Toronto, his responsibilities have expanded to include the cities of York, East York, North York, Etobicoke and Scarborough, an area of some 600 square miles. Toronto Hydro employs approximately 2,000 people, 70 of whom are under Brad McDonald’s direct supervision.

Brad McDonald’s (B.M.) involvement with the situation in Kingston began on Thursday, January 8, when he received a call from Dave Grant, manager of service maintenance with Toronto Hydro, requesting his assistance in obtaining generators and trained personnel as part of the provincial response to the emergency in eastern Ontario.

B.M. contacted his manager, Tom Bell, and informed him that they had 20 generators available and that they should send Toronto crews down with the generators to ensure proper installation.
Three crews (6 men) were dispatched with trucks and equipment to Kingston. Upon arrival in Kingston they were provided with accommodations in local hotels and then were immediately sent out to install generators throughout Kingston and the outlying areas. As they moved through the rural areas the men would install temporary generators to allow the farmers to milk their cows and then move on to the next farmer down the road. They also supplied generators for hydroponics farming operations which required a constant supply of power.
Although B.M.. remained in Toronto, he kept in constant touch with his crews via cell phone.

A request was made from his Kingston crews for more men and equipment, which didn’t surprise B.M.. as he was receiving reports from other areas where he had sent additional crews i.e. Ottawa, Gananoque etc.

He had been contacted by Lindsay Reiach that Kingston was receiving generators but needed crews to install them. The stress experienced in working 18-20 hour days in unfamiliar territory under hazardous conditions became a serious concern for B.M.. especially since he was responsible for the safety and well-being of his men. Although it was a common practice to work a 16 hour shift, the men were driving themselves well beyond this in order to accomplish the job.

As more crews began to arrive in Kingston, along with B.M. who arrived on the night of the 9th, accommodations were set aside for them at the Ambassador Motel. The next morning B.M. attended his first meeting with City officials at City Hall where he was able to obtain a better picture of what was happening and what was required in order to get the job done.

At some point a decision was made to divide Kingston into two areas for generator distribution, one area under the supervision of Gerald Coady, and the other under Lindsay Reiach. This resulted in a state of confusion for B.M.. and his crews. As B.M.. observed , “there seemed to be a little bit of conflict there... contacts were still coming into central dispatch at City Hall and the resources ... just weren’t sufficient... I guess what I saw was a little bit of confusion particularly amongst my crews because they were being told by some people that they were to report to the west... and I hadn’t heard about that from City Hall...”.It would have been much better to have had a central depot rather than the two locations.

B.M.. worked in conjunction with the Toronto Fire Department who took requests for generators and he co-ordinated the “Toronto Generator Group” by dispatching crews with generators to locations where they were required. He was also responsible for ensuring that the generators were compatible with the service that they were being hooked up to and that it was not exceeding the load requirements of that particular service. In this respect he came into contact with Ontario Hydro who maintained the records for all of the services. One of the requests concerned supplying a generator for the “bubble” unit which kept the channel open for the Wolfe Island ferry as well as providing a generator for the Wolfe Islander itself.

B.M.. was quite surprised by the extent of the damage that the storm had unleashed on the Kingston area. In particular, the large 1,000 foot towers which had collapsed on Wolfe Island was a sight that he will never forget. From the time of his arrival in Kingston until Friday the 16th when he returned to Toronto he was totally involved in the daily operations of restoring power to the area. As a front line supervisor, his contact with city officials was minimal at best and restricted to the one and only meeting which he attended upon his arrival in the City on January 9. His primary concern was the safety and well-being of the men who had volunteered to come with him to the rescue of a city in desperate need of his skill and expertise.