IceStorm 98 Study

Brian Beatty is the President of Guy-Tash Security Inc. Guy-Tash provides security services to companies and individuals across the Kingston Region including Hotel Dieu, Kingston General and St. Mary's of the Lake Hospitals. Beatty is responsible for the overall operation of the company. He also performs frontline, direct service.

Significant incident:
When the company lost its electrical power and its ability to communicate with its staff, Beatty knew that the situation was serious. Their gas-powered generator made up the loss of electricity. But the ice brought down their radio tower at 2:00 a.m. on Friday January 9th, cutting their radio communication. By 7:00 a.m. Friday, they re-established two-way communication using CB radios powered by car batteries through the cigarette lighters but it did not meet the capability of their regular communication system. They were also reduced to one telephone line. This made it difficult for others to communicate with Guy-Tash.

About the Company:
Guy-Tash has 88 employees and 9 company-owned vehicles including 5 patrol cars, 1 van, 1 wagon and 2 unmarked cars with which it maintains 4200 locations in the Kingston area. Three of its larger clients are Hotel Dieu, Kingston General and St. Mary's of the Lake Hospitals. Guy-Tash normally assigns 8 staff each to Hotel Dieu and Kingston General and 3 to St. Mary's.

Response to the ice storm:
In response to the ice storm, Guy-Tash became involved in providing essential services. It started with the company's work for the hospitals. When the power went out, Guy-Tash started bringing food and supplies to the hospitals and the hospital-based shelters. Beatty and his colleague, Gord Lees spent 4 hours transporting eighty wheelchairs from storage at St. Mary's to use at Hotel Dieu and KGH. The Guy-Tash van was used to transport non-life threatened, emergency patients between Hotel Dieu and KGH.

At the same time, Guy-Tash employees were out with chainsaws clearing the main streets, including Brock and Johnson Streets, of storm debris. They would cut and move what they could without an heavy equipment. When they found downed wires on the roadway they would mark them with pylons so drivers would be warned away from them.

Of the 19 Guy-Tash staff on shift at the hospitals on Thursday January 8th, a number worked around the clock that first day of the ice storm in Kingston. Some also worked 4 and 5 days straight at the hospitals then came back for 2 or 3 days after the storm to help the hospitals get back to normal by packing up and returning cots, mattresses and linens.

But the main task was maintaining security in the hospitals which was more difficult than normal because, with the shelters, there were a lot more people, "good guys and bad guys" alike. How was security maintained at the hospital? They closed off areas and assigned extra staff. It was busier in the evenings as people went home during the day and the third and fourth nights were busier than the first two as the cold and dark got to more people.

Beatty said that by Friday morning he sensed some chaos starting "but things seemed to be kept quiet. I think it was not declared an emergency situation until the next day." He recalled that nobody that he talked to was really prepared for such an ordeal. "A lot of things probably could be prevented if one was ready, but how do you plan for something you don't normally have. (The storm) caught everybody by surprise. But I think it was kept quiet, the seriousness was kept quiet a little bit longer than it should have been. But I think why they kept it quiet was to try to keep people from panicking."

Other tasks:
While the hospitals were their main focus, Guy-Tash was also on the road to look in on their 4200 clients. Over the five-day period, they looked in on almost every one of their clients. Of their nine vehicles, six cars patrolled specific zones, the van and Beatty's car roamed the entire city and the wagon was used by the 4-man sawing and pyloning crew. The chainsaw crew were given company hard hats, safety glasses and vests but supplied their own chainsaws.

Many Guy-Tash staff worked their paid shifts then volunteered at the hospitals. Four or five actually stayed and slept at the hospital. Of the 88 total staff, Beatty said that everyone worked 12-14 hours shifts during the five-day period. At any one time, half of their staff would have been on duty. "Our cars never shut off." said Beatty.

The patrol cars were all staffed in pairs. In addition to responding to specific Guy-Tash business, the patrols also monitored things that were happening on the streets. There was no formal, systematic communication with police, fire or ambulance. But when one of their people stopped at a hospital or happened upon other service workers information would be picked up and then passed on to the other Guy-Tash patrols. From time to time, Beatty dropped in and spoke to Staff Sgt. Doxtator down at the city police station. "He (Doxtator) would say, keep an eye on this street. There's a lot of people going to be away because they've gone to the shelters for the night. We'd share information. I've known Staff Sgt. Doxtator for quite awhile and we've had numerous times were we've ended up doing things together." Beatty would just drop down to the police station to see what was happening. He saw that his role was to cruise and be relief for other staff.

Beatty thought that there was no question of authority to act on the things that they did.

Responding to alarms:
A backup battery for an intruder alarm system is good for 7-11 hours so when the power went off, 7-11 hours later the company would have an abundance of alarm calls. Beatty said that "it was just one after another". They assigned two cars and it was all they did for five days. They would have to go and clear them. There were hardly any vandalism or break-ins.

Of the Guy-Tash monitored properties, only 1 out of 4200 was definitely broken into. "That's unbelievable." said Beatty. There was one other case where the intrusion alarm went off when part of a tree fell and took out the back door. Someone could have gotten in but there was nothing missing or disturbed. There may have been fifty break-ins in Kingston overall but Beatty said one would have to get those figures from Sgt. Doxtator.

Beatty said that the emergency brought people who were not-as-well-off together with people who were better-off "and they were talking like old buddies. It was kind of neat to the street-smart people talking to the business people. Under normal circumstances, that mix would never take place."

What worked well?
"CB radios. They were our lifeline. When we lost our tower we had no way of communicating." They were 5 hours without any inter-unit communication, from 2:00 to 7:00 a.m. on Friday January 9th.

"My people were surprisingly overwhelming. They rose to the occasion and suffered it through."

"We checked on their families and took milk and blankets if they needed them."

"Routines were changed but security is always spontaneous. You get an alarm and you respond. There is no really set pattern in security. With this storm, the way it hit, it was the same way and we reacted just the same way as it would be for any other situation. That's the way our personnel are trained. I was surprised that everybody worked the way they did but I wasn't surprised because that's what we're here for. That's what we do."

What didn't work well?
"Aside from the power loss, nothing. I don't think that there is anything that we would do differently."

Emergency Plan:
Beatty said that Guy-Tash has an emergency plan, which included the use of CB radios. Aside from that he did not elaborate.

He said that it was frustrating to have the electronic communication devices all around but useless.

There was no contact with emergency measures organizations. Their contact was with the police and their contact with the police was by drop-in.

Contact with the media:
"The Whig-Standard wanted to interview some of our guys cutting trees but they were too busy."

Stress:
His staff was stressed from the frustration of having to do the same things over and over again. (Clearing a road then returning an hour later to find the road is blocked again.)

To address the stress and frustration he would give them "pep-talks" whenever he saw them on his rounds. Emphasize the team concept.

Interesting things:
"The storm itself was something to remember."

Socializing with doctors and nurses. "conversing over small incidents with, not higher-ups but, people who were taking things for who you were not what you were. That was a unique part of things."

Who else to speak to:
The line crews! They were amazing.

Final words:
"We basically just maintained our everyday work but six times as much."