IceStorm 98 Study

Carrie Kasurak (35 years old) says that she got the first indication that things were happening when she realized (Thursday morning) that the health unit was closed and closed everywhere -- which is a very rare thing. Carrie Kasurak and her husband knew they were not going to work--their power went off at 6:00 and came back at 9:00. She put some batteries in the radio and started to realize that this was something that required an emergency response. Between 10:00 and 11:00 she phoned town hall and told them that she was available for a health unit response. Carrie Kasurak told them she had contact information and they (Corinne) told her that there was a meeting at 2:00 p.m. Carrie Kasurak called her senior officials -- her former supervisor -- and updated her on the meeting, then Carrie Kasurak began to think about what might need to be done at that meeting. She prepared a few things on her computer (Carrie Kasurak had power) and attended the 2:00 p.m. meeting and began working with the group.

Carrie Kasurak says she began to appreciate the scale of the emergency in the course of that day, over the 5 hours she was trying to reach people to get information on how to deal with people and set up shelters -- by Thursday afternoon. The health unit covers a lot of territory and includes a lot of managers and they were dispersed through the region -- so Carrie Kasurak knew that the emergency was widespread. Carrie Kasurak knew that they would have to act in their communities, so Carrie Kasurak did the best she could providing a health unit perspective in her own community.

Carrie Kasurak discussed in the meeting issues of water purity and power for the treatment plant. She discussed the issue of the long-term care facility (Carveth) which was also dealing with an outbreak of a gastro-intestinal epidemic -- which meant that they would have to be evacuated to a different place from the general population. Carrie Kasurak had to think about issues like who would be a safe food-handler to the public, that they knew about hand-washing and so forth. Carrie Kasurak was trying to sort out who was who on the core group, and who would know about such things. There were a succession of meetings and mini-meetings during which time Carrie Kasurak and a couple of others visited the nursing home to assess their situation -- and consideration of the shelter function. Carrie Kasurak was primarily engaged in coordinating the efforts of others and ensuring that vulnerable populations were dealt with first. Carrie Kasurak says it was lucky that there were no mass casualties.

Carrie Kasurak says she was one of the really lucky ones -- only 18 hours without power at her own home, which minimized the stress for her and her family. Other members of the health unit had to do their job and take care of their family.

Carrie Kasurak went home Thursday night, the shelter was opened and Carrie Kasurak felt she had done all she could do. Carrie Kasurak has two young kids and felt she needed to be with them -- and that with Carol Duggan at the shelter things were in good hands.

Friday morning Carrie Kasurak went first to the shelter because she thought that would be the place where she would get the information she needed -- about the shelter and the nursing home. Carrie Kasurak assumed that if the general public was being directed to the shelter that would be the best place for information. Carrie Kasurak says that she encouraged Carol to get some rest, and that she would take over running the shelter -- and she started thinking about who she could call in for assistance. Carrie Kasurak started setting up schedules and priorities and organizing community volunteers to register people coming in, organizing people with food handling experience.

Carrie Kasurak says she wrote out day to day notes on what happened. Carrie Kasurak says that the fire-van drove around the town doing announcements over their PA system.

At 1300 Carrie Kasurak drove to the police station to consult on the condition of Carveth -- the nursing home. She thought they could not let them go another night without power -- there was no plan in place -- so some provision had to be made as Carveth had no backup generator. Carrie Kasurak says that she assumed that they had a nursing home, but she was wrong. The core group were meeting again with administration from Carveth to talk about evacuating -- before the meeting got underway Carrie Kasurak says she was not sure that they had a plan, that they hoped they could get a generator. Carrie Kasurak says she wanted to be sure that they plan for the worst case-scenario. Carrie Kasurak urged them to call the Kingston Psychiatric Hospital to advise them that they may have to evacuate from Gananoque to Kingston. The mayor spent a lot of time on the phone trying to get a generator for the nursing home -- a lot of stuff happened within a short time and Carrie Kasurak was frustrated that no plan seemed to be emerging from all these discussions.

Carrie Kasurak says that a decision was made so that by 7:00pm if there was no generator forthcoming, they would evacuate to Kingston -- and at the moment the power came on to that part of town. The administrators returned to Carveth and they got a backup generator shortly thereafter -- so they did not have evacuate. Carrie Kasurak says "we were very, very lucky."

Carrie Kasurak says that there's too much uncertainty when dealing with the weather -- and fortunately it warmed up on Saturday which meant less weight on the trees. If the temperature had gone down, the risks would have increased.

Carrie Kasurak says that nobody challenged her authority -- though she did feel sometimes that it was hard to tell if people valued her concerns. Internally, from the health unit perspective, she felt like people appreciated her efforts on their behalf. In the politics of the core group she felt as if she did not get the respect she warranted: given that there were new people in the political jobs, which added "its own interesting dynamics." She says that a lot of the new actors did not really have a grasp on the nature of emergency response.

Carrie Kasurak says she wondered about who was going to pay for things, but it was not her problem. She says that it was just necessary to get through things and worry about the money later.

Carrie Kasurak says that her decision-making was based on her experience and consultation with Carol Duggan. She contacted the relevant authorities when she could, when they were needed, otherwise she relied on what sounded reasonable and on sound practice. She now considers Carol Duggan a friend and colleague though they had only spoken on the phone previously.

The Core Group could have used more meetings. There was one on Thursday, then informal meetings, but not again until Saturday afternoon.

Carrie Kasurak did a lot of face-to-face communications at the shelter and the phones worked for the rest of the town. The senior medical officials were supposed to deal with the emergency, but the magnitude of this event meant that it could not work that way. Carrie Kasurak says people are comfortable dealing with people on the local level that they already know, people from within the community. Communication was not CK's biggest problem -- she was concerned that things were going to come back on her after the event. But it has not. Communication to Brockville was erratic and that was problematic for Carrie Kasurak.

Carrie Kasurak feels like the group responded effectively, overall, and that there are always things that could have been done differently or better. Things worked well, however, and everyone knew what they were supposed to do in their various capacities. If other members of the core group don't know what a particular role is, then that leads to "some discomfort."

Carrie Kasurak says that when people were allowed "to do their job and trusted the fact that they had that job because they knew what they were doing" things worked well. But when communication became difficult -- and there wasn't clear leadership (for Carrie Kasurak) at the core group meetings -- nor did the core group have enough meetings. The meetings themselves were calm but Carrie Kasurak often got the feeling that people did not either understand why certain decisions were made or why she felt the way she did.

Carrie Kasurak says that priorities were identified and resources were mobilized as quickly as possible -- the biggest problem was over-reliance on technologies that were not available under the conditions of the storm.

Carrie Kasurak says she did not feel the problem of the crash of the 911 system -- but if it had persisted she thinks the scenario would have been different. Carrie Kasurak says that another problem was the lack of understanding around what people's roles were in the core meetings -- town councillors who did not know why certain people were or were not part of the emergency core group. There were a lot of dynamics that can interfere with the "flow of things."

Carrie Kasurak says she would have more confidence in her abilities in the event of another event. Carrie Kasurak says she would "know that the decisions that she made" were the right thing to do. She would have kept records or logs differently. But she was running from one trouble-shooting situation to another -- so there was no time. Carrie Kasurak had no assistance at the Shelter until Saturday.

Carrie Kasurak says that the health unit is working on its emergency plan -- that they are going to take it much more seriously from now on, her interest level has increased. She is going to do an internet search to see what ideas are out there for the management of shelters.

Carrie Kasurak says that there's a lot of information coming out of the southern US concerning hurricanes, tornadoes and so forth. The Ice Storm has brought home to Carrie Kasurak that "this can happen" and that she thinks there may be another ice storm in her lifetime.

The health unit had a plan and it was useful -- and looking back it's even more useful because the details actually mean something because Carrie Kasurak has lived it. The members of the community and of the core group also want to participate in the drafting of the new plan and in the design of plans for Carveth (the long-term care community).

Carrie Kasurak has no emergency training, except for a couple of mock disasters -- no formal courses in emergency response, though the organization has prepared them for it. Carrie Kasurak says that mock disasters and review of the emergency response manual and the visit of Raymond Lafond from the Ministry of Health [Canada] on Psycho-Social follow up to disasters.

Carrie Kasurak had no contact with either level of government, Federal or Provincial -- she also avoided the media for fear of saying the wrong thing and doubt about her authority to say anything at all. She focused on what were the priorities as she understood them.

Carrie Kasurak says that stress was a concern at times but the whole experience was also exhilarating and she got wound up. She did think about her husband's role with their young kids, but they share the home routine fairly evenly.

Carrie Kasurak says that she was on a high for a while -- "geared up" -- in the post event phase. The projects she had been working on before the storm no longer seemed as interesting.