IceStorm 98 Study

Ciro Calcafuoco, a resident of Pittsburgh Township, says initially he did not realize the extremity of the storm. The power was out in his home. He says his 5 year old discovered very quickly the importance of power and what it can do for someone when he tried to play on the computer and then watch television with no success.

He says it was later on that evening (Thursday) that he got a phone call at home from the Principal of his school saying that someone was going to get in touch with the Director (of the Board) a Dr. Cosgrove, to get permission to use the school as a shelter.

CC was called in to meet with the people who would be responsible for organizing the shelter. The Salvation Army was one of the organizations involved. He had to show them the school and figure out what had to be done to prep the school for use as a shelter. He says that people found this hard to understand. They continued to look at the school as an educational place but it wasn't--it was a shelter. He says parents and students kept telephoning him because they wanted to get in the school to get their homework because they expected to be out of school for several days. He had to tell them "no" because the school was now being used as a shelter.

CC says this attitude became really apparent near the end of the storm when parts of the rest of the City were opened back up and other schools were re-opened. Holy Cross was still needed for a shelter and parents were phoning to complain that their kids could not return to class yet. He says that he tried to explain that power still had not been restored to some of the outlying areas of the Township and the City (i.e. Harrowsmith, Yarker) and that the shelter was still needed. He tried to explain that City Hall had designated Holy Cross as a shelter. He didn't have any control over re-opening the school.

CC thinks the school was opened as a shelter on the Thursday of the storm. CC says he thinks the school was the right place to designate as a shelter because it is in the centre of the community and people generally know where it is. The school has a lot of space and numerous washroom facilities. He says the way Holy Cross was laid out made it an ideal shelter.

CC says initially all of the seniors were put in the library. This worked until one of the men got up in the night to go to the washroom and became disoriented. He ended up exiting the building. The next day the seniors were moved to one of the staff rooms.

On the Friday night CC thinks they had the highest number of people at around 100 or 125 people. CC says the biggest complaint about Holy Cross was that it was too far away from their own homes and areas.

The Salvation Army donated the food for the shelter. People just brought things in too. People phoned asking to donate food and clothing. People also phoned to offer to share their homes. CC says there wasn't enough help to regulate these phone calls. If the information could have been taken from all of these calls and offers, it would have been so much more effective.

The Salvation Army registered people as they came into the shelter. As a further precaution tables were eventually put up to stop people before they joined the rest of the numbers.

On Sunday it was arranged that communion could be offered to all of the Catholic people staying at the shelter.

CC says the storm changed his perception of things. He says "in a crisis people have to come together". He stayed at the shelter pretty much around the clock.

CC says if the registration could have been computerized, it would have aided greatly with the tracking of people's medication.

At one point clothing and toiletries that had been donated were just all piled up. These items were eventually sorted out and put into one room. Somebody was assigned to stand at the door and would go and get something if it was needed. CC says some of the people were hoarding these donations.

CC says it would have been more effective if all of the donations could have been centralized in one place and a system be in place where the shelters could request what they needed. The donations were just being dumped at the doorstep of Holy Cross and weren't always needed at that particular shelter.

CC says Holy Cross had quite a lot of seniors in their shelter and had more diapers than you could imagine. There weren't a lot of infants staying at Holy Cross. They could have been used at Q.E. but there was no way to move all of the donations around.

The cots that had been promised finally arrived. They had been stored in mothballs. The whole school smelled of mothballs. It was pretty awful. However, the cots were there the first night the shelter was open.

There was a security officer in the building at all times. They stood at the entrance and walked around.

Not many costs were incurred by the school from being used as a shelter. There wasn't any theft at the school at all.

The last 2 days the shelter was open, Queen's medical students were on hand to lend assistance.

CC says the elderly people interacted well with the young kids and told them stories.

CC says stress was not a problem for him. He just wanted to make sure that people were comfortable and things were there for them. He doesn't think there was any stress or tension with the volunteers from the Salvation Army either. He thinks perhaps there may have been stress higher up amongst the decision makers.

CC thinks that Holy Cross was a terrific shelter but was under-utilized as a shelter.

CC wouldn't call it a problem but his biggest concern was security. He was concerned about people wandering off and getting hurt.

CC says there was a lot of help being offered but how do you bring it all together and use it wisely. It would have been great if it could have been centralized.