IceStorm 98 Study

Dr. David Turpin was the person in charge at Queen’s during the ice storm from Thursday January 8th until Saturday January 10th when principal William Leggett arrived back in Kingston. Dr. Turpin flew to England on Sunday January 9, 1998 on business.

On Wednesday January 7th David Turpin (DT) went home sick, delirious with a fever. Through the night he dreamt of crashing chandeliers. At 5:30 a.m. on Thursday January 8 John Cowan, (Vice-principal, Operations and Finance) called DT as he was the acting principal, to discuss whether the University should close that day. John Cowan reported that it was going to be dangerous for staff to come into work [because of falling branches and icy roads].

At 7:30 a.m. Rena Upitis (Dean of Education) called DT, and reported she was at work but outside it was just a disaster. She felt Thursday should be cancelled. DT cancelled Thursday early that morning and had cancelled Friday by noon on Thursday. The decision was made to announce by noon on Sunday whether Monday would be cancelled; Monday was actually cancelled by noon on Saturday.

Principal Bill Leggett returned to Kingston on Saturday and resumed the principalship. DT visited Bill Leggett on Sunday [to brief him on the ice storm situation].

John Cowan was handling external communications and the physical side of things. Bob Crawford was in charge of residences and student life; and internal communications were being overseen by Jack Henderson.

On Friday morning (Jan 9) Bob Crawford decided to call some phone numbers at Queen’s, and was embarrassed to find regular voice mail messages and, at the principal’s office, a Christmas message. Bob called Jack Henderson, who changed the voice mail to ice storm messages on the phones for Bill Leggett, DT, and Bob Crawford. Parents and students were then able to access the most up-to-date information available.

DT reports that Bob Crawford and residence staff did a “great job”. There was no master plan – everybody simply did their jobs. Queen's tries to push decisions down. The beauty of the ice storm was that it showed Queen’s has succeeded in moving decisions down.

DT only had to make decisions about whether to call the days off. The details were looked after by others and the right decisions were made.

The biggest frustration experienced by DT, was the PUC saying, you’ll have power in the residences by Thursday, then by Friday, and still there was no power.

DT left for England on Sunday but had kept in touch with all the deans, making sure they knew what was happening. A “war cabinet” had been set up by Monday morning. A re-activation plan started unfolding then.

The academic year couldn’t be extended because the residences are booked in May. It was left to each faculty to make decisions about how to “squeeze” the school year [because of the days lost to the ice storm].

DT lost power at his own house and from a family perspective, he felt guilty leaving town when his family was without power and running out of fire wood. Bill Leggett arranged for DT to get fire wood from his neighbor, when DT came to see him on Sunday.

In response to the question, what would you do differently the next time, DT replied that he would have changed the voice mail messages sooner.

DT reported that Stan Yagi did a great job on the University’s web site. On the Queen’s home page a flashing Ice Storm icon was linked directly to the latest information.

DT said that it’s difficult to know when to make the “big decision” [to close the University]…you don’t want to overreact because that upsets people too.

At the time of the ice storm Queen’s did not have an emergency plan, but it does now.