IceStorm 98 Study

DS noticed a fluctuation in the power to the armories on January 7th. This fluctuation triggered alarms in his weapons protection systems. His quartermaster of stores came in and spent the night at the armory guarding the premises. The power never came back on.

There is no backup power system or generating capability at the armories and DS has taken this up as a special issue to be dealt with a.s.a.p.

On the 8th, DS was contacted by his staff and told that it looked like the power was going to be out for some time to come. He received a “heads up” from emergency services and was contacted by Dorothy Theobold, Director of Social Services for Brockville, requesting volunteer support to assist the elderly. The militia responded by delivering hot meals to the shut-ins and assisting where needed.

Later that day DS received a call from headquarters in Ottawa (33 Brigade), informing him that he would likely be called upon to assist local authorities. He called in all of his members and on the morning of the 9th, he had 21 people in the building.

The unit carried out volunteer duties even though they had not yet received proper authority to provide military support.

The local militia provided over 1,000 cots and sleeping bags to the local shelters.

The Brockville Rifles were the first reserve unit in Eastern Canada to be called out in support of “Operation Recuperation” on the evening of the 8th of January. This continued 24 hours a day, 7 days a week until January 28th.

CFB Kingston became the command centre for sector south. This area covered territory south of Kemptville - Smiths Falls to the river and from Kingston to Cornwall. The Brockville Rifles were responsible for an area that stretched from Gananoque to a mid point between Brockville and Cornwall and north to the Kemptville -Smiths Falls line. All of the river units from Kingston to Cornwall came under the command of C.F.B. Kingston.

DS requested men and equipment from CFB Kingston which caught the base off guard since they did not realize that they were in charge of sector south. Within a few days Brockville was supported by a company of troops from the Toronto - Hamilton area. Additional reserve units began to arrive. CFB Borden provided logistic support in the way of field kitchens, vehicles and staff who co-ordinated troop movements. At the height of the emergency DS had the support of 750 troops under his command.

Communications were “nightmarish” and DS erected relay towers that were manned by signalers for 24 hours per day. In the end hand held cell phones were distributed to groups of four or five men.

The main mission for the troops was to go door to door throughout the area checking on the safety of the residents. They entered hard to get at areas to provide food and fresh water.

DS co-ordinated the delivery of firewood which came by train and truck from London to replace stocks which had been depleted. You could go through a year’s supply of firewood in no time.

After the tragic fire which occurred in North Augusta, DS moved in with his troops to assist in the co-ordination of relief efforts. Troops manned the phones, assigned cots, provided hot food and generally took care of things until the community could return to normal.

The Brockville Rifles were asked to take over areas that the regular troops had been made responsible for since the regulars were being transferred to Quebec.
In a sense this was of great benefit to the overall relief effort. This was the first time in history that the militia had been made in charge of such a vast area. But more important was the fact the militia members were from the area and essentially knew their way around.

DS expressed an understandable frustration with the local municipal officials. They were not openly invited to the meetings and it was due to the determination of men like Captain Simmons that the municipality finally acknowledged a role for the military in this emergency.

As a member of the emergency measures committee, DS should have been contacted when it became known that the city was facing a severe test of its resources. Unfortunately, this did not occur. The Emergency Measures Organization was also reluctant to utilize the skills of the militia and had a great deal of difficulty “marrying” the military with the local political structure.
Ontario Hydro declined the assistance of the military outright. Although the media portrayed line crews working with the troops in the Quebec and Ottawa regions, no such co-operation was requested in this area.

When the call eventually came for assistance, DS had sent the bulk of his forces home 2 days prior to the call and was left with a complement of 14 people. As it so happened, the equipment requested was not available at the armory and the repercussions from this incident went all the way to the top. DS acknowledged that “my name is now mud”.

In matters of security, the city Police patrolled the community without incident. DS provided security to the Bell phone junctions where generators were used to recharge batteries and people were stealing the generators.

Captain Simmons elaborated on the role of the military in peacetime and its effective application in times of national emergencies, from the massive floods in Manitoba to the ice storm in eastern Canada.. The military has successfully demonstrated its effectiveness on more than one occasion when called upon to perform emergency relief tasks.

What would you have done differently?
“I would have been much more proactive in how I would address the local municipal structures”. Now that they know what we are capable of, they could have made greater use of us.

The Brockville Psychiatric Hospital fed and housed 700 soldiers and provided a lot of the hot meals for the community and were prepared to take up to 1,000 people.

DS stated that he would be” right in the mayor’s face” and involve his forces in the counties as soon as there was any indication of trouble.

As well, there were significant delays in obtaining men and equipment which would be corrected in the future.

What about costs?
Most of the equipment was already in the system. Generators, cots and sleeping bags etc. were provided to the various civilian agencies for distribution. DS was impressed with the accountability of the agencies in that all of the equipment that was provided to them was returned intact to the military.