IceStorm 98 Study

It was Wednesday evening when Gary Bissonette realized that an ice storm was coming into the area. He normally runs Pacers Basketball in the Township and they made a decision to cancel that on the basis of the weather reports and the ice storm itself. His wife mentioned to him that if this storm was as bad as it sounded then they at the "Y" were obviously going to have to be prepared to do something.

On Thursday morning, Gary was down at the YMCA at 6:30 a.m. (their normal business hours are from 6:30 a.m. to 11:00 p.m.). That is when they began to realize the full magnitude of the situation. It was difficult to get to the "Y" because there were a number of tree branches in the area on Palace Road and on Wright Crescent itself.

They did have power so, "We immediately went into action, I guess you could say." Throughout the entire period, they were only without power for about 8 hours on the Friday.

The "Y" is geographically located "right on the fringe of some of the hardest hit areas" so they were already starting to see some people come over "looking to take a shower and things like that". They were able to provide shower facilities and daytime shelter facilities. It wasn't long after that that Cheryl Mastantuono, who was also a member of the YMCA Board of Directors, gave Gary a telephone call to find out if they had power or not and what their story was.

He also received a telephone call from Mark Edmonds at Hotel Dieu Hospital that morning. They discussed the fact that the Dieu was considering setting up an emergency shelter if required and they tried to consider the logistics of a possible "referral scenario". At that point, Hotel Dieu was thinking of taking parents with very small children or people who were not very mobile.

The YMCA had made the offer that morning to Cheryl Mastantuono to set up a shelter there because they were fully staffed, they have full kitchen facilities, they operate a daycare facility on a regular basis and they have a cafe which operates on a daily basis. "We are up and running so whatever you need to do, we are available."

"We look at two things. First off, we're a not for-profit organization and essentially the "Y" (though some people think of it just as a fitness centre) [is] not a fitness centre; we look at ourselves as being a community centre. So, having that in place and already being open, and recognizing that there was most likely going to be a need, we decided that we were just going to initiate, on our own, providing whatever services we had to." They immediately called business people who are members and others they had contacts with to put them on standby for services they might provide should the need arise. As an example, Costco said that they would be there with food or whatever was needed; Zeller's was ready to contribute blankets; vendors such as McDonald's were ready to offer food. At this point, the YMCA was not sure what the City was going to do but they saw a need to be prepared.

Friday is when people really started going into the YMCA for showers and for warmth. "Over Friday, Saturday and Sunday, we probably had over 1,000 people come in just for showers alone. We had towels for those who needed them. We had people stopping by from the outlying areas who had wells (and their pumps, of course, being electric were not working) so they were filling up water containers here. And we had a lot of people just coming in for food and just some place warm to stay." The daycare centre was set up for children, and they had TVs and movies. Anybody was welcome in their facility.

On Friday they lost power for a little while but were able to re-open. Gary then received a phone call from the City indicating they would like to drop off mattresses and blankets because they were going to set up the "Y" as a temporary shelter for P.U.C. workers. They ended up taking in about 8 P.U.C. workers and also became a station for some of the emergency workers from Toronto who were handling generators in the area.

The "Y" was feeding many of their own members, providing coffee and warm meals (spaghetti, soups at all times) and had a continual turnover of other people until the City got all of their shelters running. They then started referring people to the City shelters, especially to nearby L.C.V.I., for food.

"We were quite fortunate the way the [electric] grids work here, that it allowed us to stay up and running right down here in the area where it was needed most." People right across the street on Wright Crescent had no power for most of the duration of the emergency.

Gary says it was very easy to respond to the situation because they are such a community-based organization and are constantly interacting with businesses and individuals in the area. The Apple Mill sent down apples and oranges immediately. Costco arrived at 6:30 on Friday morning with a truckload of food. Voortman's cookies donated 12 cases of food. McDonald's sent them approximately 250 Egg McMuffin breakfasts two days in a row. The YMCA also sent food down to the morning hydro crews once the City put in that request in the early stages of the storm.

Their costs were quite small for two reasons. Most of the staff went in on their own to donate their time and most of the food and beverages was donated by businesses in the community. Their costs only came to about $1,300.

It was business as usual at the "Y", with regular programmes still running, people working out in the gym and playing basketball, and the pool was opened to the public for recreational swims at no charge.

A lot of people put a lot of time in. Gary himself was on site 16-18 hours a day from Thursday through Sunday. He and other staff simply brought their families in with them.

Unlike other City shelters, the "Y" had a fully functioning facility that people could enjoy, with activities and showers and movies, so the attitude and atmosphere was quite different. "We even had a lady who came in with five birds that she was worried about. They were unique types of birds and would die without heat. So we set up a room for her and she stayed here for three days." They also allowed a couple of small dogs in and isolated them in certain areas so they wouldn't conflict with normal programming.

Initially they had some contact with the Whig-Standard and CKWS but most of their link was with CFMK until their tower went down. They were in regular contact with CKLC, telling them they were in operation, what they were doing, etc.

Gary has passed on his thoughts to the City about using the YMCA as a shelter. As he points out, the City "spent a tremendous amount of time, effort and energy setting up L.C.V.I.", bringing food in and people in to coordinate the whole effort, whereas "We're a block and a half away and we were fully operational" and all they had to do was drop off such things as mattresses. He feels it would have saved the City time to use the "Y" as a shelter since they were already open at 6:30 that first morning. Gary has also had contact with other "Y"s and YMCA Canada discussing their thoughts that they should be part of a national emergency plan "because we are so flexible and fully functional in terms of day-to-day operations".

"What it comes down to is, the individuals who work at the "Y" (and my staff especially) just are very cognizant of their need to assist the community simply because of what we do every day. And for them to drop everything even though they had no power at their houses and things like that and come in here and maintain the shelter...is a credit to them as individuals."