IceStorm 98 Study

George Hutson (GH) recalls his first impressions and awareness to the severity of the ice storm when he received a call from the Director of Human Resources (Queen’s) to inform him that the university had several buildings without power and the administration was looking to Physical Plant (PP) to get things back on track as quickly as possible. GH knew that there had been an ice storm but because he lived in Kingston Township he didn’t realise the full impact of the storm. In the township all the wiring is underground and there are very few mature trees so when GH looked out his window and didn’t see signs of any real damage, he didn’t think it was that bad. GH explained the role of the Physical Plant as the organisation that is responsible for all the technical maintenance, upkeep and systems of the buildings with the exception of academic equipment. They do all the custodial work, look after the grounds and parking lots as well as operate the infrastructure such as the electrical supply (in conjunction with PUC) and the steam plant, ventilation equipment and some miscellaneous jobs such as room reservations.

GH knew by the nature of the phone call from the Director of Human Resources, who had in turn spoken with Principal Leggett, the VP of Finance and the VP of Operations, that the university was seriously compromised by the storm. GH said that in the beginning, he did nothing because there is a procedure within Physical Plant that involves a “call out” of key trades and personnel in the event of an emergency. By the time he managed to get into the university, the staff at the Emergency Report Centre in Fleming Hall (operated by Security) had already begun the procedure. The Physical Plant has a list of trades and staff that needed to be called in which the Emergency Report Centre had.

The assessment of the situation was made easy by the fact that the electrical supply to the main campus is run underground from a small sub-station on Clergy Street. Those buildings that were fed by that sub-station didn’t lose their power (or had lost it for a brief period but had come back on). The buildings involved were the administration (Richardson Hall) and academic buildings (Mac/Corry, Ontario, Ellis, Jeffrey etc.). Where Queen’s really got hit was with the buildings close to Leonard Field and near Stuart Street. The reason for this was because these buildings are fed by the sub-station located on Centre Street which is above ground. The surrounding trees knocked the wiring and lines down causing a power outage. This took out the power to most of the residences, the Donald Gordon Centre and West Campus.

The authority to act stemmed from the directions from the administration and Principal’s Office.

On the issue of monetary concerns there is no special funds in reserve for such an emergency. GH said that it was more a case of “getting on with it”, especially when so many buildings were involved such as the Film Studies, the Faculty Club as well as the parking areas and roads. Money was not a concern but rather the emphasis was maintaining the buildings.

The job of PP was made easy because of the concentrated points of problems with the exception of the parking lots. Because the university was shut down the main concern of PP was to clear fire access to the buildings and deal with the buildings. On the Friday, GH noticed that a lot of people were walking around campus looking at this “amazing display of crystallised ice”. He was concerned about safety and asked the grounds crew to try and clear as much of the debris as possible from the pathways.

Keeping in communication with the crews was accomplished by the use of two-way radios. At all times, one person on the crew had a radio. This kept up communications to the satisfaction of all parties.

What worked well, was the work of the trades people. The only problem that presented itself was that some of the trades people were living in rural areas and therefore could not be reached. Those that could be reached, in some cases had problems travelling in to town. GH said that what really worked well was the ability to keep their crews fed and warm. GH said that because most of the main campus buildings were up and running, there was the establishment of shelters and kitchens which assisted in helping those crews that were working 12 hour shifts. GH commented on how dedicated their crews are. As in all situations, there are some people who don’t perform well during a situation but when the best are working, it really is apparent according to GH. The number of crews working was approximately 12-15 trades and approximately 15 custodial staff as well as the 6 grounds crew. GH said, that out of all the crews, the grounds crew probably worked the longest and hardest. They were putting in more than 12 hour shifts.

What didn’t work well? GH said of this:

What a lot of people who work in Physical Plant don’t realise is that buildings and their systems don’t fail when the breezes are gentle and the weather is balmy, they fail when the going gets tough. The buildings may be shut down but they are not shut down for PP. I was a bit disappointed that personnel didn’t call in or show up.

There are approx 98 people who work for PP and the majority of them didn’t come in. It would have been nice, according to GH to share the work a bit more. PP could have used more generators.

An interesting anecdote of this event was on the Friday, PP got a call from some folks from Hamilton offering to help. These people were arbourists and GH said, “yes, we need them as long as they aren’t going to charge us an arm and a leg because they have us over a barrel.” In the end, GH doesn’t know how they made any money because their fee was minimal. There was also some assistance that came from the University of Waterloo.

GH hired an arbourist to consult the university on the damage to the trees. The consultant found that there are 2,098 trees on the campus and 121 trees were destroyed/critically damaged and had to be removed. It was a helpful report that allowed for PP to focus on what needed to be done. There had already been a committee struck by the university prior to the Ice Storm called the Campus Grounds Advisory Committee that is looking into to what has to be done with the urban forest around campus. Out of the 121 trees that were damaged, 18 are going to be replaced and the 103 remaining trees will be looked at with respect to can there be a better location found for them. GH doesn’t think there is going to be enough nursery trees in Ontario to replace all the trees that were destroyed by the storm.

The time to make decisions as to what to do with the remaining trees is only just now coming into effect. The arbourist identified damaged trees but GH expects that there may be more once the spring budding is over.

Damage to the buildings was minimal with the exception to the Donald Gordon Centre which sustained flooding in the basement. The Faculty Club sustained some damage and the Lasalle Building has a colony of haemophiliac dogs which are temperature sensitive and PP hooked up a generator to keep the heat on. GH said they were very lucky not to have sustained major damage to the buildings. GH said that there will be a review of the Emergency Plan but feels that not much could be changed to make it better. Julia McAllister set up a command post in her office and worked hard at keeping things going with respect to information. Everyone knew that her extension was the operations centre and called her to report problems and solutions. GH said that the PP has a system of response for emergencies and it only needs to be adapted for the given situation.

Emergency training for staff relies on their trade training. Most of the staff reacted to the situation from their own experiences. As GH said, “This was the Grand-daddy of all emergencies” and his people responded well.

PP had no contact with Emergency Measures Ontario. That was left up to the administration to deal with. GH attended the daily meetings in the Principal’s Office to advise on the situation.

Media contact was done through the Communications Department. The university established that very early.

On the subject of stress to the staff, GH said that when people respond to a situation they are usually the kind of person who doesn’t get stressed by the situation. GH said that the crews responded to the situation and just did the job. He commended them for working long shifts, in cold buildings. GH said that in this case, the stress was positive stress and got the adrenaline going.

GH didn’t feel that the storm impacted him in the personal realm. Their house was without power and his wife expressed concerned about GH driving on roads that were less than ideal but other than that “they survived”. GH commented on the ability of the trades people to leave their own homes (which in some cases required manual pumping of the sump pump) to do their jobs at the university.

Queen’s University supplies the steam to KGH. GH explained that there are enough emergency generators to keep the steam pumps going. The steam plant has a 250 kWh generator to assist them in an emergency, plus there is also a sub-station devoted to just KGH. The supply of steam to the residences was not interrupted, GH said the steam rooms “were nice and toasty, it was the lack of electricity to the pumps that was causing the problems.”

GH explained how the electricity is supplied to Queen’s as follows:

…There are three sub-stations that feed Queen’s. The one on Centre Street, which I’ve already spoken about. That station feeds the buildings around Leonard Field and south of Stuart Street. Then there is a transformer located on Clergy Street which feeds the main campus and that never went down. Then KGH has a small sub-station which also feeds the medical buildings and Waldron Towers. The power was out to that sub-station for about 6 hours. The real culprit was the station on Centre Street.

On the subject of funny stories, GH just couldn’t think of anything at the moment. He did however, find one item of interest. He had thought how easy it would have been to connect all the residences to one central generator to keep things going. What GH discovered was, that because the buildings were all built at different times, they all have different pumps that operate at different kWh. There would be no way to centrally generate them.

Queen’s is planning on updating the Centre Street station. This means putting the lines underground and PUC is willing to give Queen’s some space in the Centre Street station to install a transformer. He noted that the new Chemistry Building will require this facility.

If this emergency had been a flood rather than an ice storm, then Queen’s would have not faired well as everything is underground. GH also mentioned that Kingston is subject to minor earthquakes. GH said, that what saved Queen’s from major damage this time may not be so helpful the next time. The overall cost to PP is $173,000. The main cost was the damage to the trees. The cost of the crews from Hamilton and Waterloo was about $15,000.

On a final note, GH adds that we have seen some gaps in the organisation that would mean looking at them so that the next time, they can respond more efficiently. GH said that he wonders how PP is ever going to get rid of the “monstrous pile of wood chips” that has accumulated since the clean-up.

If GH could “snapshot” a moment of the Ice Storm it would have been the condition of the trees and the thickness of the ice especially in Victoria Park. It is something that he says, “I will always remember”.