IceStorm 98 Study

Herb Scott says that when the power was off Thursday morning -- and he didn't know the severity for 12 hours -- "it sure was there" and Herb Scott realized he had a full scale emergency on his hands: "reality started to set in." The roads were blocked and the Road Super (Lawrence Bell) realized that conditions were bad for men and chainsaws, so he got a loader and started pushing the big branches off the road. Within a few hours the roads were passable again. The township does not own any equipment -- it's all rented -- so the Road Super was out sanding and realized that he needed the help of George Tackaberry (the local contractor who does all the work). Bell has the authority to make those decisions, Herb Scott says, and he did the right thing in the circumstances given that they might have had to deal with a medical emergency.

Herb Scott says he never really made any major decisions other than trying to find generators, the township is only about 1800 people, so the decisions were not made until they went to the county to declare a disaster on the following Tuesday. The county was without a warden which meant they could not declare an emergency so an interim warden was appointed so that the coordinator could have someone to coordinate with and decisions could be made with the clerk of the county. Meetings were held every night and most decisions were made at the county level -- though the township decisions were made between the clerk and the reeve. The county consisted of the Reeves, the Medical authorities, Hydro, Fire, OPP and so forth.

Herb Scott says that the phones worked throughout the emergency. Herb Scott says that the first calls he got were from people asking when the hydro was coming on again. Herb Scott tried to advise where the crews were working and checked every day with hydro, monitoring their progress through the township. Herb Scott tried to have first hand information for everyone, but they had very few real emergencies. The Army arrived one full week after the ice storm -- and things started to happen.

The village of Athens -- at the centre of the township -- commandeered the snowmobile club and turned it into a shelter for both towns (about six miles west of the village). Their building had wood heat and a generator and dedicated volunteers. It was used mainly for meals, people stayed on two nights, but they did serve a lot of meals. People prepared food and donated it to the shelter.

Herb Scott is unsure when the power came on again: he thinks it might have been toward the weekend though there were isolated areas where power was out for more than two weeks.

Herb Scott did not realize the authority he had. He spent most of his time running around dealing with problems as they arose rather than with the delegation of responsibilities: Getting generators to farmers was his first priority. Herb Scott admits that he might have done things differently, that his way was not the best, but he says the local people seemed to be looking after themselves. Herb Scott had few calls from people in need, "people coped with it really well." Some dairy farms were having problems getting generators and it was Friday or Saturday before some cows were getting milked. Herb Scott is a farmer himself -- but "the calls were just not there, no one was in dire need." There were a lot of people running around with generators themselves powering up one place after another. People did not come to the township and say "What can you do for me? 99% of them didn't do that." The township used $5,000 of 10,000 dollars of food vouchers. Herb Scott is proud that his township did not have to use emergency aid. Herb Scott would return anywhere from 13 to 15 calls nightly, mostly as to when the power was coming on again, people who needed generators, people wanting to know when the roads were going to be sanded. Herb Scott tried to be honest with everyone. People took care of themselves, although the fire department was pumping basements and people were phoning for that assistance. But there wasn't a lot, Herb Scott says, "the calls weren't there."

Herb Scott says the biggest complaint was that he was not on the radio as much as some people would have wanted, but Herb Scott says it was too much trouble to get on the radio and there was too much he had to do in the nature of the emergency.

Herb Scott says that any money he spent came out of his pocket. Herb Scott says he's never taken a dollar of mileage from the township in 15 years. Herb Scott says he had to authorize money to buy food for the shelter -- but even some of that came out of his pocket -- and he got it back. The province has given Leeds & Grenville one million and the township got $10,000 -- which the township stayed within. Some townships paid their help for 24 hours. Neither of the two township staff got any money extra for their time. The Road superintendent took time rather than money. "Nobody got a dollar extra outta the whole deal."

Herb Scott says that decision making consisted of simply "This has gotta be done and whatever we can do for people .... You just make it and go on." Herb Scott says it's no different from any other decision: "You just make it and go on." There was one council meeting throughout the emergency, between the Clerk and the Reeve, and it dealt with specific problems.

The phones were working throughout. Herb Scott stayed in contact with the clerk and the roads super, and between the three of them and a couple of councilors "we got along." Herb Scott made five or six calls to the radio station personality, Bruce Wiley. It was impossible to get through at last because everyone was calling one number. Later they got another line open through the newsroom. Herb Scott prepared speech to bring people up to date on progress of hydro and to thank people who were providing assistance to township: food store, the guy who pumped the gas. Herb Scott says that he spent time at the fire department to address their needs if he could, and keep up to date on things. At night he would check the shelter, which roads were open and what progress Hydro was making. Herb Scott tried to keep current so that he had something to say to the people who called. He tried to keep things light -- to throw in a joke or two -- and keep their spirits up. Herb Scott tried to be honest and to tell them what was going on. Herb Scott says that Hydro tried to ask for direction, as to which areas were vital, but Herb Scott stressed fairness and turned those decisions back to them.

Herb Scott says that decisions were ad hoc and spontaneous, arising from specific needs as they arose. "Basically ... if the road superintendent had a problem he would get hold me no matter what time -- he just came and I'd stop what I was doing and we'd decide what we were going to do and he would go on." The clerk would leave messages, or Herb Scott would hang around the township office and help the clerk -- everyone just kept in touch with each other.

Herb Scott says that no one panicked -- everybody did all they could "and let's go on." Self-sufficiency was the rule; Herb Scott calls it "the country way." Herb Scott says he knows that some Reeves had more trouble, but country people seemed to get through it better. Farmers drove their generators around as needed and cooperated. People moved in with people and some farmers were looking after four or five farms. "Some guys hardly got to bed."

Someone drove two generators, chainsaws and flashlights from western Ontario, and dropped them off with Herb Scott. Herb Scott and another farmer used that generator for a couple of days and when they returned the generators the owner would take no money. He would not take fresh meat, he said only that he might drop in if he was driving through the region again.

Herb Scott says that what worked well was the "spirit of the people -- the fact that everybody helped one another." There were many such examples. Tackaberry brought in a large generator to help milk cows and "it just goes on and on." Herb Scott says a bigger supply of generators would be on the top of his wish list. He realizes there were none available, but he thinks that "everything pretty well worked well." Hydro came through, the army came through, fire department came through, they were never without gas. The local distributor was even helping out farmers by providing diesel fuel for the generators.

Herb Scott says "Everybody did whatever they could do and nobody had their hand out looking to be paid."

Herb Scott says the biggest problem was the lack of generators, cause they had communications throughout. So in that respect they were in good shape, and a lot of people burn wood in Herb Scott's area so they were able to keep warm.

Herb Scott says he's in no hurry to repeat the experience of the ice storm -- but would get the shelter up first in the event of another such event. Nothing would change as far as keeping the roads open: he would hope that any more catastrophes could be attended to quickly.

The shelter only saw two people on two nights, but a lot of people came for coffee and meals (40 or 50) and dinners -- not lunches. Some were workers, and the rest of the population was cooking on bar-b-ques or woodstoves. Herb Scott says he might keep the township office open at night during another event. Everyone was checking on everyone else, however, and people with specific problems were able to get through on the phones -- so that each problem could be addressed quickly. Herb Scott says that they will do the disaster plan over again, they had one but it wasn't tied to an electrical break down -- more suitable for school bus crash or some such thing. When the power went out, the emergency plan's shelter was rendered useless. Even the restaurants were useless when the power went down. So the emergency plan was of limited usefulness without electricity -- having said that no one came to Herb Scott to demand compensation for staying in hotels or motels. The emergency plan did not contemplate that everyone could be 'in' the emergency together.

Herb Scott says that he originally thought the idea of an emergency plan was a bit of a joke when it was drafted. It was used once when a fiberglass plant caught fire and some people had to be evacuated, but since then there has been no cause to warrant bringing the emergency plan to people's minds.

Herb Scott says he has no emergency training, that he may consider it now, but he's also married to a nurse and relies on her for her direction. The county is going to do some work and organize some discussions around it. Herb Scott says the need has "jumped off the page at us."

Herb Scott first contacted the provincial authorities upon declaration of the emergency. An agent was at the first meeting on Tuesday and he had beds and cots and stuff for the shelter and access to generators (from Thunder Bay). Herb Scott says that things were worse to the east. Herb Scott also says that other municipalities did not get up and running as fast as his did. Also the fact that there was a hydro station close to the township meant that power was able to be restored faster. Their shelters were open longer and by the following Thursday (one week) the shelter was almost closed down -- within ten days it was no longer needed.

"You just had to deal with the stress." Herb Scott runs a dairy operation and says he was just too busy to worry about it. Herb Scott says he just had to keep going cause people needed answers and information about when the power would come on. "You dealt with it and went on." Herb Scott says he had no time to sit down and worry about himself cause other things were more important.

Since the event Herb Scott says he has felt no stress, that there were things he could have done -- but he had to work with the resources he had. Herb Scott says he has seen no stress among his citizens, that everyone is just getting on with the clean up. Herb Scott says his family realized that it just had to be done.

Herb Scott does not feel any anti-climax either, more relief when the last road came on. He was concerned that people needed generators at the lake (Charleston Lake). Herb Scott was proud of the way his people handled the emergency, very few, he says were very rough on him. Some were a little out of sorts or stressed, but they benefited from being able to talk to Herb Scott. Herb Scott says it meant a lot that he was able to call them back.

Herb Scott directs us to Ray Craig for another interview -- Herb Scott and RC overlapped in a lot of areas. They did things for each other.

Herb Scott says that some people came and got money that did not really need it -- he's got other stories but he's forgotten a lot of them too. People did things for a $50 bill that he thought was extreme. He says two women came into the township and asked for their money, but could not say exactly where they lived. One lived in Elgin, another did not know because she did not wear her glasses and could not make out the name of the road. She rented but did not know the name of her landlord. The clerk sent them on to Brockville but they complained that $10.00 was not enough to get them to Brockville in their car.

But this was exceptional. "Everyone did yeoman service." Herb Scott has high praise for George Tackaberry for making a contribution of generators to as many as he could. Herb Scott directs us to Kevin Tackaberry as the PR guy in the family.

Herb Scott has no documentation to share with us. He says they only had one meeting -- on how to distribute the $10,000 -- he has records on cost which he says he will fax to us.

Herb Scott says they were kinda low key in how they responded to the emergency. Herb Scott says "If it happened again ... I'd handle it the same way.”

Herb Scott says that some people brought free wood into the village but that was a disaster cause the wood was full of cement blocks and dirt and so forth. Herb Scott says it was a great gesture but it misfired, it was a disaster.