IceStorm 98 Study

Lt. Col. Michaud is the Director of Cadets at the Royal Military College. He is responsible for the 900 Cadets attending the College.

Lt Col. Michaud (JM) said that when he woke on the morning of January 8th, it was quite apparent that something major weather wise had occurred. He knew by listening to the radio reports that the weather was severe and that many of the staff and faculty of the College would not be able to make it in to teach the Cadets. JM said he had to make a decision to cancel the classes for at least the day, until he could find out more information as to the extent of the storm’s damage. The College still had power at that time. JM said that he knew that the City was going to declare a state of emergency from conversations with the Base Commander.

He called City Hall on the Thursday morning at approximately 0830 to offer their services to the City. JM said that he did have to place some limitations on what the Cadets could do. He was concerned about the Cadets working in areas that had “hot wires” and also that the Cadets were not equipped with winter kit. He did suggest to City Hall that the Cadets could help out in shelters, hospitals and food kitchens. JM said initially, he spoke to a police constable and as JM said, “There was a real feeling that everybody was scrambling to get organised.” Although City Hall was appreciative of the College’s offer, they did not say ‘this is what you can start doing for us.’ JM said, “…that was understandable as they were trying to get the emergency operations centre up and running.” JM admitted that the Cadets and College also didn’t know what they could do as far as tasking was concerned.

Power was on at the College but the steam heat running from the Base was not functioning. The major problem on Thursday was that the telephones did not work. JM had to organise the system of communication within the College and externally. They did resort to using personal cell phones, which JM said, “…were not without problems themselves because of the design of the surrounding buildings and density of the limestone.” The College set up a system of runners who would take messages back and forth between the various groups. JM enlisted the assistance of the Cadet Wing Commander, Luc Beaudoin to help get the Cadets organised.

The authority to act first came from JM’s duty as a citizen of Kingston and then through the Commander of the College. The Commander informed the Base of the intent of the College to assist the City. The College co-ordinated with the G3 Ops and Major MacDonald, with the various tasks that the Cadets were doing. On the Friday morning, an order came from Land Forces Central that the Base was to be augmented by the Cadets. The Cadets were to be used in anyway they could be after they had secured the College. The Cadets were to take their directives from CFB Kingston.

JM said that the communications made it difficult to call in their essential staff and therefore the initial taskings were limited to those personnel who were already at the College. The College had been asked by the Base to provide some emergency shelter as they had power until the Friday night (1900 hrs). When the College lost all its power, it could not support the Base with their request. JM said that he was still waiting for the City to tell them what they wanted the Cadets to do as “the Cadets were eager to get out and help.” In anticipation of assisting the City the College set up approximately 150 cots to serve as a shelter. JM said, “When we lost the electricity, we were unable to help in that way. What started as an ability to help in the situation ended up us becoming an additional problem. Here we had 900 Cadets who were now without power and their ability to help was diminishing.” The Cadets were trying to stay organised although it was difficult while being in the dark.

Compared to Queen’s residences, RMC did not close the residences. The College instituted a set of regular rounds to maintain discipline and safety. Open fires such as candles did pose a concern but by the rounds it kept it contained. Unlike Queen’s, the College is a military environment and the discipline could be maintained.

JM worked with the Cadet Wing Commander to organise “cells” of personnel who would be responsible for certain taskings. These “cells” would report directly to the Cadet Wing Commander who in turn would report to JM.

When asked what worked well, JM replied “The structure of the Cadets provided a means to organise. They kept their eyes open for anything they could do to help the town.” JM said that the City could have used the Cadets 24 hours earlier but under the circumstances of getting organised with a problem of this magnitude, it was understandable that the City waited so long before asking for help. The advantage the Cadets had is that they are already organised into groups and it was relatively easy to set those groups out on tasks. JM said that whether it was sending a group over to assist in a shelter or hospital the fact that they were already formed into groups made it easier.

The concern of costs, the only cost to the City was to provide transportation for the Cadets. The Cadets received no salary. The College would bring the Cadets back to feed them as JM said, “on a regular food line.” The people hours the Cadets put in for the City is in excess of 6300 hours over a 3 day period.

JM said that there was nothing he could think of that didn’t work well. The College is not an operational unit and therefore there were some limitations as to what the College could do. The Cadets only have summer equipment. JM said, “I am very proud of what the College did under the circumstances.”

The College does not have an emergency plan. It has drafted a plan but JM said it’s hard to plan for everything. He gave the example of an earthquake and how hard it would be to plan to be proactive to something like that. He added that in those kind of emergencies it’s best to be able to react. JM said that because of the Cadet’s basic military training they could rely on that to function during an emergency.

JM said that he was surprised that the City didn’t immediately ask for the College’s assistance. However, he said that the City never expected to have the people hours the Cadets put in. JM said that it is a matter of citizenship within a community. He said that some companies and organisations simply sent their staff home during the storm and these people did little to help out. The Cadets looked upon the storm as a means of participating in the assistance of their community.

JM hopes that if the City ever needed assistance again, that they would look to the College for their contribution.

The highlight of the Cadet’s participation was their intuitive abilities to get the job done and do it without being told. The Cadets did most of the organisation on their own with little guidance from the senior officers. JM is proud of these men and women as they are the future military leaders.

JM was not asked to participate at the City as this role was being covered by the G3 Ops and Lt. Col. Thornton and Major MacDonald.

JM’s contact with the media involved an interview with CBC Radio (in French) on the situation in Kingston. A Cadet was interviewed while he was working in one of the shelters. Other media contact was through the Base’s Communication Unit.

On the issue of stress, JM said “The Cadets on their own organised activities to relax them. We confined the Cadets to the College until the Saturday night. We let them go into town on the Sunday to see what was going on.” JM didn’t perceive the Cadets were overly stressed and they appeared to be coping well. The older Cadets who were organising the taskings were tired but driven by the participation and that kept them going. The College gave them three extra days to make up for lost class time.

JM said he couldn’t recall anything funny but noted that the police have commented that some of the work the Cadets did saved some lives. JM recalls that the Cadets went to a house and found a women who was quite sick and called for an ambulance. JM does recall that some of the first year French students found the exercise good for their English. He noted that the Cadets went out in the track suits so that they could easily be identified as personnel from the College.

JM didn’t have anything else to add and said it was a pleasure to be interviewed.