IceStorm 98 Study

Major Frazer and his unit provide engineering services for CFB Kingston. Included in these services are engineering, heat, power, telephone and building maintenance.

Major Jim Frazer (JF) received a phone call on the Thursday (January 8th) morning at his residence by his Sgt. Major to inform him that the Base was without power. JF said that the nature of the emergency actually “unfolded over the next couple of days because part of the emergency was that the Base was going so long without power.” JF said that by the end of day on Thursday, “I had a pretty good idea as to the extent of the damage to the Base.”

The organisation of response began by JF, from his home, telephoning all his non-essential personnel and requesting them to stay home. He then called in all essential personnel and met with them once he got to the Base. Their primary concerns were assessing the damage to the buildings, equipment and services on the Base. They were also concerned with restoring power and telephone lines to the Base. The first priority was to provide generator support to the kitchens, so that personnel could continue to be fed, telephone and computer buildings. The telephone and computer systems had a back-up power source which would run for 6-8 hours and the batteries were beginning to deplete. They provided electrical support to the sewage lift stations so that they could continue to be used. The unit continued to check the electrical supplies to ensure that they could be used and if not, the unit repaired them.

JF’s authority to act flows from his normal daily duties on the base. He did not have to wait for orders to come down from Base Headquarters.

On the issue of monetary concerns JF said, “ It was obvious that there was certain things that had to be done and we were not concerned for the moment how they were going to be paid for. There was a need to bring in extra equipment (either purchased or rented) and personnel were going to be required to work overtime.” The extra equipment the unit brought in were pumps, hoses, chipping equipment and generators. The unit comes with their own vehicles so there was no need to rent vehicles as did the PWOR.

JF said that the unit’s first job was to restore the Base to a functioning level so that the Base in turn could assist the civil authorities. This direction came from Col. Aitken who in turn had received orders from Land Forces to command the forces in the aid to civil powers. JF said that on the Thursday they were not sure whether the 1st Canadian Division or Divisional Headquarters were going to be deployed but regardless of any deployment, the Base had to get up and running. He emphasised that the priorities were feeding the personnel and restoring the Base to a functioning level.

Communications were dealt with by first using the telephone system which JF said, “was very difficult trying to pull people in when their phone lines were down.” The second system the unit relied on was the Motorola radio. JF had to use one of these units from his home as the telephone system went down on the Saturday and Sunday.

The personnel JF worked with are senior skilled technicians and a Works Officer who is the manager of all the service management. Under the Works Officer are trades such as plumbers, electricians, painters, carpenters and welders. These personnel and their skills range from apprentice to master trade. The unit also has a hydro line crew consisting of two people. The Base has an additional four line trucks deployed to the school for training purposes.

JF said that he had been made aware of by some of his staff that the City of Kingston had been requesting the use of the line crew. He said,

“We had a captive audience at RMC, the schools and the Base that needed to have power restored to them first before we could assist the City. What seemed to be the problem was that the City did not know how or who to make such requests to. They didn’t know what government agency they were supposed to go to and for every situation, they called the Base directly to ask for help.”

The unit did not take any active role in the work restoring power in the City. They spent the majority of their time working on the PMQs (Private Married Quarters).

JF was in communication with both the PUC and Granite Power which he said was very easy. JF said, “Ontario Hydro was extremely difficult to get in contact with.” and eventually JF reached a person in Toronto who was in the accounting department. This person assisted by passing on information when requested by the Base. JF recalled that one of his concerns was the lack of communication and co-ordination between the PUC and Hydro. He gave the following example;

“We have a sub-station here that Hydro provides power to and PUC is responsible for the sub-station. Power was restored to the sub-station for probably 16 hours before PUC knew it had been restored. That meant that the Base was without power for an additional 16 hours when in fact we could have been up and running those 16 hours earlier. Because of poor co-ordination we were hampered. As soon as you put a stretch of wire to a source I assume that there is a system to notify the user that there is power restored especially if it was going to a station or a sub-station.”

There are two sub-stations on the Base, one on the McNaughton Barracks side and the other in Vimy Barracks. The Vimy Barracks’s sub-station feeds power to RMC. RMC lost their power on the Friday when there was an attempt to string lights in the kitchen facility. JF is not sure why that happened but assumed that it was just too much of a power load for the remaining sub-station.

Other concerns that were being dealt with was the incidence of flooding in the buildings and the need to address the ongoing problems. Even with a grand priority list the unit needed to be responsive to any continuing emergencies that arose. What worked well was the people who were working. JF said of his staff,

“The thing that worked the best was having the people we had. In having faith in your people to turn them loose and hand them as much responsibility as they could handle. Everyone here was amazing. We didn’t have to tell them to do something, we could give them an area of responsibility and they gladly went and did what they had to do. They worked to the detriment to themselves, their families and homes. One of my best stories was I received a call from the spouse of one of my staff to tell him that a tree had crashed onto their driveway. He responded by saying that he’d deal with it when he got home, whenever that was.”

Having the resources to do the job also worked well. JF sent his personnel out armed with credit cards and shopping lists. Some of their normal suppliers were able to continue to provide services and supplies to the Base.

What didn’t work well was more to do with the responsibilities of the Sector South Operation. He explained that there was a need to install a communication system up the St. Lawrence river so that effective communications could be used by the deployed troops to critical areas. JF said that the system was a series of repeater stations and motorolas which the unit installing them did an excellent job. One of the major complaints JF has is to do with the Communication reservists that showed up unexpected. JF’s unit had to spend more time explaining things to them than actually getting any work done. In the end, it wasn’t worth the effort for the amount of work they had got back from the reservists. The reservists came from different units across Ontario. Another problem was the amount of people who showed up to help because, “this was the only show in town”. This presented problems in that they needed to be supported (food, lodgings) and were hard to keep track of, let alone keep under control. JF did however emphasise that all of these units were under command of the Base Commander and noted that even units who would not normally be included such as RMC “acted as if they were under command.”

The biggest problem JF had was not being able to help the civilian community more while understanding the need to prioritise the situation at the Base. However, he did comment that some of the lack of help was because the City was making requests that the Base simply could not assist with such as supplying generators. JF did say, that if the City managed to obtain a generator the Base personnel would assist them in getting it running and keeping it operational. JF said the City was annoyed that the Base was not supplying them with the use of their line crew although eventually the 79th Signals Regiment did deploy their line crew to assist civil authorities. JF comments that everyone has to be careful not to make too many changes to the operation of units because of the Ice Storm. He said that if he had to do it again, he would have done things the same way. He would liked to have seen more co-ordination between the civil authorities and the Base and definitely more co-ordination amongst the utilities people. JF said that the City made a request to use the Base facilities to set up the fund-raising for the Ice Storm. Both he and the Base Commander agreed that they would support this effort but asked if the City had tried anywhere else first? It turned out they had not sought other accommodations at all and eventually ended up using the municipal building in Pittsburgh Township.

JF said that some of these requests were stemming from the inability of the civil authorities to know their own systems for support during an emergency. He said that they (the City) did not know who to contact with respect to emergency agencies or where their local EMO was situated. They didn’t even know where their local store house was or what equipment they had. JF said that the civil authorities shouldn’t look to the military first for support because a lot of times the military is being deployed elsewhere. Most of the time if the military is not being deployed then they are “more than happy to assist.” On the subject of specialised emergency training, JF said that they don’t have any special training as the nature of their jobs are simply to respond to whatever the situation is. The only thing that was different was the frequencies in which the emergencies occurred during the storm.

Contact with the EMO was left up to the Operations staff. This was done to eliminate any confusion. The G3 unit handled all of the communications with the EMO.

JF said that he believes there was a level of stress but also a high level of challenge. He said, “…there was a real sense of challenge and accomplishment when we could see that we were getting things done.” JF said that sense of accomplishment offset the levels of stress. He said that some of his unit were on the Base for 96 hours straight. They tried to monitor the levels of stress and if it was becoming apparent that it was increasing, they sent the personnel home. JF said that a number of his personnel brought their families into work with them and those families “camped out” in the offices and meeting rooms. JF said “it was like a big camping expedition for the families and it was fun but also reduced the stress levels.” The biggest stress factor for the personnel was not being able to help their families out at home if they were without power. JF didn't stay on Base as his own home had power.

The overall costs are covered in the After Action Report. JF said that approximately half of the costs are attributed to the Engineering Services.

JF said that because the Government of Canada underwrites itself with respect to insurance, the damage to the buildings and equipment did not go through any claim. He said that the damage was minor in any event.

On a final note, JF said,

“Although I may have sounded somewhat derogatory towards the City, in the end they did a remarkable job and after having been there several days (referring to the amalgamation) to be able to handle a problem of this magnitude they did a really good job. I have a lot of respect for them.”

JF has suggested that the civil authorities spend some time getting together with the military and going over an effective emergency plan. He suggested it be in the form of an exercise and continue to follow up on a yearly basis.

The base is examining some of the shortfalls they experienced during the storm such as generators not working. The Base is planning on ensuring that these back-up systems are checked at least, on a yearly basis. JF doesn’t think that contracting for a portable power system would work for the Base. He pointed out that in a major blackout, these services have the potential to be oversubscribed.

JF said that his staff are to be commended for their work. He said, “They willingly came out, worked hard in difficult conditions and did so without complaint or looking for overtime and they got the job done.”

He said that he would get back to the writer with a funny story as soon as he thinks of one.