IceStorm 98 Study

Kathy MacDonald is an insurance adjuster for the Lindsey - Morden Insurance Company in Brockville. She is a member of a number of organizations in Brockville and volunteered her assistance at a shelter which was set up in the Thousand Islands Secondary School during the ice storm.

On the morning of January 8th KM (Kathy MacDonald) woke to find that she had no power to the house. She did some work and went out for a coffee. Driving around the town, she began to see the widespread devastation that had been caused by the storm during the previous night.

She spent most of the day taking care of family and pets. She was fortunate that her day care provider had a wood stove and was able to take care of her 3 year old son. As for herself, she was able to find accommodation with friends in the country who had a wood stove in their garage and spent the night in the garage.

Arising early Friday morning in the cold of the garage, she heard over the radio that the power outage might last for a couple of days. Realizing that “surely somebody must need something, we have to do something here” she was resolved to do what she could. “I’ve been involved in a lot of volunteer things in the city here for a number of years, I knew that the control centre would be at Gord Watts , because of my profession as an adjuster I know that that’s where the central location was, so I thought well, I’m going to go over there and do something.. just go in and say ‘here I am, what do you need?”.
There was no call for volunteers at that time made over the radio, so KM went on her own initiative..

“I can remember going into the building and it was just a beehive of activity and you couldn’t figure out who was doing what or what was going on ...(a girl by the name of Barb) was at the switchboard and I could see that she had a HAM radio operator sitting beside her and there were a lot of people running around ... so I approached someone and said I’m here to do something, is there anything I can do?”

Leslie Parish, whom KM had recognized, had been put in charge of the volunteers who had been arriving at the centre and at that point didn’t know exactly what to do. Her response was “why don’t you sit there and I’ll go figure out what to do and come back”. The phone next to her rang and she answered it and did that for the next half hour. The phone lines were getting jammed by incoming calls to the centre and as KM had her cell phone with her, offered to make some calls.
Meanwhile Leslie Parish had been getting requests for rides to shelters and supplies. KM offered to do the running around because she had a cell phone that would keep her in contact with the centre.

She got a call to pick up a family from a low income project and transport them to the shelter. After waiting for a time after arriving “out pops a guy who might be 20- 22 years old, jogs down gets into the van; “where’s the family’, she asks ‘oh, they’re o.k., they’re going to stay here, I’m just going to go up to the shelter... so I thought here’s a guy that isn’t five blocks away from the shelter that could have walked and I’ve gone through all of this to get to you”. Without saying what was on her mind, she took him up to TISS. She dropped him off and went in herself to get a coffee. “I got in there and it was a madhouse... people were lined up all the way down the one hall and I could see a desk where they were doing some kind of registration -what is going on in here - they were lined up down in the cafeteria”.

While at TISS, she recognized a few friends. She got another call from Leslie which informed her “that they needed to get a message to the fire station... it was a note that was being written that I had to deliver to the fire station ... basically it was that Harold Tulk wanted to know what the emergency response was like at the other area fire departments”. She drove back to the fire station and passed it on to the dispatcher. It was a rather confusing situation because apparently the fire stations had communications. She left the station and returned to TISS where her friend was being swamped with calls from volunteers. Leslie was told to take the names of the volunteers and give them all something to do. KM suggested that TISS could use some help. KM then volunteered to go up to TISS and be “The Volunteer” person and take charge of any volunteers that might show up there.

While she had heard that Brockville Psychiatric Hospital, Grenville Christian College and the Salvation Army were well organized and functioning smoothly, such was not the case at TISS, “it was struggling”.

At TISS Grace Robertson, as the Social Services worker, was in command at an office which was close to the front door where people were coming in. At the first night of operations, approximately 70 or 80 people stayed at TISS.

To KM it appeared that sheer pandemonium was occurring at TISS. She introduced herself to Grace Robertson and offered to assist her in any way necessary. Since she had a cell phone, she would have provided GR with invaluable support. KM went to the Red Cross table and discovered that they were registering people as they came in to spend the night. The Red Cross was also registering people who were there only to have a hot meal and return to their homes.
The school staff had been taken by surprise by the sudden influx of strangers into their building. As KM observed “you have to imagine there’s these school people... their school has just been commandeered ... they didn’t get a minute to put anything valuable away, to change or alter anything at all, the doors were just opened and there are now people throughout the entire school...no control whatsoever...” They managed however, to cordon off areas which had equipment and machinery. Doug Locke, a Community Safety Officer with the Brockville Police Force, was present at TISS throughout the emergency and assisted wherever necessary.

Organization of the volunteers began in earnest. They didn’t want a bunch of strangers wandering through the hallways giving orders - so they co-ordinated the volunteers and assigned them shifts 3-11, 11-7, 7-3 with projects to be accomplished. Later on the shifts were reduced to 4 hours from3 to 7, from 7 to 11.

KM’s parents lived just around the corner from TISS, so she went to get them to come back with her to the shelter to at least have a hot meal. Her mother was put to work in the library.
Volunteers registered at the Red Cross desk. If they had been called to come they were then sent to report in at the library. If they had not been called, they were asked to leave their name and number and would be contacted if the need arose.

Paradoxically, when the volunteers were called, they needed a ride “ so we needed volunteers to get the volunteers”. So the list was pared down to those who could actually get themselves to TISS. In addition, many of those who stayed at TISS also offered to help out which further reduced the reliance on outside help.

Requests for volunteers were made from time to time and the reporting system seemed to be running smoothly. Once the determination was made as to manpower requirements, shifts and duties were assigned and a chain of command and communication was established. Name tags were affixed to individuals who were serving as volunteers to make them easily recognizable. There were, all told “a couple of hundred” volunteers at TISS.
Organizing sleeping quarters had to be completed, “put them into those bedrooms but that wasn’t working out real good, you’d have single young girls and single young guys happen to be in the same room... when they came in they’d registered as a couple... and they were like 16 ...”
Volunteers were assigned to each room and told that they were there to monitor the room.

When the announcement that the shelters were ‘open for business’ went over the radio, people were told that all they needed was their I.D.
It was decided that blankets and supplies would be distributed from the nurse’s office but a need would have to be demonstrated before anything was handed out.

A room had been set for children who soon became bored. There were several T.V.’s and V.C.R.’s in the building so it was decided to set up a center where movies would be shown. KM went up to the local ‘Quickie Mart’, explained the situation to them and was given a load of first release movies, free of charge. KM assigned her 13 year old son to take responsibility for the movies. He made up signs, set up rooms where movies could be shown and kept track of all the movies that his mother had picked up at the ‘Quickie’.

The cafeteria area was where most of the people were assembled. It was an area where constant feeding also occurred. On the first night, KM estimated that close to 2,000 people had been fed at the cafeteria. The problem was that after they had their meal, people would linger and this would prevent others from moving into the cafeteria. At this point the gym had not been available. Later, in the evening of the following day, the gym was opened to provide sleeping accommodation. KM later heard of reports that other schools had brought entertainers into the school - “we could have had that in a minute with a phone call”.

“One of the things that we had to be concerned about was that...some of the lower income people brought all their children, some had many, and they thought we were providing daycare..and that was one of the things that had to be told to them, repetitively some of them ... we had to tell the volunteers every shift ... one of the big rules child-parent - together always, encourage that, do not assume responsibility for a child for a parent who wants to go out for a smoke or whatever... we made a decision that a person under 12 years old had to be with an adult at all times...”

KM’s mother occupied the library for the entire duration of the storm. Volunteers could leave their valuables with her and if people needed information, then the library was the place to go to.

A HAM radio station had been set up at TISS, as well as the other shelters, but KM felt that it was insufficient in solving communication problems. Cell phones were available and effective but were not being used. At one point it appeared that they were having problems and KM used her cell phone to place a call and had the problem solved immediately.

Meetings were held from time to time without KM’s knowledge since she had not been specifically invited to attend. At one such meeting she overheard plans to send a bus around town to pick up seniors and return them to TISS for a hot meal. The discussion was going nowhere fast as it seemed that they had made several attempts to contact an individual to assist them in meal preparation and delivery. “This is pathetic... so I had me cellular in my pocket I picked up my cellular and called the radio station .... asked them to make an announcement over the radio to have Gary Becker phone this number at the TISS shelter we need him... the phone rang 5 minutes later”, the phone was handed over to Brian Ward who arranged to have equipment brought over to TISS. The meeting continued and KM went off to do her rounds. “The next thing I get called into Grace’s office ... she said “there are to be no unauthorized communications any further”, I said pardon? She said “no one’s to call the radio station without approval”, I said this is a crock. I said did we get what we needed, how long were you trying, I said I don’t care, make whatever stupid rules you want .I was at the verge and I was at the edge ... I’m ready to go here but there’s a lot of people here who need me and so I’m going to stay, but I’m not pleased with your bureaucracy here and I’m not pleased with this thing.”

Inevitably, accusations that a power struggle was going on at TISS surfaced and the staff and volunteers were very annoyed” by that comment since at that point things were running smoothly at TISS.

The Medical Officer of Health expressed his concern about people bringing food into the building. This made sense since there was a possibility that the food might go bad. Then, of course, people realized that TISS was going to run out of food as they had been serving non-stop since the storm began. The decision was made to serve only at meal times. Then portion controls were established since there were cases of abuse - “people were coming in and getting 4 or 5 containers of milk... we had people taking plates and plates and plates (of food) and going out .... then when it came to portion control and you could only go through the line once, well there were people who just kept going round and round and round the lineup ... so we had to adapt to that”.
There were a few who were willing to pay for their meals. Although the facility was there to take payment, it was not implemented. The Kinsmen had taken over the operations of the cafeteria and they were able to shut down between meals. KM provided clean up crews and security for the cafeteria which had become a gathering place.

Eventually the command centre realized that TISS was operating smoothly and left them alone to do the job. “Then they started calling us looking for help... looking for volunteers, and I said the tables have turned awful quick in 24 hours... all of a sudden we’re authorities now.”
KM was informed that the police were going to do a door to door search and round up seniors that were to be brought into the shelter at TISS. She was requested to make the necessary arrangements for them. She was told that there would be approximately 150 to 200 people and that they would be arriving around supper time. She got the call at 4:30 p.m.
Then began a feverish amount of activity to set up a wing of the school especially for the seniors. KM needed an extra crew of volunteers, a nurse and as many hands as she could muster to get the area prepared for arrival of so many people.

A kitchen was located at that wing and KM suggested that they get it going so that the seniors could be more or less self-contained and away from the general public. That way, there would be no need to transfer meals down from the main kitchen.

By 5:30 everything was ready to go. People who had been asked to bring their parents in rather than have them wait for the bus began to arrive. A total of 40 people were brought in by family and friends. By this time, meals had been prepared, so the decision was made to feed those who had shown up and feed the rest when they arrived. KM and her volunteers waited. A total of 6 people showed up in the bus while the rest had been taken to the Salvation Army.
“...that was a real slap in the face to how hard those people had worked... in between time they had decided to send them to the Salvation Army and didn’t even so much as let us know”.
The seniors who were there began to call up friends and urge them to come over to the shelter.
There was high praise given to how well it had been organized and the seniors began to show up through the night. “...but then you know the parade started of the people who wanted to take credit for this... and they don’t have a clue, it was the first time they stepped foot in there, and that really annoyed a lot of volunteers too... Ben TeKamp was most charitable when he came, he did take the time to speak to people, I’ll give him credit for that...”

On the Saturday night a ‘directive” came down requesting 15 volunteers to go over to the Memorial Centre to set up a shelter. It was a complete waste of time. There was no food, or kitchen or adequate washroom facilities. The Memorial Centre was never used as a shelter. TISS was, by far, the superior location for a shelter because of the extensive facilities available.

On Sunday night a meeting was held with school officials who were trying to determine how they were going to get their school back. Meanwhile KM heard over the radio that power had been restored to the north end of the city. Grace Robertson was told and said “Good that’ll mean that people will be leaving”, and Doug Locke replied “yeah, with everything in here, there’s no security, there’s no nothing...”.
“We had to hurry up and I just grabbed three of the Kinsmen... three big guys - that door, that door, that door Doug’s like o.k. anybody who’s walking out with bags or anything has to come to this door, I’ll search them...it’s not going to be too long before people hear this, and we got to the doors just in time”. As people were about to leave, names were taken down if they were leaving for good; blankets were returned and checks were made to ensure that none of the school’s property went out the door with them.

KM had expected TISS to start shutting down as soon as it had emptied out, but power had still not been restored to the south end of the city. E.M.O. kept the high school open to take in people from the township who still did not have power. KM would stay as long as she could during the night, but tomorrow “a lot of people will be looking for me and I’ve got to leave”.

As an insurance adjuster, KM would be required to be at her office the next day. A volunteer offered to replace her and she was relieved.
At 2:00 a. m. Kathy went home.

Kathy was never asked to attend any of the de-briefing meetings that were held subsequent to the lifting of the state of emergency.
Constable Doug Locke had attended one of the meetings and went on record as saying he was “displeased at the comments that were made directed towards the TISS shelter ... that there were power struggles and that things weren’t operating well”.