IceStorm 98 Study

I look after all the programs and special events as well as the Artillery Park Aquatic Centre, the Portsmouth Olympic Harbour and Confederation Basin.

Give me your recollections of the Wednesday evening of the storm.

I live in an area that is a fairly new subdivision, so no power went out - not even a flicker. When I woke up on Thursday morning, it took me a while to chop all the ice off my car but I thought it was a regular work day with some freezing rain, so I came into the office. When I entered the building, there were just three of us there. At that point, I figured out that something was going on. There wasn't a lot of tree damage close to the building or on my route to work. We made some phone calls to City Hall to sort out what was going on and that is when we were requested to go there. It was on that route downtown that it really hit us. We were pretty much in shock at what we saw.

At City Hall, what were the first things on the agenda?

They asked us to go down to City Hall to set up the call centre so that was the first thing we had to do. We were also told that there was going to be a meeting at 10 o'clock at the Utilities building where the commissioners and the Mayor would determine what was going on, so we were busy setting up the call centre and trying to get things going prior to that meeting and finding out what needed to be done. At that point we were more or less put on phones to answer the questions that came up. At that point I wasn't looking after any of the donations or any of that because we hadn't yet determined that there was a need. I didn't attend the 10 o'clock meeting.

How did the division of labour eventually devolve? How did you get into the position you did and were the lines of authority always clear?

Regardless if you were a temporary staff person, management or a commissioner, everyone started working at the same level, answering phones, etc. It seemed as though certain people took on more of a leadership role. Some people were more comfortable talking on the phones and speaking to the public and passing on questions, whereas others automatically started taking on leadership roles. On the second day, after we knew where the shelters were going to be, there was a need for supplies, etc. Thursday was a long day. I was there until 3 in the morning. We could see that we were going to need people there 24 hours a day, so we set up shifts and started dividing up the labour which worked quite well. As in most group settings, leaders emerged and that very clearly came out.

Tell me about the drive for donations.

This was something that was very rewarding for me because at first I thought it would be difficult. The first two phone calls I made received an overwhelming response. The people who were looking after the shelters gave me a list of their needs and asked me to get them. I started with the grocery stores and drug stores like Shopper's Drug Mart. We needed diapers, baby formula, all different food supplies as well as hygiene products. The first place I called virtually emptied their shelves because they had a supply truck coming in the next day. It was agreed that the store would charge back the city at cost. The manager of Kingslake IGA came with the truck load and he said he wasn't going to charge. He also said we should give him a call if we needed anything else. He called that afternoon and said he had 200 loaves of bread, and asked where he could deliver them to? I called KGH and told them we really needed diapers and other medical supplies. They sent over 3 cube vans full. It was amazing to see the kind of support these people were giving us. There was also a message on the answering machine to give them a call if we needed anything else. Different drug stores put together boxes of supplies and we would send around the transportation guys to pick them up. With every one of these places, I would get a return call saying, "What else do you need?" WalMart was another store which was very generous. Whenever I got a call from a shelter saying they needed such and such an item, I had a list of all kinds of places who were willing to provide things. Toys 'R Us gave us $500 worth of board games, etc.

Then places outside of Kingston started calling in. Stratford Tourism in conjunction with the City of Stratford called in and said they were putting on a radio blitz. They planned to load some trucks and drive the stuff to Kingston, so they asked us what we needed? We gave them the type of supplies that we were looking for. The Cities of Hamilton and Belleville did a similar thing. The role that I was in was so rewarding. All I had to do was pick up the phone and say what we were in need of and people came through. Bottled water was also in great demand. Companies like Crystal Springs delivered water to the various sites. At one point, we put a blitz on the radio that bottled water was needed. The response was overwhelming. As time went on, more people came down to City Hall and we were able to find those people who had an interest and who had the ability to take over some of the tasks such as the feeding of all the workers. That made our job so much easier. Every day things got more organized. Even after the ice storm was over, I continued to get calls from Stratford and Belleville asking if they could help out. When the crisis was ending and we had no need for more supplies, they were interested in sending supplies on to the contacts we had in Quebec.

Was money a concern for you?

It was a concern for me personally because I was used to budgeting, so when I was told to go out and start purchasing supplies I wondered if it would come back on me that I had spent all this money. It was never put to me that cost of supplying the shelters was a concern because it was a need that had to be filled. When I called the first grocery store, I asked if we could get items at cost anyway just to keep costs down. The reason I called this store was that someone had given me a name to call because the manager was willing to assist us. It took us into the second day before people realized how serious the situation was. Once word got out through the media the donations started pouring in. People were calling me rather than me calling them. In the beginning I had everything coming to City Hall and we ran out of room, so we moved things to the Armouries. I didn't organize that and I am not sure who set up the Armouries.

In hindsight, what worked well generally and what didn't?

What worked extremely well was when we finally divided things into areas. Once the call centre was left for individuals calling in who needed assistance that worked very well. Once we got transportation and supplies their own areas, when the calls came in we knew where to direct them. We had a separate area set up for people coming in who wanted to volunteer. When everything was divided into areas, that was the point when things became much more efficient and the response time got better.

If we had been more organized at the very beginning things would have been better. If the structure that we were able to put in place by the end of the ice storm had been in place at the beginning, everything would have run so much more smoothly. The phone system in City Hall was so old that you couldn't even transfer calls. They now have installed a more up-to-date phone system. Another problem was that people can't work 24 hours a day. When I would go home after about 16 hours, I found it difficult to document everything I had done and pass it on to my replacement, so some confusion came about there. Another thing I was concerned about was that all of a sudden 30 cell phones came in for use. The sheet was given to me to sign for them and I was responsible for these phones. Somebody had ordered them but they hadn't followed through as to how they were going to be distributed.

Did you have any prior emergency training?

I have had search and rescue training through education programs and by working on special events. There are always crises that can arise, but never anything like this. I think the event training and working with people and committees definitely helped out. How you respond to people on the telephone is very important and what may have been lacking was experience in dealing with frantic calls.

How did you cope with stress?

There was more stress in the call centre area where I was at the beginning. I found things less stressful in donations and actually enjoyed the work I was doing. At the call centre, I didn't feel in control. When I got a frantic call, I always had to ask someone else how to do things. When I heard there was a need for someone to organize supplies and donations, I felt that was an area I knew I could do a good job at it.

What were the effects on your private life?

That was the most stressful part for me by far. After the first day I got into an area that I was familiar with but the hours I put in were long and irregular. I have a 2 year old and a 5 year old so they were at home with my husband. My husband couldn't understand why I had to put in so many hours. It was stressful for him being home with the kids 24 hours a day and I wasn't able to give him much relief. Because the lights were never off in my area, it was hard for people to understand why everyone else was in such a difficult situation.

Any anecdotes or lighter moments? Any events that stand out in your mind?

I recall on the second night about 1 or 1:30 in the morning, I was working at City Hall when all of a sudden the lights went out. City Hall was seen as the safe haven for people and then all of a sudden it went dead. All the busyness turned to complete silence. Everything was quiet for a few seconds. I am sure people were thinking, what do we do now? And then a phone rang so we knew there was power somewhere. People then lightened up and all of a sudden the generator kicked in.

I remember how impressed I was with one of the meals that had been donated and then I went to a different location where they had been served the same meal. Several people in the group were saying, "Can you imagine having to eat this stuff?" I thought to myself, first of all it's free and secondly, this is probably an $8 meal downtown and them calling it slop! It just blew me away.

Did you have contact with provincial or federal bodies?

No.

How about the media?

I had no contact with the media. We were very specific as to who should be talking to the media and who should be covering press releases. We were told that when the media called, they should be passed on to certain people. That way, the media were getting the same story from everyone and it was politically correct also. I think you have to be very careful as to how information goes out and I think it definitely has to be standardized.

Do you wish to add anything?

On Friday morning I left City Hall about 3 o'clock and had to drive up Brock Street. I had to drive across power lines, drive around trees, and there were no lights. I could only go so far and I would run into yellow police tape, so I would turn and go another street. I was scared that night. When I reached Sir John A. Boulevard, things got much better.