IceStorm 98 Study

The Kingston Whig-Standard is a daily newspaper with a daily circulation of approximately 30,000 in the Kingston region. Their offices are located at 6 Cataraqui Street.

Lynn Haddrall [LH] said she had “bad feelings” about the weather report concerning the coming ice storm as it came off the wire on Wednesday. She went home as usual but called the newsroom around 7 or 8 p.m. and said “I’m getting a bad feeling about this, let’s move our deadline ahead.” They had three pages left to get out when they lost power around 11:15 pm.

The office called LH to tell her about the power failure and she remembers that, “...at that point it was kind of a crisis management situation.” They took some computer equipment out to the printing plant near Sir John A. MacDonald Blvd. and Highway 401, about a 15 minute drive from their Cataraqui St. offices. They were able to get the Thursday paper out that night.

The next morning, the people who could get in, gathered at the cold, dark office site to decide on a course of action. They agreed to try to get the next paper out, but realized it would be a challenge. When someone indicated that maybe they wouldn’t be able to publish, LH recalls, “...the news editor and I looked at each other [as if to say] ‘not on our watch.’”

“We have quite a historic record here at the newspaper, the longest continuously published daily newspaper..that mean a lot to us.” They were also aware that, “...it meant a lot to get information out to the public...it was important to maintain that link with the community.”

“Our technician took the equipment out to the printing plant...[and]...we went into gear assigning the reporters and photographers, who’d made it in, to assignments.” Other staff were asked to come in if it was not too dangerous. Some editors were put up in hotel rooms.

“On Thursday morning... it really hit home that we could be, for two or three days, publishing out of this makeshift newsroom... this little area we carved out of the printing plant.” And, all-the-while, with ice coated power lines and flickering lights, there was a constant sense of apprehension; “...is this going to happen or is it not going to happen.” But they managed to carry on for three days until power was restored on the weekend.

LH reports a feeling of helplessness and fear that they wouldn’t be able to publish, “we’re in the business of giving people information...[and at]...a time when this disaster has happened, you want to feel that you can help”.

She recalls that, although there was a sense of excitement, there was also concern for the reporters’ well-being since power lines were down everywhere. “The other thing is that most people had no power at home -so coming in [to work] was actually nice.”

Everybody pulled together as a team. Editors and reporters did all kinds of tasks. Even the publisher and general manager, Fred LaFlamme, delivered newspapers to the shelters. “Talk about crossing the lines.”

She was able to continue working since her spouse stayed home with their kids.

On the whole, stress was not a big issue. The paper tried to help out by offering a hotel room to staff if they needed a shower or a nap. Food was brought in regularly for everyone. “We did what we could to make it like a home but no doubt there was stress.”

Communications was a problem. The paper was reduced to two sections, partly because there was little or no advertising, but also because they only had a couple phone lines. Consequently, they didn’t have access to their regular Canadian Press wire service. “Our sports editor had power at his home downtown. He would go home, surf the internet, go to the wire services web-sites, down load onto disc and bring the information back to our makeshift office.” So they were able to get national and international news in the paper as well, although in a more limited form. The fact that everyone was working in long or shorthand, writing down notes meant that, “for many of us, it was like going back to being a first year reporter...it was a throw-back to before electronics.”

To get news from outside the Kingston area they also telephoned other papers, like the Citizen or the Canadian Press wire service, and wrote stories down by hand over the phone.

“The other thing on the communications side, which we were a little disappointed with, was that we couldn’t get hooked in better to the city’s communications network.” Contrasting with Kingston’s emergency response team, “in some of the municipalities, Loyalist for example, the politicians, the staff members, invited us to sit down at the table.”

LH notes that, “...there was some disappointment...that there wasn’t someone appointed as a media relations person...” This was particularly an issue due to their publishing schedule. “We’d be told there’s a 7 p.m. press conference and...it didn’t happen, it stretched on to 8 p.m. There was no appreciation for the kind of deadlines we were facing.” This was something she hoped would be addressed before the next crisis event.

With regards to being denied access to the meeting, LH didn’t know if it was out of concern for what they might print; “What we wanted to print was [information] to help people know what the situation is, what they should or shouldn’t do, and the dangers involved with some of the devices people were using.”

“We saw ourselves very much as pro-active in helping the situation.” The sense they got from the Kingston emergency response team was “...almost like we were a nuisance.”

“I’m not sure they used us to the best advantage of the people living in the community.” “It would have been nice...to listen to the discussions as they were going on and pick out the things that needed to get to the public.”

“In other municipalities...they were entirely open to the media being part of the solution.” “The frustration here was that we weren’t seen as being part of the solution. “At least...we didn’t feel that we were being treated that way.” “Obviously they were dealing with some major issues, and we appreciated that, and we respected that, but I think we could have helped out better if we were given a chance.”

Activities were co-ordinated, for the most part, according to usual departmental lines. This helped preserve some sanity. Priorities were set by each department but there were some heated discussions about what to print because there was only a short amount of time to put the paper together and get it printed. There was a constant threat of losing power at the printing plant at any moment. “We were all very aware that anything added [to the paper] increased the time and risk that the paper wouldn’t get out.”

Cost was never an issue or discussed with LH. The goal was simply to “...publish the best newspaper we can under these very extreme conditions.”

People worked around the clock and there was no griping.

They lost some advertising revenues during the storm period but picked up some new advertising in the weeks following the storm from organisations like Ontario Hydro, which took out big ads to let people know what was happening.

The biggest problem was the constant threat that they would lose power. There was “...anxiety hanging over everyone that, at any minute, everything that we had done, could come crashing down around us. We could be one page away...and 16 hours of work could just go right out the window.”

Although they race the clock every night this situation had the “added element of nature, and we can’t control nature. Nature has the upper hand.”

If the printing plant had lost power they would have looked at other presses to go to. “We have those kind of backup plans just in case, on an off day, the press isn’t working. She recalls that on one day during the crisis the Whig-Standard press printed the Brockville paper.

While the paper has always had a backup plan if, for example, the press went down, this experience made them more aware of how important the plan is, and that it should be reviewed periodically rather than just “...dust it off when the press goes down.”

The ice storm experience also demonstrated the benefit of having their offices separate from the press site since it meant that they had an alternate site, in this case with power, to go to. They also learned how portable their newsroom operation can be.

In conclusion, LH recalled that their news editor, Ron Wadden, [see Wadden interview] was leaving the Whig-Standard to start a new job at the Toronto Star. His last day of work was Friday, January 9th.

Close to midnight on his last shift, “...we looked around and here was this bedraggled crew of people who had been there for eons of hours, and you just knew that if there was a way that a news editor wanted to leave a paper, that would be it -ink stained, a stone’s throw away from the press, the smell of ink in the air, paper newsprint everywhere. I just said, Ron, what a way to go out.”