IceStorm 98 Study

Mark Pergunas is the Reeve of Front of Yonge Township. He was first elected as Reeve in November of 1997 and was a councillor prior to this.

The beginning for Pergunas was the "lead up" to the ice storm--the 48 to 78 hour period before the ice storm. At this time, it didn't appear as though this was anything outside the norm--the norm being simply a bad ice storm. His main concern was roads. He had nothing to do with the rest of the infrastructure. He was concerned about the safety of the roadways. This was where the focus lay until 5:00 a.m. on Thursday morning. Pergunas was on his computer downloading his e-mail. Shortly after logging off, the power went out. He assumed that it would be temporary.

As daylight came on he went outside to look around. He could hear trees and branches starting to go. He got in his truck and went for a drive to see what the real problems were.

It was at this time that he drove to some of the homes of the councillors. He told them to stand by because there would need to be decisions made through the course of the day.

Over the course of the day they started touching base with a number of different levels of government and key individuals. He attempted to contact the County level of government without success. He was eventually contacted himself while he was on the go by the Director of Social Services at the County level (Mark Derroch). Mark indicated that they were experiencing the same problems right through the area.

Pergunas says that he listened to the radio too. He says that while it wasn't entirely reliable, it seemed to give a sense that it was a fairly widespread issue. On top of that they were able to confirm that hydro was not going to come back on within the near future.

Pergunas went to the firehall at one point and reviewed the Township's Emergency Plan. He says that it appeared to be "woefully" out of date--not in terms of the basic approach but in terms of some of the key phone numbers. In addition the Emergency Plan would have been basically useless even if the phone numbers had been up-to-date because the phones were not working. He doesn't think that it was ever contemplated that the Emergency Plan would be able to cope with such a "regional infrastructure collapse". He likens it to a meltdown at Darlington nuclear power plant.

It was sometime in the afternoon that firefighters started to be contacted. He says they started showing up on their own, too. They started putting together a response.

By Thursday afternoon Pergunas had tracked down and selected from a short list of about five locations, the site of the emergency shelter. This was done because he realized that there wasn't going to be power within 24 hours and there were going to be a lot of issues such as home heating, food preparation, need for localized medical assistance. He got a hold of the director of the legion. He looked around the facility and found out what was going to have to be done to make the facility workable.

Pergunas continued to try and make calls over the course of the day without success. These calls were made to different levels of government and to surrounding municipalities. He spoke with the roads supervisor over the course of the day. They had gone into a kind of emergency mode to get the key roads salted and opened up. Branches were still coming down. They were receiving damage to their vehicles. There was a growing risk of injury to the workers. It was resolved that the crews would come off at dusk. They would only respond to specific emergency situations.

This was essentially the same rule of thumb that the fire-fighters went with. Pergunas realized that without a reliable phone system he would have to be more proactive than he would have been in other situations. There were a lot of things that began to happen simultaneously.

Key decisions started being made. Pergunas says that he works well with the Fire Chief. He and the Fire Chief brought in the other Councillors and began to speak with them. Resources were pulled together. The situation was starting to deteriorate.

By late Thursday afternoon and into the evening Pergunas was at the firehall. A person showed up who offered him generators. Pergunas identifies this as one of his key decisions. He said, "Yes, we want as many as you can get and we will pay up to $200.00 per day for them"-- not having any idea what a generator cost. He was asked what size and he said all sizes. Pergunas says this was an attempt at control and a recognition of the degree of chaos.

As the evening came on he continued to speak with Mark Derroch. He had identified all beds and cots that were available (in Ottawa). He asked Pergunas if he could find a truck to enable them to go and pick these things up. Pergunas says that he has a Class D license but could not get through to any rental agencies because the phones were not working. He was using his cell phone and encountering some problems with the Bell system. Cantel seemed to be a bit better. He was able to advise Mark Derroch that he had no success in obtaining a truck. Kriska Transport volunteered to send a truck.

They met at 4:30 the next morning when the truck arrived. One hundred cots were unloaded into the back of the firehall. At the same time, Pergunas got a phone call from the Roads Department that the generators were in. They received 15 in total. Three large and eleven small generators. The key areas in the municipality were then up and running. This was done by around 9:00 a.m. on Friday morning.

Volunteers started showing up because they recognized the seriousness of the situation. Someone showed up to hook up the generators (an electrician). A lot of food was brought to the legion. This was spontaneous because there had not yet been time to organize open requests for this. People came in and began to take over key roles. It was at this point that Pergunas tried to "pull out" of direct doing of things and tried to switch into a decision making and delegation mode.

He looked at the people available. People were assigned to specific tasks and for the most part discharged them very well. There were a few weaknesses but for the most part, they tended to resolve themselves. From this point on it was a constant stream of decisions--some critical, some very minor. He tried not to "micro-manage" the situation. People came in and recognized needs and filled the voids (once they got permission).

Pergunas says his Township had a number of strong individuals who really came to the forefront. He also gives credit to some members of Council who held key positions during the crisis. He also gives credit to some people who came forward from the legional auxilliary system. For the most part volunteers understood and accepted what was expected from them. To the best of their ability they came through.

As the days went by it became just more of the same. Friday morning Pergunas called a meeting of Council to review the situation up to that point. That same morning Pergunas called the province and declared a state of emergency.

Pergunas kept a logbook and recorded things as they transpired. This seemed like a good idea for a little while. This stuff was then transcribed onto a lap top computer. He also kept a chronological narrative for about four days after which time Pergunas handed this job over to someone else. This record was lost when the files from the lap top were uploaded to the stand alone computer. There was a bit of miscommunication.

Pergunas tells about a "mini revolt" when he asked smokers in the legion to smoke in the rear of the building in consideration of children in the shelter who had asthma.

As the situation developed he was able to obtain more information from the County level. However, Pergunas and his Council had already made a whole series of decisions themselves about the resources that were needed. On Saturday Pergunas went looking for gas. The gas stocks in the area were rapidly being depleted. This was partially because the fire fighters were using an inordinate amount of fuel pumping basements, etc. Pergunas made a deal with the owner of this one particular gas station that if the Township provided his station with a generator to power up his pumps, he was to give the Township's fire fighters and roads department priority to the gas. This was done from noon Saturday until about 6:00 p.m. when the station got their own generator. The City of Brockville was also extremely co-operative in making their gas reserves available to the Township.

Since the storm the Township has put in their own 500 gallon gas tank at the roads department, in addition to the already existing diesel tank.

As things went on the Township started to receive calls from the County. The Township began to have emergency measures meetings with all levels of government. Police, Fire, Bell, hydro, military were all involved. There was quite a wide range of people were involved. These meetings began on either Saturday or Sunday afternoon. The first two were at the Brockville firehall. The rest were held at the County building. From this point on, Pergunas attended about nine of these meetings in consecutive days. These meetings had mixed value.

Pergunas would leave these meetings at 8:00 p.m. and would go to his truck and using his cell phone would contact the radio station and just read off his notes from the meeting. The next morning he would call in again to make sure those people who had missed his report the evening before had another opportunity to hear what progress was being made.

After leaving the emergency measures meetings, Pergunas would go to the crisis centre and give briefings over what had happened over the last 3 or 4 hours. He would speak to the Fire Chief. Formal briefings collapsed after a few days because the key people were otherwise occupied so Pergunas ended up doing these briefings "on the fly".

He made sure that he touched base with everybody and made sure that he communicated this information back to the others who needed to know. There was no formal information distribution system because there wasn't the time.

The next 5 or 6 days became more of a blur. He was working 18 hour days with only 3 or 4 hours of sleep. He soon recognized that this was an issue but circumstances worked against his getting any more sleep. He wasn't alone in this. The Fire Chief was also working extremely long hours. For the most part the fire fighters were excellent. They were working on a rotation system. "Demands on people, demands on resources, demands on equipment were extraordinary".

The power came on in the village about 6 or 7 days after this began. Pergunas is not sure how much longer realistically they could have continued at the same pace. He thinks that there were a few people who were close to physical collapse.

As things developed he made sure that the roads were kept open all the way through. The roads department was great. The volunteer fire fighters were ensured that they would be compensated for all of their time as they were greatly needed in case of electrical fires as the hydro grid came back up. He says it's not appropriate to pay them their regular honorarium when they may be losing pay from their regular jobs. They were paid whatever their regular work rate was. Pergunas says he would do this again.

The job had to get done and money had to be spent. However, caution was not thrown to the wind. Nobody challenged Pergunas or the Fire Chief. As long as the volunteers had the confidence that the job was getting done, they were prepared to continue working.

By the second day the first big sweep was organized. This was key. Every search team was provided with a map, a tax roll list, and an information sheet to hand out to people. Every home was to be touched. Nobody was to slip through the cracks. The O.P.P. were also doing their own sweeps. Occasionally hot meals were taken out to homes. Nobody was removed from their homes. Nurses and stress councillors in the Township came forward to help.

A record was kept of all volunteers and people who donated resources. At the end of the crisis each one of these people received a personal letter from the Reeve. This was key as people have to be recognized.

Pergunas says that in times of crisis the infrastructure usually falls apart but the hierarchy and the lines of communication must be kept intact. They become absolutely critical. You must be prepared to improvise.

Communications was the biggest problem. Not just telephone but dealing with the upper government. Perceptions in what was the biggest priority, what resources were needed. The upper tier government was not familiar with the area. The presence of an emergency measures co-ordinator from the Province was initially a hindrance as opposed to an aid.

Pergunas says the experience was difficult personally as well. With a wife, two children, three cats, and a dog you can't just pick up and leave. They were heating their home with the fireplace. It did not begin to heat the house. Pergunas's mother-in-law lives down the street and had no way to heat her house at all. They loaned their kerosene heater to her. Pergunas was working the whole time (in addition to his responsibilities as Reeve). He says it was less fun as the days went by.

He says, "the days went by and we coped". "The community as a community did extraordinarily well". "It probably demonstrated the strength and resiliency of small townships". There was no big tax base to fall back on to access the big resources. They had to fall back on themselves. Front of Yonge tried not to have borders. Residents from Escott Township were given assistance and were welcomed into the shelter in Front of Yonge Township.

Pergunas felt it was really important that he was very visible to the residents of his Township. He would borrow the small truck from the fire department and do a very wide run through the Township. He went along the roads in first or second gear with the directional flashers on. He realized that people recognized the truck as a Township vehicle and this gave them some level of comfort. People want to be reassured. They want to see their local officials. "If your government doesn't work in an emergency, what good is it?" This criticism is being levelled at a number of other politicians. Everyone's reaction is heightened by the stress.

The Township formed their own relations with the army. They were used aggressively and were consulted numerous times a day. The help came from C.F.B. Kingston. They were kept out of the Brockville military loop. The helicopter came from the Coast Guard. The Coast Guard was offered through the United Counties and proved to be useful to do air searches of areas that were inaccessible by road.

Pergunas says he would be much more aggressive with the County level of government if he had it to do over again. He also would have liaised more with the Reeves in the surrounding Townships to get a clearer sense of the area wide resource base. An inventory would have been taken of resources in surrounding Townships. An area wide pool should have been set up. He feels they should have broadened their area of responsibility to improve the quality of life for some of the residents outside of their Township. This is what the upper tier of government is supposed to do but didn't.

The Township is looking at correcting the problems that exist with the phone system at the Township hall. As an internal system it was knocked out right away. They are also going to make sure their existing generators are maintained. The command centre may or may not have been in with the crisis centre. Acoustic dividers would have been useful. However, the crisis centre was visible being located in the same place.