IceStorm 98 Study

Mary Anne Beaudette is the Internal Communications Co-ordinator for Queen's University. She is responsible for communicating news to the staff and faculty at Queen's.

Anne Kershaw is the Media Co-ordinator for Queen's University. She is responsible for dealing with the external media.

Kershaw explains that the department has three main mandates. The first is external communications. The second is internal communications. The third is overall institutional promotion. The department is involved in bringing to the attention of the public and the media significant research and initiatives that are underway at Queen's. The department also provides an internal newsletter called "The Gazette". Beaudette says the purpose of the newsletter is to keep the internal staff and faculty informed of policies, decisions, and directions. The department works towards the goal of advancing the university's interests to friends, fundraisers, donors, and benefactors.

Kershaw recalls that her husband had taken a message for her that she didn't have to report to work on the Thursday morning of the storm. She says that it wasn't until she looked outside and saw "the incredible mess" that she had any reason why she had been told not to come to work. Her first reaction was that this looked really bad. She had no idea that this was happening overnight. She was also thinking that she could relax and enjoy the day off work. The power was off, however, she did have heat in her home because of the wood stove. The phone was working. She says that it wasn't long before she started getting media calls at home about what was happening at Queen's. People were asking if the university was open or closed. What was the situation in terms of how the university had been affected by the storm. She realized that it was going to be a very busy working day for her.

The media people calling her were from CBC in Toronto--CBC T.V., CBC radio. They were doing stories about the ice storm and wanted in particular to know what was happening in Kingston and at Queen's.

During the day, Kershaw continued to get phone calls from the local media and national media about what was happening and what the status of the university was. She was still at home. She received calls from Queen's administration who were "trying to come to grips with what they were facing". Kershaw made her home number and her whereabouts known to them so that she could assist them with whatever communications they needed to do during the day. She received numerous calls from members of the administration wanting to communicate to the media through her what steps Queen's was taking in terms of dealing with the ice storm.

Before this information was released to the media, there was communications back and forth between Kershaw and members of the Queen's administration about what they wanted to report to the media.

As far as Kershaw knows at this point in time, the power wasn't out but they were being advised from the beginning not to come onto the campus because it hadn't been assessed whether there were any dangers or safety measures that needed to be looked at before people came onto the campus. She decided that it was best that she continue to work out of her home at this point.

No press releases were released the first day. She did come into the office despite the warnings just to get her local media list. She just decided to do personal calls to the media from her home.

Kershaw says the next day the media interest continued. It was very intense. She found herself doing media calls and calls to the administration after dark by candlelight. The working conditions weren't ideal by any means at times. She kept in contact as much as possible with people at Queen's to keep abreast of the latest issues. What was happening in the residences? Were classes going to be cancelled or not? She tried to keep the media updated as much as possible.

Mary Anne says when you deal with internal communications, it's a very busy business to be in during quiet times. In situations such as the ice storm, all of the internal considerations kind of get put aside and a lot of the work is taken over by the external media.

She says she was awoken about 5:30 Thursday morning. It was absolutely grey out. Their birch tree was bent completely to the ground. The commentator on her battery operated radio said "downtown Kingston and Queen's campus looks like a bomb went off". Shortly afterwards they said the university was closed. She wasn't surprised. For the next few days she says her focus "was only minute to minute". She never looked more than a couple of hours ahead. There were so many personal considerations that took the front. She had no heat, no water, no phone. They were completely in the dark and cold. In addition, her basement was filling up with water.

Her Gazette deadline was Friday. She says that as soon as she heard the news there was no way she would meet the deadline. This could be dealt with later. At home she focussed on keeping the fire going and watching the basement fill up with water.

Mary Anne says that Anne Kershaw got in touch with her over the weekend. At this point, Mary Anne and her family had left their house and had moved in with friends in the City who had heat and lights by Saturday. Mary Anne says they had no sense of when their own power would be back on. Anne informed Mary Anne that there was going to be an early morning meeting on Monday at the university. Mary Anne did visit the university on Saturday to grab the camera and take some pictures. Some of the major routes had been cleared. She says on Monday, "you got a sense of a plan coming to fruition".

Kershaw says the university administration was caught in a dilemma of not knowing whether to announce the university was closed which would then allow the students to return to their homes outside the City or whether they could count on things being up and running again soon. This would allow the students back into their residences. Students were getting anxious about not knowing whether they should stay in Kingston or return to their homes.

The meeting held on Monday morning was attended by key administration. Kershaw and Beaudette were also in attendance. They were asked to attend so that they would have the most up-to-date information about the decisions being made about the facilities and any other considerations the university may have to deal with.

Mary Anne says Jack Henderson from Telecom Services was there as well. Out of this first meeting came a decision to put an ice storm emergency number on the Queen's home page and also a direct link to Queen's Today. This is the day-to-day new source on Queen's campus. It functions as an intra-net even though it's on the world wide web. This ended up being the number one form of communication between people outside of Kingston and people on campus. They received a tremendous amount of e-mail from parents saying they were so glad they had this service.

Any information that was new was put on the web site each day and sometimes each hour. "Almost by default, the world wide web became the communications tool between Kingston and the outside world" because so many people did not have phone service.

Kershaw says meetings were held for the next three or four mornings in a row until things started to settle down. Mary Anne says there was a lot of concern expressed at the university for people's personal belongings and people's personal situations. There was a real sense of "people will come back to work when their personal situations have stabilized". No extra pressure was placed on people. Press releases were worded very carefully i.e. Yes, the university is open for those people who are able to return.

Kershaw says the director of the department was out of the country at the time. She says the staff in the department pretty much took it upon themselves to be on call and take charge of things. They had to make themselves available for things.

Mary Anne says of her trip in to the office on Saturday that if you didn't look out of the window it was if nothing had changed. Her computer worked, the lights came on. She found this very strange. The downtown was a disaster area.

Kershaw found a complication with her office phone. It wasn't working so she was unable to change the message to alert the media to call her at home. She ended up coming into the office on Saturday to try to get her message established. She ended up having her calls forwarded to another phone. Kershaw was the main point of contact in the department.

The messages got up and running on the Queen's home page by Sunday. Monday the information became more specific. They provided information on emergency shelters, what areas of the downtown were still without power, about the stress assistance helpline, etc. The Gazette was delayed until the following Tuesday or Wednesday. The home page was updated several times a day.

Kershaw says the media set up hotlines in several areas. Ottawa and Toronto had these hotlines. Kershaw phoned the media and provided them with information to put on these hotlines.

Just prior to the ice storm occurring, Kershaw had booked a meeting for the Monday of the ice storm with people in the office to begin a discussion of a communication crisis plan. The meeting had to be cancelled because they were in the middle of a crisis! Later on when they got back to discussing the plan, they had lots of rich material, experiences to draw on in terms of anticipating what kinds of problems may be faced.

Beaudette says the meetings with the administrators and being included in these meetings and contributing to them was "invaluable". They were all on the same wavelength and all got the same information. She says that universities tend to be "hierarchical" and more often than not messages tend to get lost in translation. This kind of direct communication was really helpful.

The use of the home page worked well, too. Beaudette says that they had no idea that it would be that effective. It was really a lifeline for parents. Normally this home page is visited about 600 times a week. During the ice storm this count went up to 13,000 a week. Parents expressed their gratitude for this service. One parent said the home page was better than The Globe!

Beaudette says the team approach was very productive. Everyone was pulling together to achieve the same goal. They were all at the same information level. From these meetings it was determined amongst the communications department staff which information would be placed on the web, which information would be used internally, and which information would be put in a news release.

In the future Beaudette says she would like to have more instruction on who to contact should she run into a problem again with getting the Gazette out (i.e. a delay caused by another crisis). She says that in a way the decision was made because the technology needed to finish it wasn't available during the storm.

Kershaw says her biggest problem in the beginning was that she was getting messages and instructions from a number of different members of the administration. Sometimes the messages were contradictory in terms of what had been decided. This was a bit frustrating. She says that now that they have their crisis communcations plan in place, it will clearly identify who are the members of the crisis management team and it will be more clear to her as to who she should be dealing with. This is a crisis plan for the communications department that will be incorporated into the overall plan for the university. This is being worked on now. Communications will be included in decisions made at the top level.

Mary Anne noticed that as time went on, even though things were getting cleaned up around her she was getting even more and more fatigued. She says that being displaced from her own home "had a huge toll on her mental well-being". She could see it on the faces of other people around her. As time goes on people have less tolerance for errors and the information must be provided even more efficiently.

Mary Anne says that staying at her friend's home that was a very hospitable environment was a huge help to her and her family.

Anne was working around the clock and found this very stressful. She couldn't leave the house. She had to stay by the phone. She and her husband felt really grateful that they had a woodstove and water. They were able to heat up soup--just basic things that made things so much more tolerable.

Mary Anne says that she felt great being able to provide people with the information that she felt they needed. In a way it was a relief to get away from the pressures of home and having to deal with things that you basically had no control over. There is a great working environment in the office.

Kershaw says that their department got a lot of "kudos" for the way that they handled things. This was really gratifying. The department got a personal note from the principal congratulating them on how well they had done. She says the experience was exciting. "There was a real adrenaline kick just from being a part of it".

Beaudette says her department didn't incurr any expenses as far as damage. None were incurred in terms of overtime or staff pay or anything like that. There was very little missed staff time. Most people were back in the office by Tuesday.

Kershaw says she has been contacted by other universities doing follow up stories on the ice storm. Beaudette says the photos that she took were posted on the web site. They are still getting "several hits" a day.