IceStorm 98 Study

Mike Purcell is a co-owner, with his brother John, of Purcell's Freshmart. Mike and John are the brothers of the interviewer and when Mike refers to his sister, he is referring to Mary. John was in Mexico during most of the emergency.

MP was working at his store on the Wednesday night—the night that the storm began. He says customers were talking about a big storm coming. Some people were already buying extra drinking water and stuff like that.

He says later on that same night in his own home they could hear the storm coming and branches falling. He thinks their power went out at 5 or 6 in the morning. They knew then that it was fairly serious but even at this time he had no idea that they would be without power for 7 days.

In the morning he headed out to work at the store. The power was already out at this time. There was a 2 inch coating of ice covering the door of the store and he had to get his neighbour’s hammer to hammer all of the ice off just to get the lock open. Things just went on from here. MP had to deal with all of the products and trying just to keep the store open. He still did not realize how desperate people would be for supplies such as water and other things like that.

MP says it was pretty tricky operating the store with no electricity. They used flashlights and they closed off coolers. Fortunately this was winter and a lot of their coolers are exterior to the store so as long as they kept the doors shut the product would keep fairly well. He knew that some of the display cases were in trouble. Some of these products were moved into the holding coolers. The drawers of the cash registers were left open and solar operated calculators were used for adding up the customers’ purchases.

There was no heat so everybody in the store was wearing jackets. No additional staff was called in at this time. However, since there was no school, a couple of students, who work at the store part-time, came in to help out. MP says it was a lot of extra work to try to keep the store open with no power. They had to help customers through the store with flashlights.

On the Thursday there was already a run on certain supplies. Drinking water, milk, and bread were in short supply. Since their drivers were having a difficult time getting to their store, MP says they started making trips to Kinston themselves to get milk and bread. John did most of this before he left for Mexico. MP says they sold what would normally have been a 3½ days supply in one day. This was the same with bread. Then there was a huge run on batteries and candles. Supplies that they don’t normally sell like camp fuel had to be obtained.

MP says his sister, Mary, make dozens of trips to Kingston and all over to get supplies for the store. MP says the daughter of a man he is on the fire department with and who lives in Mallorytown came all the way from St. Catharines with items that were needed in Mallorytown (i.e. batteries and candles). A friend of Mike’s came from Ottawa with a load of lamp oil for the store. She donated this to the store and asked Mike to give it to people. Candles were given to people as well. Candles were donated from the United Church in Mallorytown. These were also given out to people who needed them.

MP says his store in usually open in the evening but during the storm they had to close it at around 5 o’clock because it just got too dark. It did continue to open at the same time -- 8 o’clock. The store got a generator on the second day of the storm. MP says they were able to intercept a load of diesel generators that were on their way to Montreal. He was able to secure one for the store, the firehall, and the legion. He says they didn’t know it at the time, but this turned out to be a wise move. There were also 12 small gas powered generators that were obtained as well. These were utilized by the fire department.

A lot of the banks were closed so people couldn’t get money. This was not an issue at the store though. People were permitted to write IOU’s. The phone lines were working and for about 90 percent of the time the interact, (direct payment) was working. There was the odd time that the phone lines were down. There were some people that had no money. These people were permitted to have credit. All of these chits were collected after the storm.

The diesel generator ran the lights in the store, the cash registers, the furnace, and the water. It allowed the business to continue to run. Mike was able to get a hold of their main supplier—National Grocers and they were able to get them some products. The store operated for 7 days like this. The power returned to the store the following Wednesday.

Some of the store’s staff didn’t make it in. They had issues to deal with at home. He says that most of the part-time staff was able to help though. They worked really long hours. They did super job to help.

MP says on the second day of the storm the store received its usual order of groceries. Realizing at this time that the storm might continue for several days, he asked the driver of the truck to leave the refrigerated portion of the truck behind and he drove the tractor back. This was a life saver. They were able to keep a lot of products in there and so was the legion because they were running the shelter. The legion is right across the street from the store.

One of the store’s part-time boys volunteered at the legion after he had finished his shift at the store. He had a key to the refrigerated truck and was able to open it for the legion people. One night the refrigerated truck was tampered with. It was turned on to defrost which ran the temperature way up. This was discovered and was quickly fixed. Not a lot of products were lost. MP says diesel fuel was easy to obtain. One of the local farmers gave it to the store. The Reeve had also left instructions that the diesel generator at the store was to be filled daily.

MP is also a volunteer fire-fighter. His partner and brother John left for Mexico on the Saturday after the storm started. This is the same time that the fire department was called to duty. He worked both places. He worked a shift at the fire hall after the store closed.

Mike says the situation was exciting. He didn’t think at the time that he was stressed but had been told that he was “ a little short tempered”. He says you have to do what you have to do. “You deal with it and there is little time to complain”.

MP says early on it was just an adventure for people. They were coping quite well. After a few days you could see it was starting to wear on people. It was just a chore for people to try to cook a meal.

Mike says he got a number of thank you letters from people for keeping the store open. People also came to the store for information. It became a sort of gathering place.

If he had to do it again he would try to secure a bigger generator. He would get on the phones even more quickly to try to obtain the supplies that were needed.

Mike says the store sold over $5,000 worth of water over the first 3 days of the storm. The store was not left with many supplies after the storm.

MP says in the future the store may look at buying a diesel generator and having it wired into their electrical panel. This will have to be looked at to see if it is cost-effective.