IceStorm 98 Study

Until November 1997 Raymond Craig was the Reeve of Athens. With a population of just under 1,000 Athens, a small rural village just a half hour’s drive north of Brockville, prides itself in its’ collection of murals painted on the sides of buildings. These colourful murals painted over the past 30 years depict the history of the village over a span of 125 years.

The power went out at the Craig household at 10 minutes to 7:00 on the morning of January 8th. Shortly after RC was contacted by his councillors who described the situation as bad because of fallen trees and lines “all over the place”. There was no power to the village. On contacting the Fire Department, he discovered that they had been on duty since the previous night after returning from a fire at Lyndhurst. The power had gone out at 2:00 a.m. in the south end of the village that night and the rest of the village went out at around 7:00 a.m.

The fire dept. had kept busy by erecting barriers around fallen hydro lines and had started to pump flooded basements.

Around 8:30 the reeve made a tour of the village and “yes, it was bad”.

At 10:00 a.m. he received a call from the Anglican minister (Rev. David Robeson) and they met at the fire station to obtain a list of names of people who had an alternate source of heat. From this list they were able to determine who might be able to take people in from the cold. The Snowmobile Club who were still without power at this point were able to take a few. They did however, have a large stove going to provide heat. By noon on the 8th January, they had established their first shelter. The Valleyview Retirement Home had been evacuated in the afternoon of the same day.

On the following morning, January 9th, the reeve got out his Emergency Plan and discovered that it was up to him as Head of Council to declare an Emergency, which he did. He then notified the O.P.P., the Office of the Attorney General and Emergency Measures Ontario. He requested a large generator so that they could provide power to the Lion’s Hall in case they needed it for a shelter.

By this time the Snowmobile Club had organized a group of volunteers to help get things going at the shelter. RC had assigned another councillor the task of obtaining supplies of food.

By Friday, the reeve had “more or less some control of the situation” while realizing that the storm had covered the whole of eastern Ontario, “you pretty much had to rely to a great extent on yourself”.

Neighbour was helping neighbour cope with loss of heat and power by sharing generators where they could be found.

Early Saturday morning RC got his first call from EMO regarding a generator. A generator had been located in North Bay. The generator had been in storage for a couple of years and needed repairs. It was obvious to all that by the time the repairs could be made, the emergency would be over and the generator would not be needed.

That evening he was called by someone in Toronto who was able to provide him with the generator that he needed. RC called Tackaberry’s and arranged to have them go to Toronto to pick up the generator on Sunday and bring it to the Lion’s Hall by Sunday evening. An electrician would be waiting for them to hook it up.

After arranging for delivery of the generator, RC and the Fire Chief went to a meeting in Brockville where he met Randy Reid of the EMO. Just before leaving his vehicle RC heard a report on the radio indicating that there was power in Athens. He immediately called the station and told them that they “were jumping the gun a little bit ... the people in Athens better be prepared for another day or two”. On his way back to Athens, around 6:00 at night, “lo and behold there were lights on”.

As it was, the generator that was obtained from Toronto had arrived that afternoon and as RC observed “would have made a good boat anchor”. The unit was kept at George Tackaberry’s garage out of the weather and was shipped back to Toronto when things had quieted down.

From Sunday January 11th onwards the reeve had daily meetings.

RC referred to the unusual political situation which existed at this time. There was no warden. The suggestion was made that the reeves of Athens and Cardinal, both of whose jurisdictions had power restored to them, share the job. It was rejected because neither reeves were on county council due to the restructuring which had occurred a year ago. Howard French was appointed interim warden for 30 days until elections could be held. Eventually the other candidate for the position withdrew and Howard French was acclaimed the new Reeve of Leeds and Grenville.

RC maintained that the Emergency Plan had not been beneficial “at that particular time because it was more geared to calling in county support and so on”. The support that Athens relied upon were caught up in their own emergencies. Each municipality had to look after themselves.

Once the warden had been chosen things proceeded smoothly.

At the meeting of January 11, RC had brought back two generators which he had received from Waterloo.

At the height of the storm, the Snowmobile Club may have had about half a dozen people, including the volunteers, stay overnight. During the day, as many as 40 people would show up for a warm drink or meal.

At the meeting on the 11th, RC had approached the military and offered the Lion’s Club as a temporary billet. Since there were no shower facilities at the club, he chose to canvass the area with a request to assist the soldiers. This was not required however since the military was allowed to set up billets in the local high school. Reservists from the Guelph-London area settled into the area. They were quite helpful doing house to house checks in the township and some much needed brush clearing.

Later it was stressed that the troops were there to help out, not to be a source of cheap labour. A crew was hired as early as the Thursday to clear the streets of brush. This crew was supported by volunteers from the township who had brought their own saws to help out. The problem of where to put the brush was solved by taking it to the local rink where they have the annual Christmas tree bonfire. Another party was thus planned for the Spring. Quite a few dropped in to drag away the larger pieces for their own use.

Overall costs to the village were in the neighbourhood of $ 20,000.00. From the first provincial allotment, the village received $ 3,700.00. The second installment based upon an assessment formula amounted to $ 900.00. A recent announcement provided the village with a further $ 9,000.00. RC is confident that an additional $ 4,000.00 to $ 5,000.00 would be forthcoming. “All in all we didn’t do too badly”.

The Toronto Star made a visit to the village.

The local radio station kept their power up past their allotted time to keep as many people as possible informed of developments.

Two, or three weeks later on a Saturday afternoon, the power went out. A crew was re-connecting a unit and had interrupted the power. Although he knew that this was the case, “I had the awefulest feeling ... I think that if it had been off for a night or whatever I don’t know whether I could have stood it really, it was such a terrible feeling”. If it had happened again, he would have moved out of the country.

Luckily, RC was able to avoid any casualties. He was not aware of anybody who was in any real danger. A close watch was kept on friends and neighbours.

Although he had a hard time sleeping, the reeve didn’t detect any signs of stress in his colleagues or family. There were a lot of “tired looking faces” which was to be expected.

On an amusing note, RC told the story about a fellow who had worked for the village for 25 years and had just retired in September and had moved to Mallorytown. On the Monday after the storm he was wandering through the town and when questioned by RC as to what he was doing, he responded that he had ordered the storm because he knew that he would have nothing to do with it.