IceStorm 98 Study

Sally Kane has 8 years with the ambulance service. She has been coordinator for one year. She and her husband have a dairy herd on Wolfe Island.

Sally Kane realized by the third day -- after the power went out -- in a meeting with the mayor and a councilor (and Bill Stevenson and perhaps Terry O'Shea) that it was time to set up a shelter. Hydro had not been over to inspect the damage until the second or third day. Sally Kane et al. went on the information that there was mass destruction of hydro poles on the island and that it could be two or three weeks before power was restored. By Monday morning the fire-hall became the shelter. MNR, OPP (Joe Farish) arrived by that time and began to set up a command post (Monday) and by Tuesday morning "the place was just rocking." Over the next 5 or 6 days the volunteers continued to stream in and generators started flowing in as well -- a coordinator was needed (Joe Farish delegated this job to volunteers). There were hundreds of generators coming onto the island as well as the equipment to use them. A volunteer took over running the kitchen and cooking meals. The shelter had no cots but did have blankets -- so it was more of a day shelter where people could get food and supplies before returning to their own homes. Matt Myers (MNR) decided that Sally's volunteers would do house checks on a daily basis. Sally Kane drew up a list of people who did not have heat in their houses -- and this list grew smaller as more generators came onto the island. Sally Kane dedicated 10 or 20 people going door with large bottles of water (donated from CCJV) -- and food streamed in from grocery stores and the Red Cross. Dry cereals, soups, coffee and tea -- most non-perishable -- streamed in and Sally Kane and her volunteers made up boxes to be distributed to elderly people.

Blankets came from the EMS system (Ted Harris) from Central Ambulance communications Centre (Hotel Dieu) -- Harris called Sally Kane on Tuesday and asked if Sally Kane needed anything and Sally Kane requested a generator for the emergency services building where the shelter was set up. Harris got a generator for Sally Kane as well as the Emergency Services Disaster Unit from Belleville which is supplied with emergency articles (blankets and oxygen). That unit stayed with the command center for ten days.

There were no calls to Sally Kane's service during the emergency. Sally Kane thought that there might be a number of calls because of people slipping on the ice -- but none of that happened. Trees and hydro poles were down all over the island and Sally Kane was not relishing the prospect of trying to get into remote locations under those conditions.

One week after the power went out (Wednesday) Joe Farish got a call from Sault Ste. Marie announcing that a mobile food unit was on their way to Wolfe Island -- to feed 40 or more hydro workers and residents on the island. That unit arrived Wednesday night and set up for 9 days at the command post. The 11-member volunteer staff prepared meals and responded to emergencies -- they were well trained. Sally Kane had a surplus of resources.

Sally Kane's authority was "strictly governed by the mayor" and she followed the orders of Joe Farish and the Mayor. Sally Kane initiated the house checks. Matt Myers and the emergency group -- including Brenda Niles and Marilyn Hawkins -- met daily from Tuesday twice daily. The MNR would issue weather reports and usually there would be a rep from Hydro who would update on progress and report back at the end of each day (5:00pm meeting). Sally Kane says that the OPP pulled Joe Farish when about 60% of the island's power had been restored.

Sally Kane did not think about money. Everything was donated.

Sally Kane's main concern -- with no phone lines -- was the 911 system. That was her first problem. Ted Harris and Sally Kane dealt with it on their own as their first priority. 911 was down for approximately a day and a half. The first night the 911 system was out there were a couple of guys from the CAF to monitor the temporary lines installed by Bell. Preservation of life was Sally Kane's first priority.

Sally Kane has a radio in her vehicle and Sally Kane has her own cell phone. Sally Kane also did a lot of face to face communication -- then she got a portable radio from MNR when they arrived. So Sally Kane has two radios and a cell phone. Communication was "done exceptionally well." Communication between Wolfe and Howe Island was not great until the MNR got there and built up their system. Sally Kane says that Pat Norris (Dep. Mayor) took over Howe Island.

A media representative was provided by the MNR to coordinate media announcements (i.e. gas death from a generator down by the Thousand Islands Parkway). Sally Kane was concerned that the door to door checks were missing people and they were not coming into the shelter more than once every couple of days. The media rep prepared warnings which were broadcast to the media (radio & television). The mayor did regular updates of the progress of recovery. Sally Kane had no direct contact with the media.

Sally Kane worked principally with Matt Myers (MNR) and Joe Farish (OPP). Joe Farish accelerated the organizational capacity of the recovery operation.

Sally Kane says that people were more concerned with taking care of their own operations -- Sally Kane has 80 head of cattle and milks 37 of them -- and these immediate problems overwhelmed her. She was on call for 72 hours. Her paging system and cell phone were her only link to the outside, but the paging system went down with the hydro. The first 48 hours were chaotic. They shared a generator with another farmer, but Sally Kane could not keep water running because they had to share it with the cattle -- so Sally Kane evacuated to her in-laws with her three kids (10, 12 & 14).

Sally Kane says her volunteers and service "worked extremely well." There were more than enough volunteers and they were competent and helpful. Sally Kane sent them out in teams of two, doing house checks while Sally Kane coordinated their activities. Some people from the Red Cross also volunteered and reported back to Sally Kane. They did not come back after one day -- feeling that Sally Kane had the situation under control.

Sally Kane says that there were "problems here, there and everywhere" but she cannot recall any major things that did not go well. The shelter ran well -- but there was no access to some residences. The Roads Super would solve problems as fast as he could. The twice-daily meetings really moved things along. Problems were taken care of as fast as they could be identified.

The twice-daily meetings were initiated between the MNR ("really great"), the mayor and Joe Farish. Sally Kane says that when her fridge burnt out (from a power surge) the MNR helped her tote it outdoors.

Biggest problem: Sally Kane says that organization of her volunteers -- finding qualified people to do medical assessments -- was her biggest problem. The combination of volunteer and residents worked well, but the lack of phone lines made it difficult to get hold of people. Sally Kane did not go wanting for volunteer resources.

Frontenac Islands is in the process of drafting a new emergency plan (May 4th). In the event of another storm she would go first to the plan. Sally Kane would like to set things up faster than last time.

Sally Kane says that checklist information on hypothermia and CO could have come from the MNR earlier -- then it could have been sent out with the volunteers when they were doing the door to door checks. This would have made the job of the volunteers easier too. The elderly wanted company and often pulled the volunteers in for "tea" -- which slowed things down. Sally Kane had no contact with her volunteers while they were out doing their jobs. She would like to have a radio for each group.

Sally Kane came on the service in 1980 and did the St. John's ambulance first response training (4 months) and mandatory courses within that program. She has done basic trauma life-support -- offered through the ministry -- and a critical stress deep breathing program. She has done the defib program and is planning to do another program this fall -- as well as all the programs required by the ministry of health. She has Basic Life Support (December 1997) and ever onward. Sally Kane has not done any of the emergency management courses like the ones at Arnprior. She is an on-call duty officer which means that she is responsible for staffing around the clock, and she manages a small staff and a 4 member board.

Sally Kane "got a lot of stress." She is currently enrolled in college in Belleville and taking classes through the Bancroft campus. She did not attend classes during the ice storm. Sally Kane says that as time went on she could see stress accumulating around her. She says the Ministry sent out notices on stress and the memos were the most popular on the notice board. The lady who organized the kitchen area was very seriously stressed out, smoking and drinking coffee -- too much perhaps. Sally Kane says she fell behind on her sleep -- all of this in the context of just having recently buried her 19-year old nephew who died weeks earlier, and her sister-in-law's death from breast cancer. Sally Kane has a thyroid problem and it gave her a lot of trouble; Heart palpitations, numbness in fingers and shaking. It was hardest after the funeral for her nephew, she had no time to grieve that event before being plunged into the ice storm -- which lasted longer than it should have. "Overall, personally -- within our own family, it was a tough situation."

Sally Kane says that the management of the release of information from the Hydro crew (Ken from Walkerton) -- even after the MNR moved out he was coming to the meetings and keeping the emergency group up to date. Sally Kane was able to relay good news to the residents as it came to her. Sally Kane says that the fluctuations in the weather meant that the wind was blowing all the time so that it was not a great work environment for hydro workers. Sally Kane thinks that the management of the situation -- after it was initially done -- was just remarkable."

Sally Kane says that the donation of generators to farmers from Western Ontario "was remarkable". Sally Kane drove to Brockville to pick up a generator from somewhere around London and the owner of the unit was kind and generous. Sally Kane thinks that the generosity of people was unbelievable.