IceStorm 98 Study

I work in partnership with the Commissioner, Lance Thurston. This is a new position that was created in the city. My job focuses on client services, customer contact, increasing customer service in the transactional areas of the city. Lance focuses more on the community development side. Within our portfolio we have Rideaucrest Home for the Aged, Social Services, Culture and Recreation (all of the arenas and pools). Social housing will become an issue when the downloading is completed later in the year.

How did the storm impact on your job?

Telecommunications falls in my area. Part of our business plan includes establishing a call centre so that municipal service calls can be directed into one location and thus gain some efficiency. When the storm hit, we realized that we were going to need a contact area for the public to call and make inquiries. We had no idea at that point how long the storm was going to last. I wasn’t at the official first meeting. I was at home with no power, no batteries in the radio, so I wasn’t sure what the extent of the damage was. I phoned Lance and said I wouldn’t be in. I went to Mac’s to get some batteries and it was then that I realized the extent of the damage. At the meeting on Thursday morning, it was decided to use City Hall as the central location for emergency services. Southeastern Communications were called in because we needed to set up some telephone access.

How about authority to act in all this? Was it clear that the chain of command was intact?

The chain of command was kind of amusing. My background is telecommunications but that was not Lance’s background. When he was given a directive by Gardner Church to set up a call centre, he said his knees buckled and he thought “Where’s Hickey?” He was quite relieved when I finally got to work but by that time they had it well under control. We had several telephone lines and a fax machine set up. We sort of developed a plan as we went. In the beginning everyone was just trying to get things organized, but as the days went on we sort of branched off and specialized in different areas. But we made sure that we manned the control centre. Then we began to be flooded with volunteers. The tourism office across from City Hall was transformed into a volunteer headquarters and it had a separate telephone number. We then moved the dry goods to a separate area as City Hall was becoming very crowded. No one assumed an overall director’s role. We worked around the clock, taking shifts and trying to get a little sleep. We relied on each other’s expertise. Communications was probably the most challenging job. We tried to make sure that everyone was aware of the latest information and made sure that the information we were giving out was consistent. We would get calls that a shelter was without power and that they were using their backup generator. Decisions had to be made about moving people from shelter to shelter. We didn’t have time to keep track of the people we were moving, so we had people calling from out of town trying to find information about their relatives, particularly elderly people. Because there were no lists of who was in the shelters, it was difficult to provide information.

Was money a concern?

No. Never for me. The Commissioner of Finance and Performance Management, Dennis Leger, was in a similar situation that I was. Initially, he was home and had no idea that there had been that much damage done or that we were going to be going very quickly into a state of emergency. It was probably one or two in the afternoon before Dennis was alerted to the magnitude of the situation. We were focused on getting people what they needed and helping people. When Dennis got to City Hall fiscal responsibility became an awareness issue for us and at that point we started to keep track of things. The cellular phones were a huge issue. They were needed to make outbound calls and to make connections with the shelters and control central.

What about communication with the people you were working with?

It was challenging to get a half an hour for someone to become available to run off to a private office and type a communications memo. It was difficult to even break away initially. You couldn’t walk through the hall without someone stopping you to answer a question, or the phones were ringing for you. It was pretty hectic. The news releases were a great help because you could circulate them so that you knew what was on the latest radio report.

What worked and what didn’t?

Initially it was just chaos. We learned by experience but we didn’t have time to communicate with each other. As time when on, you got more weary and it was harder to think and plan. Had we known at the beginning that things were going to go on for four or five days, I think we would have organized ourselves differently. Certainly we wouldn’t have started off doing sixteen-hour shifts. Some of us became sick. I ended up with strep throat. What was wonderful was the opportunity to work through it. We rose to the challenge and did a pretty good job. We got to work with different people, meet new people and appreciate what other people have to offer that we never would have had the opportunity to otherwise. It was a great team-building exercise.

Has it made the team work better afterwards?

Absolutely. There is a sort of a bonding that I don’t think ever will go away. We will always refer to the Ice Storm of 98 when we are working on other projects. Just before Christmas I received my emergency plan. We had had one from the utility in the past and I read it when I first started here and then put it in the drawer and never looked at it again. I received it in the mail and I thought I would read this on the train on the way to Toronto and then throw it in the drawer when I get back to work. At the time I was reading it, it never occurred to me that we would be using it within a week or so. There is a new emergency plan in the works. It has been prioritized to get us through until the end of March because with the fragility of the infrastructure we had to plan. We recognized the fact that if we had another occurrence it wouldn’t have to be nearly as severe to devastate us again. At one point we established a new control centre because we had to get back to work at City Hall. Bell Canada was very helpful. They came in and established an automated call distributor for overflow calls. Bell Canada also helped out in the establishment of the secondary plan when we set up in the old Pittsburgh Township municipal office on Gore Road. They set up a mini emergency centre there that carried on into the second week.

How was your private life affected?

I have a three-year old son. I live in the downtown area where there was no power. I decided to take him to my mother’s which was out Highway 38 north of the city. While she had no power, she did have wood heat. The roads were treacherous getting there. Just as I got there, her phone went out as well. I came back to town and went directly to City Hall and that was the last time I saw him for four days. It was bad because there was no contact — I couldn’t call my mother and she had no way of reaching me.

Any amusing anecdotes?

Amidst all the goings on at City Hall, people were still coming in wanting marriage licenses or to pay their bills. We used humour to help get us through. The joke around day two was how seedy we all looked and felt. We got to the point where we were trying to decide what would feel better, sleep or a shower? When I did get a break from work, I had to find someone who had hydro so that I could have a shower. We were so tired. Humour was about the only thing that kept us going. There was plenty of food. We sure weren’t hungry.