IceStorm 98 Study

Tanya Hilgar ran the shelter "as outlined in the emergency plan," -- it was her job to oversee the shelter and its operations. Tanya Hilgar says that in the beginning it was a matter of getting people out of their own homes to work on the response to the storm.

The first thing Tanya Hilgar noticed was the tree on her car, which made her think that things were a lot worse than she thought when she went to bed. She realized she would not be getting out of her driveway for a day. Tanya Hilgar spent Thursday getting her own house together, candles and so forth, but her yard was a mess and it was still raining. She was basically inside the whole day. She did nothing work-related at all.

Friday morning Tanya Hilgar started trying to clean up her yard. John Trudgen called a couple of times from London because he could not get hold of anyone at the municipal building. Tanya Hilgar's father came to her place at mid-morning and relayed the message to her that she was needed at work -- which she did by noon. She packed a bag with clothes and so forth and prepared to go to work. Tanya Hilgar knew her responsibilities under the emergency plan and also knew that there were a lot of steps to be taken before they got around to her. The call from London was just a check in and to see if Tanya Hilgar had been in touch with anyone at the office. The land telephone lines were down but Tanya Hilgar's cell phone was working.

The first message came from Tanya Hilgar's dad, their phone was still working, and work called Tanya Hilgar's parents and asked them to contact Tanya Hilgar. Tanya Hilgar's dad drove down and relayed the message and knew for the first time that plans were under way.

Tanya Hilgar drove to the office and began organizing the response: two members of senior staff were already on hand (Gloria Crawford and Diane Hall) and they had an emergency telephone line set up, some small heaters and flashlights -- there was a small generator running outside -- the operation centre had just been set up. They began to prioritize according to the logic of "what is the most important thing to be done first" on the basis of the whole emergency plan.

Later that afternoon things started to come together with the assistance of the volunteer fire department. Tanya Hilgar worked with him, bringing in canned food, setting up the generator so that it was not a hazard to people. The phone rang off the hook all day. Tanya Hilgar began to contact volunteers -- starting with the librarian -- and they split shifts to operate the shelter.

Diane Hall had her "Red Book" out when Tanya Hilgar arrived at the operations centre. The township had done a mock emergency about a year ago, but the plan did not contemplate an emergency of this magnitude. Planning was very sporadic because they did not know the severity of the entire situation. Tanya Hilgar never thought she would shelter 15 people over the next couple of days. She was not thinking far in advance. She used the example of her parents and her self to project the situation for everyone, not thinking that some people did not have wood stoves -- at least for the first 24 hours. Later on she began to realize that the situation was more serious -- by Saturday afternoon it was starting to sink in. By this time she was exhausted and other staff members started to come in as they got their families sorted out. "By then it was ... wow!" The full extent of the emergency was starting to make itself apparent. Tanya Hilgar was listening to the radio and getting an idea of how extensive the situation was.

Tanya Hilgar did not think about her authority, everything was done in consultation with her senior staff (Diane & Gloria) on the basis of "it would be a good idea to do this." As far as wondering whether they were stepping over lines, it never came up -- but Tanya Hilgar thinks she made no major decisions other than buying groceries but that was not a major expenditure. "It was logical -- you gotta feed someone." Tanya Hilgar just went out and got what she needed and did not worry about money.

Tanya Hilgar does not recall the first conversation with either the Reeve or the Deputy Reeve -- it would have been later -- because she would be out of the shelter when the major decision makers were in the centre. She would be at home sleeping. She did run into them, and spoke to them, but does not recall the conversation.

Tanya Hilgar made a schedule for volunteers in the shelter and for staff on the evening shift, but it was crazy, though there was less activity at night once people went to sleep. Tanya Hilgar organized volunteers for the shelter during those hours. Tanya Hilgar had "an incredible number of volunteers." Tokens of appreciation went out to volunteers after the event -- 75-100 of them.

Decision Making: Tanya Hilgar does not think in terms of a decision hierarchy but on the basis of what needed to be done at the time. She does not understand the mechanism, or how it transpired. There was always a senior staff person with whom to consult. Tanya Hilgar was not in regular contact with them, but when major decisions had to be made there was a meeting at 1:00pm every day and Diane kept Tanya Hilgar up to date -- reporting to Tanya Hilgar from the 1:00pm meetings.

Telephones were running a lot quicker than in other areas -- and Tanya Hilgar had an emergency line -- because of the presence of the Leeds & Lansdowne telephone company. Tanya Hilgar also got a lot of communication through her parents. The volunteers were contacted via telephone and in any event there were a lot of volunteers that if some could not be contacted it was not a problem. Some Gananoque restaurants sent pizzas and so forth and this food was delivered to people in their homes by the volunteers and in this way a lot of communication was maintained. Tanya Hilgar worked directly with Diane, Gloria and the office staff and her volunteers.

Tanya Hilgar thinks that "a lot of things worked well" -- but in hindsight she thinks some things could have worked better. Communication, the operation of the shelter, but there is not one thing that stands out that worked really well -- although internal communication "was really great" particularly at shift-change time. The system they created to track generators was "a paperwork nightmare" -- but they did not lose any generators. They made a record to track the movement of every generator: out and back. The turnaround time was 15 minutes -- and none were lost.

The volunteers worked well. The community used the shelter and those who did not need it came to volunteer to help others. The shelter worked really well -- there were no problems: there were families staying with seniors, little kids left on their own, everybody got along, there were no problems compared to Brockville (drinking and violence). People followed the shelter rules and were content to do so. There was no way to separate seniors from young children, but that caused no problems from Tanya Hilgar's perspective. Tanya Hilgar says people were encouraged to "be wise" and to respect each other -- plus everyone knew each other because that's the nature of a small community.

Communication outside and beyond the central command area was less efficient -- people were busy all over Eastern Ontario -- and resources were stretched. Radio communication did not go ever particularly well. The split of the township meant that one half of the township got radio from Brockville while the other did not, so one side had more information to work with. It took a little longer to get information to those places that did not get radio coverage. The further from the Central Command post, the harder it was to communicate.

Sleep deprivation "was terrible." Tanya Hilgar was exhausted, out of her home, between the shelter and her parent's house, uneasy, worn out, ugly, the biggest problem was trying to be polite to everyone when she would rather be sleeping. Later the hours were reduced from 12 or 16 to 8 and that made it easier.

Next time, Tanya Hilgar would be sure to have all the senior staff online and scheduling things right off the bat. Getting the organization together faster. This event was complicated by the fact that the boss (John Trudgen) was out of town for the first couple of days.

Tanya Hilgar thinks that the public perception of the municipality has changed as a result of the emergency -- they are more knowledgeable and more willing to use existing services. Attitudes of the residents have changed, as have relationships among staff, closer or further apart -- people are more comfortable after sleeping in the chair next to one's boss. Attitudes and relationships have changed.

The emergency plan was useful to the extent that Tanya Hilgar knew who to contact and their phone number right way. But had there not been a plan lying on the desk in front of her she may not have taken her own down and consulted it. Of greater consequence, according to Tanya Hilgar, was the practice emergency the Township had done one year earlier -- which was fresh in Tanya Hilgar's memory. Tanya Hilgar knew who to contact and where to get her number.

Tanya Hilgar has personal emergency training (CPR & First Aid) but no other training relating to this event.

Tanya Hilgar had no direct contact with the federal or provincial emergency measures people. But she knows that the township got generators from them.

Tanya Hilgar had no direct contact with the media.

Tanya Hilgar says that it was a stressful event as people became tired. Tanya Hilgar thinks of herself as a "pretty happy person" but she "sure wanted to vent a few times" -- but she blames it all on not having enough sleep. Once people come to rely on you, however, they expect that to continue and as expectations persist it becomes more difficult. There was a two-year old in the shelter that greeted Tanya every time she came to the shelter "Tanya's back!" -- and that lifted her spirits. She wanted him to return when he left the shelter. Tanya Hilgar had no contact with her boyfriend -- who stayed with his parents in Brockville -- and they met a few times during the storm to check on their house. They talked on the phone once a day, but Tanya Hilgar was more often in touch with her immediate family (mother and father) where she slept. Tanya Hilgar says there was stress in her family, though her dad is a "workaholic" so he just ran his generator around on his truck. Her mother felt isolated and experienced a lot of stress until she started going out with her father on his daily runs. Tanya Hilgar's mother was "stressed out and worrying about everybody else."

Tanya Hilgar gives credit to the efforts of the volunteers who could not do enough to help everyone -- particularly the younger boys who responded to every request from Tanya Hilgar and her colleagues. "They were a big help to me" riding around in the trucks with their dads and helping deliver generators.

Tanya Hilgar has no information on costs but directs us to Gloria.