IceStorm 98 Study

Vladimir Weisser is the Manager of Technical Services for the Public Works and Transportation Department of the City of Kingston. This is a new position which was created to meet the needs and demands of the new amalgamated City. His responsibilities are far reaching and range from traffic design and engineering, survey work, Life Cycle Management of the various City owned sites, to management of the roadways, capital projects underway, and playground and park facilities throughout the City. He has a staff of 20 individuals to assist him in his duties.

On the morning of January 8th Vladimir Weiser (V.W.) arrived at work aware that this was not going to be a normal day.

“The first task that this unit was asked to perform was to go out and check and monitor and get information about the extent of the damages which had been done last night... we divided the employees who were able to come to work that day...(we had two-thirds of our staff....), into groups of two and divided the worst hit area which was the old city of Kingston... and took some photographs of the damage and recognized where the power lines were down, where possible dangers were... the situation was changing actually constantly... but we were able I think within a couple of days or two and a half days to cover the entire city and record the material where the damages were... we also were asked to prepare newest maps of the area which then were handed to different groups for their use including police and other groups who were involved in this effort...”.

Over the next several days his group prepared maps which indicated the location of shelters, and high damage areas throughout the City. This task was made a bit easier due to the fact that he had access to maps which had been previously designed for the City of Kingston and the outlying Townships. Information was continually being processed and updated on the master copies which V.W. kept in his office.

Information and maps were passed on to crews who were in charge of clearing debris from roadways and fallen branches and limbs which had collapsed onto hydro lines. Hydro, cable and phone lines which were lying on the ground had also been located and ‘mapped’ by his team for removal by the emergency road crews. Roads which had been identified as being hazardous to traffic were subsequently cordoned off by police and road crews.

“After the first few days after the immediate danger was eliminated then we concentrated our effort on the necessary cleanup to eliminate any potential hazard from those limbs hanging from the trees which might fall down on electrical wires or telephone or cable T.V....”

On the first day after the storm had hit, V.W. concentrated his mapping efforts on the ‘old’ city where the damage was greatest. He had a limited number of people to complete the survey and time was of the essence in relaying this information back to the authorities at City Hall. It became evident to him that the devastation was extensive in the downtown areas of the City, so he concentrated his efforts in this section of the City. The next day he widened his area of inspection to include the Townships which had been amalgamated into the ‘new’ City and had not suffered as much as the downtown.

His activities during the storm were confined solely to supplying maps and information to the authorities at City Hall. “This was our main responsibility throughout the storm because the staff which are in this department doesn’t deal with the day to day outside operation ...:. the use of this staff was (limited) to certain tasks...”.

Since his staff has neither training nor certification which allows them to use certain equipment such as chain saws or chippers, he did not want to jeopardize their safety or place them in hazardous situations. He had enough work to do as it was.

In the first couple of days he operated on a 24 hour basis in order to keep information current and supplied this information to City Hall which was urgently needed. Shifts were established to ensure that everyone got some rest since they knew that it was going to be some time before things returned to normal.

Staff who put in long hours did not request overtime pay which they were certainly entitled to under the collective agreement. According to V.W. there was no complaints from staff whatsoever.

At first residents were in a co-operative frame of mind but this changed drastically over the coming days as it took longer to restore power to the City. People were, understandably nervous and upset about the delays.

“Residents and city employees were very willing and eager to help... the city employees (coped) very well throughout the entire (emergency)... but we have found that some of the residents after several days without power... started to be a bit nervous or unhappy about the situation...”. The longer it took to restore conditions to normal the more anxious people became.

V.W’s group was quite set apart from the other organizations that were battling the storm. There were specific tasks which had to be accomplished - but these tasks were part of their normal operations. He reported to his supervisor, Brian Sheridan, and would respond to requests from Gardner Church which occurred from time to time, but “we were sort of on our own”.

Was money a concern?

“... money wasn’t as important to make a decision...”. The main issue was to try to make as much of the City as safe as possible for people to get around. Whenever it was necessary to spend extra money, “we logged all the expenditures “ which were passed on to Brian Sheridan’s office. As an aside V.W. observed that they had used up half of a year’s supplies of ink and paper in the first few days of the storm.

As V.W.’s department provides a specific service to the City, the question concerning authority and decision making did not arise as much as it would be more of an issue with the front line organizations.

In your opinion what worked well and what didn’t work well?

“...what worked well was the enthusiasm of the employees and all the storm teams... I think the things that could be improved next time... there were many groups of volunteers who tried to help but were lacking leadership or appropriate scheduling of work...and direction”.

V.W. received many calls from individuals and companies from Toronto and other parts of Ontario offering to help clear away the debris - for a fee. “... I was sort of surprised that these people when they heard about the ice storm in this area of Ontario - they came here thinking that they could make money on this situation...”.

What would you do differently next time?

“I think that we’d be better organized to get more paper and more supplies... or where to get them from...”.

Communications were very informal and without interruption during the storm.

Although he was aware of the Emergency Plan for the City, it was more the responsibility of his boss, Brian Sheridan. He wasn’t really involved in any part of the plan. In the event of a future emergency he would still prefer to remain at his present office because of the availability of supplies and the specialized equipment required for his work. If emergency planning training were to be offered to him he would certainly participate since there is no way of knowing what extra duties would be assigned to you in an emergency situation.