IceStorm 98 Study

Issue #1 - Understanding the Consequences of a Prolonged Power Outage

Unless one has lived through a long power outage, it is difficult to appreciate how life changes when electricity is not available. Coping without power during the 1998 Ice Storm revealed only too clearly how dependent we are on electricity. Homes were suddenly left without heat, lights, television, radio, stoves, microwaves, and hairdryers. In rural areas, where water is obtained from wells with electric pumps, there was no running water to bathe or flush toilets. At the beginning of the emergency, people melted snow and ice to get water (a slow process) and purchased drinking water from stores. Later, water was often obtained from local fire halls where generators had been installed. Basements flooded when sump pumps did not work. Many exhausting hours were spent baling water. When the water did rise, it damaged floors, walls, and furniture. The potential for damage to furnaces with long-term loss of heat in winter raises frightening possibilities. Food spoiled when it could not be kept frozen; and refrigerated medications and vaccines were ruined.

Communications were almost non-existent in some places, and disrupted in most of the study area. Finding out what was going on was difficult: televisions and electric radios were useless; telephones did not work when lines fell or when back-up batteries at switching stations were depleted; some newspapers were not publishing; and cellular phone and radio towers without back-up power could not transmit signals. Sitting in the car with the engine running became a way to get warm and listen to news reports.

Farmers without generators could not water livestock or milk dairy cows. Milk processing plants could not accept milk and over 10,000,000 litres were dumped in Ontario alone. Some farm animals died of exposure when barns could not be heated.

Driving became difficult when streetlights were not operating; rail lines were shut down when crossing signals, operating signals, and switches were no longer working; and fuel became a scarce commodity as gas could not be pumped without back-up power.

Banks and automated teller machines were shut down and there was a shortage of cash. Direct debit systems were not always operational and some stores began to accept I.O.U.’s. In areas where drug stores were closed, it became difficult to obtain prescription drugs.

Without computers, it was impossible to access vital information including phone numbers and addresses of emergency responders and vulnerable people, civic address lists, maps, and prescription information. Remote monitoring equipment was not transmitting data, requiring physical visits to crucial sites. Many schools, businesses, offices, and industries were shut down. A way of life we take for granted ceased to exist.

Inconveniences were severe (as one interviewee put it, “it was the mother of all inconveniences”). People experienced many stresses including:

a) trying to stay warm;

b) trying to cook and eat nourishing food;

c) trying to do dishes and get clean;

d) fatigue;

e) long work hours;

f) harsh working conditions;

g) disruption of normal routine;

h) coping with children home from school;

i) coping with additional people in one’s house;

j) living in someone else’s home;

k) looking after neighbors, friends and relatives;

l) isolation;

m) dealing with uncertainty and lack of information (radio, television, newspapers, telephones, cell phones, and mobile radios were all affected to varying degrees);

n) loss of income; and

o) unanticipated expenses.

For a period, many essential items were difficult or impossible to find. Generators were in high demand and soon could not be found in stores within hundreds of miles of the disaster area. Also in short supply were batteries, flashlights, candles, kerosene, naphtha, lamp oil, wicks, propane, firewood, drinking water and fresh food such as milk, bread, eggs, vegetables and fruit.

Still, at the end of the emergency, people were buoyed by the acts of courage and generosity they had seen and experienced; and by the sense of community that was so strongly felt throughout the crisis.