IceStorm 98 Study

Issue #4 – Our Increasing Vulnerability

Technology

More and more, we are dependent on electricity and on a constant supply of electricity. Electrical power is vital to equipment and processes new technology has made available to us.

“Just-in-time” delivery systems have streamlined manufacturing operations and reduced the need for warehouse space. However, if the supply of raw materials is disrupted operations must be shut down almost immediately because there is no stock on hand.

Computers are used to store vital information – maps; names, addresses, and phone numbers of employees and clients. How will employees and clients be contacted during an emergency if phone numbers and addresses are unavailable? The Kingston Community Care Access Center which provides home care to the elderly, the infirm and patients recently released from hospital, found itself without a client list during the ice storm and had to gather whatever information it could from rolodexes on employees’ desks. Eventually all clients were contacted, but the process took longer than it should have.

In the ice storm emergency, maps and civic address lists were needed to call in staff and to ensure that everyone was accounted for during the door-to-door checks that were conducted. Maps were also needed to keep track of the location of downed wires and transformers, which hydro lines had been repaired and the emergency access routes that were open. Out-of-town crews needed maps to get where they were supposed to be going. Up-to-date hard copies and back-up copies of information that is vital to emergency response should be kept at all times.

Hospital Restructuring

Patients are being released from hospital earlier than ever before and along with the chronically ill and the elderly are often dependent on electricity to run equipment that helps keep them alive and well. Without the use of the equipment they required, many people had to be hospitalized during the 1998 Ice Storm, creating a shortage of hospital beds. A shortage of hospital beds will continue to be a problem during some emergencies as more and more beds continue to be closed across the Province. It was fortunate that there were few injuries requiring hospitalization during the emergency or the shortage of hospital beds would have been even more acute.

Both Brockville and Kingston Psychiatric Hospitals were used extensively during the emergency as shelters. These facilities had full back-up power and extra space, which was created when former patients were moved into the community. The two hospitals are slated to close which would leave Kingston and Brockville without these valuable facilities when another emergency occurs.

Along with psychiatric patients, vulnerable people such as those with developmental and physical problems are being de-institutionalized and moved into the community. During emergencies, they are generally less able to look after themselves and often have special needs which must be looked after by emergency responders, putting more pressure on the response effort.

Thus the day-to-day operations of businesses and our health care system are becoming more and more efficient, but are leaving society without the redundancy of resources that proved valuable during the response to the ice storm emergency.

The Elderly

Many of the elderly, who are particularly vulnerable to cold temperatures, were reluctant to leave their homes during the ice storm crisis. Some did not want to leave their pets, an issue that clearly needs addressing; others were frightened, unwilling to leave familiar surroundings and unsure of the situation that awaited them at the shelters.

On the other hand, some older people were better equipped to handle the ice storm emergency than their younger neighbours. Howard French, Reeve of Rideau Lakes Township, noted that one of his disappointments was that “people under 30 ... didn’t cope as well as the ones over 65, -who could remember when they didn’t have power... and they knew how to look after themselves”. Yet, this also presented a problem. Because they felt they were coping well, the elderly became even more reluctant to leave their homes, a situation that could have led to more deaths from hypothermia (since one symptom of hypothermia is impaired judgment) if the weather had turned colder. As our population ages, developing strategies to help the elderly deal with emergencies will become more important than ever before.