IceStorm 98 Study

I. RESPONSES SPECIFIC TO THE ICE STORM EMERGENCY

1. People wanted to know when their power was going to be back on so they could decide whether to stay in their homes or make other arrangements.
2. Snow plows were used to clear the roads of trees and branches. (This was made possible when the whole hydro grid in an area was shut down).

   “We were just plowing, literally plowing trees off the streets. It was incredible.”

   Mark Fluhrer, City of Kingston

3. Clearing branches off lines early minimized damage to hydro wires.
4. The services provided changed throughout the emergency.

   “The ever-shifting demands and predictions of severity around this disaster meant that we had to be prepared for almost anything.”

   Hospital Quarterly, Dave G. Hunter, Delores MacDonald, Linda Peever-Spring 1998

5. Social Services and Hydro were the lead agencies, not police and fire as is usually the case.

   “This was an unusual emergency because it happened so gradually – there were no policing issues in the usual sense.”

   Bob Napier, City of Kingston Police

6. Staff suffered more from fatigue than stress. There was little need for Critical Incident Response except for farmers (due to the stress created by the financial costs).
7. Door to door checks were done at all residences and a “white flag” campaign used (people in need were encouraged to tie something white to their mail box or an upstairs window).
8. Volunteers were instrumental in the response to the emergency.
9. Landing zones for helicopters were needed and had to be located, measured and marked (a 40-metre diameter circle is required).
10. Generators were the most sought after piece of equipment. Generator working groups were established at the Federal, Provincial and municipal levels of government.
11. Restrictions and requirements for transporting over-sized, over-weight and otherwise restricted items were waived through MTO to facilitate the emergency response.
12. Fuel was a critical commodity in short supply because it couldn’t be pumped. Fuel trucks were brought in to fuel equipment and fuel was taken from unused equipment.
13. There were a number of issues for people staying in their homes including food safety, water safety, and medication safety.
14. Grader ice blades were in great demand and were brought in from throughout Canada and the United States.
15. Milk went to the United States to be processed, which was unprecedented.
16. People were asked not to come into work and many businesses and factories shut down.
17. Criteria needed to be developed for when to force people to leave their homes and when to allow people to return to their homes.
18. In some areas what power there was, was shut down, so crews (hydro, fire, and roads mainly) could work without fear of being electrocuted. This greatly enhanced the speed of work, especially near the beginning of the emergency.
19. Wood chips created by chipping downed trees and branches are an environmental hazard and their disposal has become problematic.

    “MTO’s big task right now is to, safely and in an environmentally sound way, dispose of a half-million cubic metros of wood chips in eastern Ontario. That is enough to cover Highway 401 from the middle of Toronto to the Quebec border to a depth of 5 cms. There is hope that technologies, such as biomass conversion to energy, may emerge to use the chips as a resource. In the short term, MTO is researching the opportunities to stockpile the chips. MTO does not want to landfill or otherwise dispose of something that might be a resource.”

    Kathryn Moore, Ontario Ministry of Transportation

20. Stiffer than usual sentences were agreed to for people committing crimes during the Emergency. The word was put out through the media that there would be special “ice storm sentencing”.
21. “Ten Provincial Parks sustained a lot of physical damage. The public areas will be cleaned-up and made safe but much will be left alone to study the long-term ecological impact of the ice storm as an event that will benefit some species and hurt others. The ice storm is a research opportunity.”

    Marie-France Bernier, Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources

22. Downed transformers created PCB spills that were dealt with by the Ontario Ministry of the Environment.

    “As time passed and MOE heard from Ontario Hydro and some of the utilities, it was apparent that there were so many spills that their task became an exercise in keeping track of how many and where the spills were. From Bishop’s perspective, a PCB spill is usually contained and ‘given the nature of the weather… as long as we knew where (the spill) was, at some point, somebody could go and clean it up. It wasn’t an immediate emergency. It was more a case, in my opinion, of trying to keep track of the stuff.’”

    John Bishop, Ontario Ministry of Environment

23. People were reluctant to leave their homes especially the elderly. Many people did not want to leave pets behind.
24. Provisions for looking after pets were inadequate.