IceStorm 98 Study

Volunteers

One of the remarkable things that happened during the ice storm was the fact that volunteers from every part of the community poured into City Hall, asking to be put to work in any capaCity where they were needed. The mayor’s office estimates that as many as 250 to 300 non-City staff donated their services during the ice storm, but the real figure will never be known because the command centre was too hectic for anyone to keep track of the numbers. The mayor’s estimate includes ‘professional’ volunteers, such as non-career fire fighters and auxiliary police officers -- many of whom are paid a small per diem but who put in much longer hours than usual during the storm -- and private citizens who walked in off the street asking how they could help.

‘Ordinary’ Kingston residents proved themselves to be not so ordinary by bringing in pies, offering their services as drivers, and helping out in the call centre. One taxi driver ferried people around for days, saying he wouldn’t leave the EOC or stop his free service until the emergency was over. An unemployed man who happened to have a wheelchair-accessible van made it available to anyone who needed it from the first day of the crisis forward. Another man who had just moved to Kingston after years of running a small community newspaper offered his editing skills to the communications group, which enlisted his help with press releases. People who witnessed the influx of bodies describe it as one of the most heartening things they’ve seen in years.

This outpouring of community spirit was not without its down side, however. After struggling through the first 24 hours with too few volunteers, the City suddenly had an embarrassment of riches, and faced the problem of deploying people or turning them away. Most people sincerely wanted to help with the relief effort, but some were there for the heat and hot coffee. There were long waits as would-be volunteers milled around City Hall, waiting for an assignment. Others were given a task and found that it was already being carried out by someone else. Mark Segsworth, manager of public works and environment, did turn some volunteers away, and said he felt badly about it. But he said his job of keeping the roads clear was complicated enough without having volunteers arrive at the City yard uninvited and unannounced:

People were just showing up, and you don’t want to tell them ‘We don’t want your help,’ but that was the last thing we really wanted to do was just take volunteers out and put them in trucks ... And they were being sent there. Nobody told them that we needed help. There were all kinds of assumptions made.

... People were kind of getting put out, too. You know, they felt ‘how can anyone turn down me helping them?’ But it was confusing enough trying to get our people doing what was the most effective thing at that point in time, without throwing in a bunch of volunteers. We didn’t really want to take on that responsibility.

At first nobody in particular was greeting volunteers who came into City Hall, and this created problems of its own. As the numbers grew, volunteers began to crowd the regular City staff who were trying to run the core of the emergency response. The first floor call centre was particularly affected by this, as Tracy Newton and her crew struggled to hear callers over the din outside the clerk’s office. By the second day it was decided that this would not work, and all volunteers were sent across Ontario Street to the Tourist Information Office (now known as the Visitor Welcome Centre) to check in and be given assignments.

From comments volunteer co-ordinator Paula Nichols made at the City’s debriefing in June, it seems clear that the City could have used a plan geared specifically to deploying large numbers of volunteers -- though of course no one knew how long the emergency would last, or had any idea how many people would donate their services. Ms. Nichols talked about the need to link offers and requests, about the difficulty of having a volunteer centre that was physically separate from both the EOC and the shelters, and about the need for a clear breakdown of the City’s responsibilities vis-a-vis those of other agencies and organizations, so that volunteers could be directed to the right place. She also raised the issue of liability, saying there should be an agreement in place ahead of time (for any future emergency) that answers any concerns about volunteers being held liable for mishaps that occur while they’re performing jobs on the City’s behalf. And she pointed out the sad fact that the City couldn’t take the risk of accepting prepared food and baked goods. As wonderful a gesture as it was to have people bringing in pies and cookies and all manner of other food for EOC staff and outdoor workers, she said, the City couldn’t take the chance that any of it was spoiled or otherwise dangerous.

Screening of volunteers also became an issue. At first there was no screening being done at all, until Tanie Stacie of the social services branch called from a City shelter to say she had concerns about one person who was sent to her. Based on this, Lance Thurston had his social services people give some direction about how to screen volunteers, what to look for, what questions to ask, and how to get a sense of the person coming in. From this point on, all volunteers were put on a registry with their phone number and address. The people doing the screening (such as Ms. Nichols and Ann Marie Harbec) were not trained social workers capable of doing a full personal assessment, but they received some advice, and did their best to screen out anyone who might be intending to rob, assault, or otherwise harass City residents or any of the people using the shelter.

Volunteers were also under the watchful eye of various professionals out at the shelters. All of the shelters were staffed by social workers, some parks and recreation people and some members of the Red Cross, Mr. Thurston pointed out, so there should have been enough trained people at all the shelters to weed out any problematic or potentially dangerous volunteers. “If somebody didn’t really look like maybe they should be there,” he said, “they were very subtly and gently taken aside and talked to, and either reassigned or encouraged to go home.”

At least one person who could have been a problem got through the cracks. After the EOC had moved out of City Hall (i.e., some time after Jan. 15), police recognized a volunteer who was working at the Gore Road building and informed City officials that he was ‘known to them’ in some capaCity. Police wouldn’t specify what the man was known for, but advised City officials to remove him from the EOC. Mirka Januskiewicz recalled that the volunteer was gently told his help was no longer needed, since the emergency was winding down and they no longer needed as many drivers. This was true, but it was not the real reason he was being dismissed, and he may have known it, because he reportedly got upset.

Ms. Januskiewicz and Lynne Jordon have suggested that future volunteers be subjected to more systematic scrutiny by having their names run through a police computer before their services are used. The knowledge that this kind of screening system was in effect might be enough to deter criminals from even offering to volunteer, while those who did offer could be eliminated from the volunteer roster. Though this might seem like an invasion of privacy or a less than gracious way to greet the generosity of volunteers, Ms. Jordon said it’s important to weed out those few people who could be planning to re-victimize the people who are in need of emergency services. Ms. Jordon and Ms. Januskiewicz recommended that Human Resources be put in charge of making sure that there is a screening system ready in the event of another emergency.

While many people offered their services, other volunteers were mobilized in a more systematic way to carry out specific tasks. David Cash, Director of Information Technology for the Kingston Economic Development Corporation, was brought in to coordinate a late night ‘telephone tag’ operation that was designed to persuade City employers to reduce their operations or close their doors on Friday, Jan. 9. It was the height of the storm, outdoor crews needed all the working room they could get, and the City was trying to reduce the number of people out on the streets. Mr. Cash received the request from Gardner Church late Thursday evening, and immediately began rounding up a group of volunteers that included some of his own staff, managers of the Chamber of Commerce and the Downtown Business Association and other local business people. They came in, gathered up some directories and data-bases, and proceeded to call people in the middle of night. During those calls, Mr. Cash and his crew were also able to ask for specific donations and broker offers of help. The municipal control group, for example, had indicated that it needed hard hats and work boots for volunteers to go out and help clear brush, and some of the big companies contacted during the telephone tag operation agreed to help out. At about 5 a.m., Mr. Cash began taking deliveries of hard hats, work boots, gloves, and had collected a number of other offers of assistance from some of the City’s largest employers.

With so much activity going on in the EOC and with the response being made up as the emergency unfolded, it was inevitable that volunteers would not always be deployed in the most efficient ways. Terri Willing, the City’s manager of building and bylaw enforcement, recalled that two people would often be assigned to a job, in case one person got sick, but that those two people were not always told about the overlap. For example, both Mr. Willing and Mike Schultz of the Kingston Police Force (and of the Princess of Wales Own Regiment) arranged for volunteers to unload the cots at the armouries, and wound up with far too many volunteers for the job. At another point, Mr. Willing arranged for a volunteer to meet a convoy of tractor trailers at Highway 15 and 401 to escort them to the armouries, but somehow the tractor trailers made it to the armouries without the volunteer’s help. “Communication was one of the fundamental problems in coping with the ice storm,” Mr. Willing said.

Lance Thurston said he is not sure how the system could have been designed to make even better use of volunteers, but he thinks they were wise to separate the volunteer reception centre from the emergency operation centre, and would do that again in future. “That, plus a communication plan to get the message out to the public would certainly [help].” Another useful strategy would be to pre-identify tasks that could be carried out by volunteers, he said. But he said every emergency is so different that only a limited amount of useful pre-planning can be done. Everything else must be invented to suit the situation. At a minimum, he said, the City could divide people into skill sets, such as those who can drive, those who can lift, those who can move meals and those who can move animals.