What if …
That was the question facing Wellington County officials and the councils and staff in all seven of its municipalities on May 20 when a mock emergency exercise took place involving up to 150 people.
Staff knew some form of emergency was coming sometime this month, but had no idea what it might be. Incongruously, on one of the nicest and sunniest days of the year so far, they faced a five day scenario in early March with a huge storm that dumped buckets of snow on the north, freezing rain, and then gallons of rain in the south, leaving roads closed, hydro out, some communications in a mess, shortages of food and fuel to run generators, as well as several emergency health issues.
As the storm abated, a major warm spell hit, threatening flooding with all the melting snow.
Municipalities opened shelters for those unable to get home or stay in their homes. Ham radio operators were to set up communication links, and community partners such as the Red Cross, St. John Ambulance, Victim Services Wellington, Wellington Dufferin Guelph Public Health, the OPP, and local fire departments were all involved. Local snowmobile clubs provided emergency rides, and the OPP snowmobile patrol was busy.
Community Emergency Management Coordinator Linda Dickson said the next day she thought things went well, and that everyone learned a lot going through the exercise. She said that volunteers were recruited to act specific roles to test how people would react. Some of the actors got right into that.
Warden Joanne Ross-Zuj faced one woman who was “right in my face” over her problems. The warden said such roll playing is useful because in an emergency, people get frantic and will behave in ways they normally wouldn’t.
In Fergus at the Sportsplex, a man told officials he was due in Kitchener for chemotherapy, was broke, and couldn’t get there anyway because the roads were closed. Officials called St. Mary’s Hospital in Kitchener and eventually turned the man over the Community Care Access Centre for aid..
Another woman began berating officials who were registering people as they came to the shelter, interrupting their questioning of two men, and making the process even slower. Another man, from the local seniors’ drama club said he was the guy who wandered around bumping into people.
OPP Constable Keith Robb, stationed in Palmerston, said police were urging everyone to stay home. Police were trying to get plow operators to their machinery so they could be ready to clean off roads.
Ross-Zuj said some roads were open, but could be closed at any time.
Robb, too, was concerned about fuel supplies for generators, as well as food supplies. Four or five days into an exercise, those were both big issues.
He said the fire departments had been “just wonderful” by transporting people where they needed to be. He added police were charging those who refused to obey the Road Closed signs.
He also had concerns about how long phones would last, and that power outages knocked out land lines and internets.
Even the shelters had problems. Mount Forest was reported to be using its Sportsplex as an emergency centre, but word went out that Wellington Dufferin Public Health closed it because of an outbreak of chicken pox.
It turned out that by the next day, officials learned there had been a miscommunication, and Public Health had not closed the shelter, but concluded its part in the exercise.
Public Health emergency coordinator Tracey Croft said in an interview Friday that mistake, too, is being considered a valuable lesson, and everyone is now considering what to do if there is an outbreak of communicable diseases at a shelter.
Croft said the province set new standards for emergency preparedness last year, and the exercise allowed Public Health to do its own emergency exercise within the parameters of the county exercise.
“We learned about communication and particular procedures,” Croft said of the 19 people involved from Public Health. “It’s good to put staff into the field.”
Reporters were also asked to take part in the exercise to make it realistic as possible, asking questions and demanding answers.
Ross-Zuj said major concerns were keeping people at home off snow covered and icy roads. She said there was a major pile-up on Highway 401, which included a chemical spill of some sort that was threatening the water supply in Puslinch Township. She said it is difficult to issue a boil water warning when people did not have electricity. She noted people also had to be warned to not run their barbecues in their homes because of the noxious effects.
She said the county recently distributed an emergency booklet through the Wellington Advertiser, and she urged them to keep it and read it.
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Aftermath
After the exercise was completed, Ross-Zuj said it had been very worthwhile. She noted one thing she did not expect was how fatiguing it becomes when being inundated with calls and requests for aid, and she said the command centre in Guelph where she was stationed was simply bombarded with calls.
She added that councillor Walt Visser, her alternate, was at the command centre in Elora, and it was a great experience for him, too.
She was pleased on a number of counts. There were three successful conference calls between the county and municipalities, and everyone was kept up to date with problems and solutions as much as possible.
Designated scribes from each of the municipalities took notes about problems and how they were handled, with an eye to improvements where they are needed.
Dickson said the notes were still coming in, and there is a lot of work to be done, but, “Overall, I was very pleased. There was a lot of good learning going on.”
She said this exercise was focused mainly on key objectives such as communications (every head of council declared an emergency) but she noted some unexpected situations also came out of the exercise.
Ross-Zuj, too, was pleased at how things worked out, particularly the communications between the various local governments. There were officials from neighbouring municipalities observing the exercise, and they, too, will seek inefficiencies and help to make changes.
Ross-Zuj said people in the county should be pleased because, for the most part, the groups that are to provide aid are ready in an emergency, and now will be even more prepared.
Finally, what if there was an emergency during the emergency exercise?
Everyone had code words to indicate they were taking part in the exercise. Without those codes, people knew instantly there might be a real problem.
