Ops Centre played key role during tornado drama

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Posted By OPS CENTRE

Posted 1 month ago

Like most people, Kevin Foster felt the earth shake at 1.41 p.m. on June 23.

And like most, Midland's fire chief -at home on vacation -quickly called family members, then went on the internet to learn that a 5.0 magnitude earthquake had struck the Ontario-Quebec border and that no one had been seriously injured.

Less than five hours later his voice pager activated notifying him about a series of 911 calls to the Midland Police Service which dispatches the fire department.

Foster's vacation was about to end.

As he drove along King St., first responders -firefighters and police -were already on the ground helping the tornado victims and assessing what had happened.

"It became evident that we needed to know what we were up against; that this was an event that was going to require some significant co-ordination," he said in an interview. Foster -who also serves as Midland's co-ordinator of emergency management -instinctively requested that the town's community control group be alerted.

The group, which includes the mayor, deputy mayor, chief administrative officer, police chief, most department heads and a PUC representative, is responsible for co-ordinating the town's response in an emergency.

Working in a makeshift "emergency operations centre" on the second floor of fire department headquarters, the control group members quickly collect their banker's boxes; a kit containing paper, staplers, contact lists, maps and resource materials needed to deal with their specific area of responsibility.

* * Each department head does what they normally do on a daily basis, Foster explains, except parks and recreation which assumes a "community needs" role because the North Simcoe Sports and Recreation Centre is a designated evacuation centre.

As information from first responders flows to the operations centre, it is used to create a picture of what has occurred.

The group needs to know a number of things: the perimeter of the area affected; the number of injured, the extent of damage, how many people are homeless; in what areas is the power off? The list is exhaustive.

"That information is shared so everybody knows the total picture and out of that we identify the next steps," Foster says.

"For instance, do the first responders on scene need more resources? If so, it becomes the control group's responsibility to get those resources."

Some resources are already in place and come into play automatically.

Under a mutual aid agreement, neighbouring fire departments move in to back up Midland firefighters. The OPP and police from Barrie and other municipal police services were on the ground quickly to assist Midland police.

In addition, several county ambulances were rushed to town and the Salvation Army set up a facility to provide food and drink for first responders.

"The first people to respond did an exceptional job helping citizens and doing the things the group needed done so it could look after the community," said Foster.

Less than an hour after the group sat down in the operations centre Mayor Jim Downer had enough information to declare an emergency.

That cleared the way for the town to ask for help from Simcoe County's emergency social services component and from the province.

The town's quick response was a result of ongoing emergency preparedness training and planning.

"Ever since the ice storm and 911," Foster points out, "there is a mandatory level of emergency preparedness that every community is expected to meet.

"In our preparedness planning we have looked at the most likely type of events that are going to occur in this community, based on what has happened historically and what potentially could happen.

"One of the things we obviously look at is storm-related events. If a major storm occurs we may end up with blocked roads; hydro out, water out.

We do training on regular basis -that has allowed us to be well prepared -but until you go through it you can't predict certain things.

So, we say here's the scope of what we may expect in that type of event. It may a tornado; it could be may be a winter storm.

"There are also events that can indirectly affect the community.

"Could something that happens elsewhere have an impact on Midland?

What if something happened in Toronto that sparked a mass exodus from the city?

"A lot of people might head to their cottage. We saw that during the blackout and a bit during 9-11. What could that do to strain local resources?

"We've seen situations where there were fuel shortages and times when people couldn't access bank machines because the power was out. Those are the kind of things communities have to look at."

The community control group meets on a monthly basis as an emergency management program committee, says Foster. "It allows us to get to know each other and have discussions. We review our plan and our hazard assessment so we have a common udnerstand of what we are up against.

He's concerned, however, that many people don't appreciate what can happen if their community is impacted.

"For the last number of years we have had messages on radio - in print media -in various forms encouraging people to become self-sufficient; to have an emergency kit on hand in the case they are without power or water for any length of time.

"They may think about it when you have a tornado, but they quickly become complacent."

"Historically, when a tornado or ice storm occurs it takes three days before the emergency response capability is able to assess peoples' needs.

"It's vital to have a 72-hour supply of food, water, medications, and other items on hand. There are lists available on the internet and from various agencies suggetsing what a kit should contain.

"People say, oh, it's not going to happen to me, or it's going to happen somewhere else.

"Well, it has happened here!