211 Grey County Severe Storm Recovery Brief The Stormi In the late afternoon on Thursday August 20th, 2009 a severe storm travelled through southern Ontario. Several areas of Grey County received significant damage, which resulted in two communities declaring a State of Emergency. The Town of Durham in the municipality of West Grey and the Village of Craigleith in the municipality of The Blue Mountains have severe damage from what is thought to be an F2 tornado. The storm inflicted significant damage throughout various Grey County communities including the villages of Victoria Corners and Camperdown in The Blue Mountains. Role of 211ii Community Connection/211 Central East Ontario is in its beginning stages of growth and expansion, and a formal role has not yet been established with emergency planners & responders in any of the communities currently served. Experiences such as H1N1 and the storms that occurred on August 20th are being used as exercises to document and learn from our communities’ response to situations. In the case of Grey County, the United Way of Bruce Grey took an active role in coordinating communications between municipalities and 211. Communication Procedures During the weekend following the storm, 211 received 4 media releases and 13 emails related to recovery response services. The communications came from the United Way of Bruce Grey (email updates from site visits, links to municipal press releases & media articles) and the County of Grey, Social Services Director (email updates from meetings). 211 staff continued to monitor municipal websites (Grey County, West Grey & The Blue Mountains). Initially email communications were sent to our staff. By the first of the week it became apparent that services were changing quickly, and email was not an efficient way for staff to search and access the most current information and a post disaster database was created. Information & Referral The total calls received which caller’s identified as storm related were nine. A case study was completed for each call. The first calls were related to power outages. Over the weekend calls were related to volunteering and debris cleanup venues. By the first of the week calls were related to counselling for children who experienced the tornado at the day camp where there was a child fatality, a resident whose home was destroyed in need of housing, and an adult male who has temporarily lost his job (employer’s building was destroyed) and needed financial assistance for medication.
1
211 Grey County Severe Storm Recovery Brief Post Disaster Database The Grey County Storms Post Disaster Database contained a limited number of records created to assist 211 staff serve storm victims and provide easy access for local partners to submit database entries & changes. Database records contain services & programs such as specific items for donations including a bank account & branch #s, businesses donating use of chainsaws, food access & meals, temporary membership & borrowing privileges at various libraries, property damage application forms & available locations, trauma counselling through victim services, volunteer registration & locations, information about specific offers for equipment use, extended hours for landfill sites, extended hours to reach municipal staff, and counselling services for children. i
Town of Durham aftermath & actual tornado: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nwmV7ilcx70 Georgian Peaks Ski Area (Craigleith) aftermath: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VXaiBlPto0g Town of The Blue Mountains (villages) & Georgian Peaks aftermath: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2CC6OIbtFTg Actual tornado at the Georgian Bay Club (near Craigleith): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bLHDE9dNM2c ii
211 service providers have a number of disaster preparedness standards that must be met (see http://www.airs.org/files/public/AIRS_Standards_6_0Final.pdf). While 211 has played significant roles in the United States during small & large scale disasters (visit http://211us.org/benefits.htm), the 211 system in Canada is in development, and so utilization & resulting benefits during a disaster have yet to be demonstrated.
For more information contact: Pamela Hillier, Executive Director Community Connection/211 Central East Ontario 705.444.0040 x 234 phillier@communityconnection.net Francesca Dobbyn, Executive Director United Way of Bruce Grey 519.376.1560 executivedirector@unitedwayofbrucegrey.com
2