ST. JOHN'S, N.L. — More than a year after Snowmageddon hit the St. John’s region, dumping 90 centimetres of snow and bringing things to a standstill for weeks, the imagery of people desperate for help remains strong in many city councillors’ minds.
It’s why some believe things need to work better in the event of another crisis.
Councillor-at-large Maggie Burton said she feared for the lives of people who couldn’t obtain food and medicine, including methadone, during the monster storm of Jan. 17, 2020.
“That was terrifying, to be quite honest,” Burton said during a virtual committee of the whole meeting Wednesday. “The whole time that I was trying to answer questions from vulnerable residents … who were trying to get more information about these things, I was worried that people were going to die.”
Councillor-at-large Debbie Hanlon met people in the street wrapped in blankets with nowhere to go.
“It was frightening,” she said, responding to Burton’s comments. “I remember being out on Cochrane Street and meeting a couple that had nowhere to go. … I realized there were no shelters (available). So, the community came together to get them blankets and food. Not two streets over, I ran into another couple that were in the same situation, just walking around and pretty much homeless.”
The comments were made following a presentation by the city’s manager of emergency preparedness, David Day, who gave an overview of the city’s response to Snowmageddon and what can be done better if another such crisis happens.
Burton says the province’s lack of co-ordination left it difficult for city council to help residents during that time.
“That experience is something I never want another council to have to go through — without knowing who to ask about anything, or about what was going on, why wasn’t there better co-ordinated access or planning around accessing food or medicine and all these very important things,” said Burton, adding that residents tend to come to their municipal representatives before provincial representatives.
In what she said was council’s first opportunity to discuss Snowmageddon’s state of emergency publicly in such a manner, she said whenever another serious incident of this nature happens, it should be clear to residents and to the city what residents can do for help.
“It was something that I felt was a huge oversight on behalf of the provincial government, to be quite honest,” Burton said. “I know that it wasn’t deliberate, but now that we’ve been through it once, I fully expect that there would be an opportunity to make sure that this does not happen ever again.
“There were so many things we were asked to solve during the state of emergency that was outside our purview of getting the roads open, and that was very, very stressful.
“I just wanted to say that on the record I really think this whole approach needs to be reimagined in terms of how the province interacts with us and shares information of what their role is explicitly around this.”
Day said the 130 centimetres of snow that fell between December and Jan. 17, along with the 90 centimetres between Jan. 17 and Jan. 20, made it difficult for the city to clear snow from more than 1,400 kilometres of roads in the city, which resulted in the city’s first state of emergency in 35 years.
It’s estimated Snowmageddon cost the city $7 million to clear all that snow. The city has applied to the federal government’s Emergency Disaster Assistance Fund to recover $6.2-million of that money.
For future events, Day also noted the importance of having a separate crisis communication plan, which would include how to hold media debriefings, define roles during a state of emergency and identify experts to help.
Mayor Danny Breen agreed it’s been an unprecedented year, one in which much has already been learned. Many things, including their knowledge of using technology, has come a long way.
“Necessity becomes the mother of invention,” he said.
“Through that time, the work of our staff, snowclearing staff, our 311, fire department, everyone through organization got us through it. It’s quite a testament to the team.”
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Posted by City of St. John's on Wednesday, February 24, 2021
Coun. Shawn Skinner added that for such a future crisis, there should be better communication between municipalities and a regional plan created.
“I think there was unnecessary confusion created by different municipalities doing different things,” Skinner said.
“Municipalities in the region need to get their act together in a collective sense.”
Coucillor-at-large Sandy Hickman agreed teamwork will continue to be key in dealing with such states of emergency in the future.
“We learn from experience,” he said, “and we gained a lot of experience out of that, no doubt about that.”
Rosie Mullaley covers municipal politics. [email protected] | Twitter: @TelyRosie
