A storm to remember

BY RAFFY BOUDJIKANIAN

raffy.boudjikanian@transcontinental.ca

It forced entire families to their basements or municipal shelters, shut down electrical power for weeks in a province that prides itself on hydro-electricity as a strong export, and turned streets and highways into impromptu skating rinks.

On top of that, it also caught Kirkland Mayor John Meaney completely by surprise. "We never thought it would get to the point where most people in Kirkland would lose their power," Meaney said.

He said that his council only realized the seriousness of the affair about 24 hours into the endless rain fall.

Upon seeing it, his council enacted an emergency plan for the city. "We had one of those in a book," he laughed. "We forgot to take the book out and read it."

However, they did turn the town hall's caucus room into an emergency centre for direct communication with the Montreal Urban Community and Hydro Quebec, and turned the town hall into a shelter for residents of Kirkland. "We still have about 150 mattresses lining the floor of the basement," he said.

Meaney estimated that the fallen trees and branches in Kirkland cost the city over $200, 000 in damages.

Dollard des Ormeaux mayor Ed Janiszewski, the only other West Island mayor who was in power during the ice storm, said that his council was also taken by surprise, although talking to Hydro Quebec and listening to the weather reports allowed them to prepare adequately.

According to him, the Dollard civic centre sheltered about 1200 people during the ice storm and fed 1500, largely thanks to the multiple arenas that allowed for space. Donations by food stores like Les Aliments M and M were kept on ice at the hockey rink. "The main problem was we couldn't get [École Polyvalente des Sources] to open," Janiszewski explained. The city expected the school to cooperate by taking residents in, but the school did not have a generator, he said. "We'll make sure to have a generator for the school next time," the mayor said of any possible future ice storms. He claimed that the Quebec government had told them it would secure a generator for Des Sources, but had failed to do so.

Both mayors praised the way citizens came together to help each other out during difficult times. "People stuck together and helped each other out," Janiszewski said. "The amount of calls we got for help and support was amazing," Meaney said, though he remembered one particular phone call from his sister very well.

She spotted him on television being interviewed outside town hall, snow and rain blasting all around him. "You looked like a drowned rat," she remarked to him. "I really did," he said.