Community Municipal
Ward 2 Councillor Pat Warren said she had never personally experienced a more devastating weather event in her life as the recent ice storm that pummelled Kawartha Lakes.
“We were warned about how terrible it could be,” she said, so she and her husband prepared as best they could.
“We don’t have a generator but have a woodstove for emergencies and we have a butane stove, so we were able to cook and boil water. We filled a bathtub, so we had water to flush. For us the challenge was water, as we live out of town. Charging our devices was also difficult,” she said.
According to Canadian Press, about 55,000 Ontarians were still without power Monday as Hydro One’s crew worked to restore service following the ice storm. More than a million homes and businesses experienced outages due to high winds and heavy rain. Kawartha Lakes has the most customers still affected, with around 20,000 without power.
Warren said that once the city opened warming centres, she believes “people felt much safer.”
“There was food, water, charging, and camaraderie. They even were open for people to have showers. Many people brought food to the warming centres. As power started coming back on in towns, some people opened their homes so people could warm up and have a nice hot shower. I witnessed neighbours helping neighbours to clear their roads so Hydro could get to them.”
Ward 3 Councillor Mike Perry, who still doesn’t have power, says he is hearing every day from people as he makes his rounds. “They are grateful…for the hydro workers and their tireless efforts to help get the electricity restored. It’s encouraging to see all the crews and trucks out there every day and evening,” says Perry.
The Fenelon-area councillor says there’s so much “damage and loss.”
“Many people are without hydro and internet and phone still. From what I’ve been seeing here in Ward 3, people are resilient and generally fairing okay.”
Perry says people have “shown a lot of self-reliance,” and have gotten a good deal of help from family, friends and neighbours, as well as city services.
Warren feels for those constituents who still don’t have power.
“People are mostly thankful for getting their hydro back on but there have been some who are very angry, as their power is still off which is understandable,” she says.
When asked if the city could have prepared differently or done anything differently, the Ward 2 councillor said that can wait for now.
“I’m not sure how prepared any municipality or province can be with such an intense event. The power of the ice was something I never want to see again. We will definitely have a debrief on what worked well and what can be improved,” she says.
Warren notes all the acts of kindness she was aware of, from businesses that opened with no power, to people offering up generators. “I personally find it heartening, going to the fire station, to witness people helping people. This emergency is not over for some. I dropped into a friend’s place today and they have now been without power for 10 days.”
Perry agrees there will be “lots of time to assess successes, challenges, and lessons once the state of emergency is over. Right now, the focus is on safety, restoring hydro, and providing services.
“So many people have been contacting me, offering to open their homes, make food, and offer to help people clear brush,” says Perry. “There is a lot of concern especially for our seniors.”
Perry said there was a recent neighbourhood clean-up on his street in Fenelon Falls.
“Our small-town spirit of helping each other is why we live here and something we need to keep going when all this is over.”