How P.E.I. is preparing for the next Dorian

Post-tropical storm Dorian spread a swath of damage across Prince Edward Island one year ago, with downed trees and power lines, storm surges and widespread power outages.

One year later, the Emergency Measures Organization and many P.E.I. communities are putting the lessons learned from Dorian into preparing for future emergencies. 

In the days after Dorian, more than 40 municipalities across the Island sprang into action to support residents coping with damage from the storm.

Minister of Justice and Public Safety Bloyce Thompson said that will be one of the lasting legacies from Dorian.

"That's one of the things we were heavily praised for in the [consultant's] report was the warming centres and the community stepping up at the time when we needed it," Thompson said.

"I'm quite proud of the communities and the work that they are doing for emergency preparedness going forward," Thompson said. 

Better prepared

Tanya Mullally of the Emergency Measures Organization says Dorian also helped them prepare for the COVID-19 pandemic.

"One of the things that was really challenging during Dorian, as many people had no power, so their ability to get public information was really challenged," Mullally said. 

"That was a lesson that we had to take back and started to look at other ways that we need to make sure that we're delivering the message through all the platforms so that people can get it."

During Dorian, the agency started sending out daily bulletins, at a set time every afternoon, to be posted by municipalities at their reception centres.

Another recommendation was to have one person fronting the information updates, a lesson that they put into place starting with the COVID-19 briefings in March. 

"I think during COVID, we took that experience, as we were out front every day with Dr. Morrison and the ministers," Thompson said.  

"I think that was something that we learned, that people need to know what is going on and they just want to know the minute-to-minute, what is happening."

Emergency activation

During Dorian, EMO was activated for 13 days, which was the longest activation to that point. 

In 2020, they were activated for 184 days, starting with the malware attacks and then continuing with COVID.

"Emergencies aren't one or two days anymore, they can be weeks," Thompson said. 

"We're still in COVID, months and months later so you really do have to have the team in place and resources for an extended period of time, which we are now focusing on." 

Summerside lessons learned

For some P.E.I. municipalities, the damage was in the hundreds of thousands of dollars, with some of the damage only now being repaired, one year later.

"Dorian had a major impact in Summerside. We were hit pretty hard the evening of the storm, tremendous amount of trees came down, power lines came down," said Gordon MacFarlane, deputy CAO for the city of Summerside.  

"The cleanup literally took months. We had special arrangements where we had municipal trucks going around picking up debris from some people's yards for weeks after the storm."

In August, the city buried a large pile of debris from fallen trees that had been piled by one of the wind turbines, one of the final steps of the cleanup.

MacFarlane said there are lessons the city has learned from Dorian. 

He said the night of the storm there were some radio issues between police and fire that have been sorted out. 

He said there is also more awareness of the potential impact of future extreme weather events. 

"Within our electric utility, we have a continual pole replacement program that's ongoing to make sure our electrical infrastructure is as up to date as it needs to be," MacFarlane said.

"Through Rotary Park, some of the trees that came down there, some of that is a natural kind of evolution in nature. So how we're managing some of our forest areas moving forward is something that we learned."

The city has also added a new backup generator at the St. Eleanors Community Centre, so it can serve as a reception centre for future emergencies.

MacFarlane said the damage from Dorian in Summerside is close to $750,000, and the city is finalizing a claim through its insurance company.

"We're fairly confident that most, if not all of that, will be paid through insurance," MacFarlane said.

'Plan for the future'

For the Cavendish area, Dorian brought an abrupt end to the 2019 tourism season. 

The area experienced damage from the high winds and heavy rains and a storm surge, which destroyed a community park called The Swimming Rock, in Stanley Bridge. 

"Certainly taking the lessons from that we've built and reinforced the stairway and designed to be removed in the off-season, right from the start," said Matthew Jelley, mayor of the Resort Municipality of Stanley Bridge, Hope River, Bayview, Cavendish and North Rustico.

"We've been really trying to plan for the future and to make things more resilient."

Jelley said the municipality is interested in creating an emergency centre, but has applied unsuccessfully to use the gas tax for funding.

The community was told those items were not eligible expenses under the gas tax. 

"So we've gone back because we feel that, for the community, that's something we need," Jelley said.

"Last year, parts of our community with were without electricity for five to six days, even somewhere to come get a hot shower, to warm up a meal and possibly even a bit of laundry."

Impact on tourism season

Jelley said the area is also still feeling the impacts of Dorian on the 2019 tourism season.

"September can be an interesting month for tourism and between the actual effects, losing power and damage to infrastructure during that second weekend in September, that created an immediate effect," Jelley said. 

"But then there was also concern by people who were coming, that heard parts of the national park were closed and so that led to some cancellations and so it brought an early end to the tourism season last year."

Jelley said losing those bookings in September and October after Dorian hurt tourism operators in the Cavendish area. 

"That was money that many operators depend on," Jelley said.

''It might only be 10 or 15 per cent of the season, but most of your expenses are already dealt with and so it comes right off the bottom line."

Kensington emergency shelter 

The storm hit hard in Kensington, especially the town's historic train station, which needed the roof replaced. 

"There was an enormous number of trees come down, big, beautiful trees that we hate to lose," said Rowan Caseley, mayor of Kensington. 

"Some fell on cars, some, I think, had to be replaced. But the biggest loss is probably some of those big mature trees that are gone, probably been there for 50 or 60 years."

The damage cost the town around $100,000, half of which was covered by insurance, with another $25,000 coming from the province's disaster relief program. 

Caseley said the experience with Dorian also encouraged the town to speed up its plans for a reception centre, to support residents during future emergencies.

The town is now in the final stages of installing a generator at the Murray Christian Education Centre, at the Kensington United Church, which will serve as a reception centre. 

"The power was out for four, three or four days now, fortunately, it was in September," Caseley said. 

"We came to the realization that this could have happened when it's minus-five outside or minus-20 and if there is a lot of residents in town without power for three to four days, that's more critical." 

The town has also installed a fixed, permanent generator at its well fields.

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