Christine Whelan FEO, January 19, 2023, VOL. 4 ISSUE 11
Fire Chief, Mark Schmitt, was on duty virtually 24/7 during the storm that hit the Greater Fort Erie area just in time for Christmas from December 23, right through to beyond the conclusion of the State of Emergency.
On January 9, when asked how Fort Erie was faring, post-blizzard, he replied, “We’re starting to feel normal again.”
Born and raised in Fort Erie, Schmitt said he has not experienced this kind of storm before. “Not in my life, nor in my career. I’ve been with the Fort Erie Fire Department since November 1992. In those 30 years, I’ve never seen conditions like that.”
Getting The Word Out Ahead Of Time
The fire chief began, “We used social media ahead of the storm to try and get the word out. I was posting on Thursday and Friday, people need to be prepared for 72 hours.
“We weren’t 100% sure how bad the storm was going to be. I had said at a meeting just prior, ‘We have three things coming. They’re warning us about flooding. They’re warning us about snow. And they’re warning about high wind. We’re getting one of those.’
“We got all three, all at once, and very fast.”
Schmitt had spoken to people along the lakeshore, suggesting they leave the area during the storm.
“We continued to use social media and email blasts. The problem was, in Ridgeway, there was already a temporary cell tower that was pretty well consumed by noonish on Friday, which meant most people had very spotty if any, cell service. We had to resort to the radio.”
Emergency Plan
They are prepared to monitor and take care of the high-risk areas in Fort Erie for high winds as Fort Erie generally experience such times 3-4 times a year, according to Schmitt. “And when we have a snowstorm, we’re pretty prepared for that. It’s when the two are combined, with almost hurricane-force winds with 30-50 centimetres of snow. That’s a hard one to be prepared for.
“There’s no ability to do things when you can barely see on the other side of the windshield. And that is truly what we were running into.”
The fire chief explained, “When we get to this point, it’s no longer safe for our operators to be out because they can’t see the plow in front of them to make sure they don’t hit a car that is stuck in the middle of the road or a person who got out of their car to walk because it was stuck.”
Some of the cars had been hit over the period of time when the snow was being cleared.
“The same goes for the hydro workers. They can’t be up in a bucket thirty or forty feet in the air when the guy who’s supposed to be spotting him on the ground can’t even see them in the bucket.
“Operations somewhat halted when conditions got extremely bad.” This was late Friday, into Saturday.
It Came Down To Life-Threatening Situations
“The trees we would only go to if they were considered to be life-threatening situations. All of our calls came down to, is it life-threatening?”
Mark received several emails and calls asking if someone could check on family members because they had no power and lost contact with them. He explained, “While, I appreciated the need to want to know if their loved ones were safe unless they were truly in a life-threatening situation we weren’t able to go check on them during those conditions.”
He added reassuringly, “We did do a lot of welfare checks during those days. Some of those people answered the door and asked, why are you here? They were fine.”
Creative Communications
At his home, Mark was without power for six days, relying on a generator for almost the entire time. “There was a period of time when I didn’t have internet or cell service. I couldn’t partake in the emergency operations at our meetings, so I had to go somewhere else.”
One of the challenges they ran into was, “With the power being out so long, we had dispatched via the internet, using Niagara Regional Broadband Network (NRBN). The power supply for NRBN in Fort Erie is at Garrison Road School. At one point, the backup power supply ran out of power. So, my dispatch called me at 4:00 am to tell me we no longer have a primary or backup dispatch radio.”
He explained how an alternative solution was created. “So, on Christmas morning at 4:00 am, we were being dispatched through a radio system in Welland because there was no internet in Fort Erie.”
’77 vs ’22
Mark talked to a number of people who had lived through the infamous Blizzard of ’77 while he was out doing welfare checks. “They said the snow in ’77 was far worse. There was more snow and it was more prolonged. The lake was frozen and the snow that was piled on the lake blew in.”
Another difference between the two storms was the communication factor. “In ’77, radio was the only way of getting information.” The storm was not known by many ahead of time, catching them completely off guard, while this past December’s storm was reported by mainstream media several days before it hit.
The timing of the December storm made a big difference. It happened at Christmas time so people who were responsible for dealing with it were on Christmas holiday. So, in this respect, the Town was not as prepared as it might have been at another time.
Radios and Snowmobiles
During a post-blizzard meeting, 1977 was brought up to look at what worked back then. Both radios as a form of communication and snowmobiles for transportation were brought up. The idea of calling on residents with snowmobiles as a part of the emergency plan was discussed.
Mark stated, “Most people don’t have a battery-operated radio but during the storm, the vast majority of people went out to their car to warm up, having access to their radios then.”
He mentioned, there was a period of time during December’s storm when snowmobiles were being used for welfare checks and pulling people out of cars. “But once it started getting dark, our risk factors for sending people out in the dark were extremely high.” So, the decision was made to stop using the snow machines on the evening of the 24th.
Christmas Morning
They had asked everyone to continue to stay in on Christmas morning. “But that didn’t go over very well,” he admitted. “Other than the wind, it was a nice, sunny day and people wanted out. So, we stopped saying stay in and gave them some information on how to stay safe in their homes such as clearing out their gas-run appliance vents, information on generator use, what carbon monoxide was and how it can affect a person.”
The fire chief shared a story that stuck with him. “I met a gentleman at the warming station on that Monday night. He was from Crystal Beach. He’d come into town to get some cell service and data so his wife could call out to the family to let them know they were safe. He told me he had an old-school, gas fireplace that doesn’t require power to run. It wasn’t hot in his house but much warmer than most houses. He had seven or eight people staying at his house, staying warm.”
Warming Station
“On Christmas day, I was at the warming station before it opened to help get set up. My family also volunteered some time.”
Mark said, initially, the response to the warming station was slow. “People seemed reluctant to leave their homes. They were concerned their pipes would freeze or hopeful the power would soon be on.”
There were a few couples who came in to warm up but then went back home in case something happened.
When asked, what’s next, Schmitt replied, “It seems that we went from dealing with the storm to now debriefing about the storm. I have a number of meetings coming up.
“If there’s something we can learn from this storm is how to communicate with our residents.”
In wrapping up our conversation, Schmitt spoke very highly of his community.
He says he’s very proud of his staff. “They gave up a significant amount of time, working around the clock from Friday until Christmas Day. They sacrificed a lot. And I thank them”
He added, “I also want to thank the fire stations in the region to the north of us for providing me with some staff so that my people could have a break.”
“At the end of it, you have to rely on your neighbours.”
Early on in the storm, the message that the fire chief started telling his staff to put out there was, “Take care of your neighbours.”
And that is just what the Greater Fort Erie area did.
“I don’t think it was just because this is what we were putting out there. I think that is what this town is about. They just naturally took care of each other.”
He shared how he witnessed, a day or two after the storm, neighbours getting into groups, shovelling just enough of each driveway in their neighbourhoods together. “I was proud of the way the citizens of Fort Erie took care of each other.
“If nothing else comes out of this, a few neighbours now know each other better.”
Photo provided by the Fort Erie Fire Dept
