The Town of Cobourg will be holding a de-briefing following the severe storm that hit the area for a number of days during Christmas.
Powerful winds, and whiteout conditions gripped the area for several days over Christmas.
There were power outages for thousands of people in Cobourg alone.
Cobourg Police Chief Paul VandeGraaf said the weather was so severe a number of officers couldn’t leave town to go home after their shift.
The amount of work the officers did was unmeasured.
Helping people navigate through the snow, helping dig people out, responding to all calls.
All town resources were extremely busy during the storm including Lakefront Utilities who did their best to restore power.
VandeGraaf said they will have a debriefing this week and go through the call list.
“We believe these types of weather events may be a regular thing, so we want to make sure we have everything in place.”
When the power goes off, what can be done for the long-term care facilities.
“Some of the homes people are ambulatory and they can move, others can’t.”
“It’s a multi-serviced approach if we have to move people.”
The temperature in one of the long-term care homes went down as low as 15 degrees Celsius.
“So we needed to be on top of that.”
At one point, a number of busses were lined up in front of Palisade Gardens at the corner of Chapel and D’Arcy Streets.
The busses were assigned to the VIA passenger train incident, but when it was learned another train would be coming, the busses were sent to the retirement home as the power had been out for several hours. It was expected the residents would be moved to the Cobourg Community Centre, but when power was restored, and the heat was back on, there was no need.
“It’s always about looking at what went well and what didn’t go well.”
“And we don’t shy away from what we didn’t do well or go well and we try and patch that for the next time.”
Author: Pete Fisher
Has been a photojournalist for over 30-years and have been honoured to win numerous awards for photography and writing over the years. Best selling author for the book Highway of Heroes - True Patriot Love
