You can’t plan for everything, Toronto officials say, and the past year saw the city hit with weather more extreme than they thought possible.
First, a July storm brought record rainfall, tore up river valleys and left 5,000 Etobicoke residents in the dark for two or three days.
Then the December ice storm brought the city to a standstill, cut power for a million residents, and damaged or destroyed perhaps 20 per cent of Toronto’s trees.
"You lived it," City Manager Joe Pennachetti told people at a meeting Monday, May 12, at Scarborough Civic Centre.
"No one could have dreamt we could have had such an ice storm."
Continuing Wednesday, May 14, at North York Civic Centre on Yonge Street and Thursday, May 15, at the Etobicoke Civic Centre on The West Mall, the meetings, each from 7 to 9 p.m., are meant to gather criticisms on how well the city reacted to any type of emergency, and suggestions for the future.
Pennachetti said he wanted to hear specifics from everyone involved, including residents who use the city website and feedback form at www.toronto.ca/weatherprooftoronto
"What exactly was the problem, and where can we get better?"
On Monday, everybody seemed convinced the city needed to do a much better job of communicating with the public during the next Toronto emergency.
"If you didn’t have power, you couldn’t see the news conferences," said Brenda Mignardi of Scarborough, who wondered why the city didn’t use roving sound trucks or send employees door to door to reach residents after the ice storm, particularly seniors and people with disabilities.
"You couldn’t call the (phone) lines because they’re all busy."
Others at the city forum thought TTC buses or library branches could have kept people warm.
Several said the best source of help in disasters would be volunteers, perhaps organized through community groups or a pre-arranged plan similar to what might have been used in the U.S. for civil defence.
"We don’t have these tools, and we should have these tools to have the community come together," said Scarborough-Agincourt Councillor Mike Del Grande, who said volunteer duties in emergencies could include directing traffic and checking on the elderly or people on dialysis.
Del Grande also suggested the city should buy home emergency kits and distribute them to residents at cost.
Torontonians, including members of churches and mosques, did manage to shelter neighbours after the December storm.
"It came down to the street level of neighbours helping neighbours," said Ronn Stevenson, who said more can be accomplished at the community level through a model called Creating Resilience for Extreme Weather (CREW).
The city - which declared six extreme heat alerts in 2013 and 36 cold weather alerts over the winter - tries to learn from any emergency, including the 2008 Sunrise Propane explosion in North York, Pennachetti said, conceding extreme weather events are becoming more frequent.
Some at the meeting, including John Riddell of the group East End Against Line 9 wanted Toronto to be ready for new emergencies, including pipeline damage during storms and a Lac-Megantic-type rail disaster involving toxic fuel, and to work harder at preventing them.
Pennachetti said a report on the disaster preparation suggestions will go to Toronto council in July, shortly after another set of recommendations on Toronto Hydro’s handling on of the ice storm from an independent panel on which he also sits.
Other city officials said federal government is taking steps to improve rail safety after the Lac-Megantic explosion, and city will do a "a railway exercise" to test emergency preparations this year.