Antigonish Town and County Emergency Management coordinator Blaise MacDonald said with
Picture of the damage from the Keppoch Facebook page
post-tropical storm Fiona behind us, local teams are looking at a review of the local response to one of the worst storm to ever hit the province.
MacDonald said discussions began Tuesday with the CAOs from the town and county to understand how they want to conduct the review, noting it will be thorough and look at if there is anything they can improve on to better respond to such events in the future. He said they will also speak with local first responders, warming centres, and local fuel and food providers, to understand the challenges they faced.
In terms of preparation, MacDonald said local public works teams went around preparing and securing equipment, topping up fuel tanks for backup generators for various services, and checking for drainage blocks. He noted it was also agreed that the town and county would act as one emergency management team for the duration of the storm response.
The long duration of power outages was a challenge for everyone, with MacDonald said if such a storm had hit during the cold winter months, the impact could have been very different.
A debrief with the town is set for next week. As for some actions already underway, MacDonald pointed to a provincial community generator program, which will help fund community centres to buy and install generators in case of power loss and allow them to be used as a comfort centre.