By Karyn Pugliese and Nick Greenfield
It was the iciest week in Centretown.
“Operation Ice Storm.” “The Storm of the Century. “Ice Storm ‘98.” Maybe, suggest some observers, the “Storm of the Millennium.”
But while army trucks rolled down Elgin Street, Pat Moore was getting a French manicure.
Moore moved to Centretown, temporarily, when her family fled their powerless Manotick home to seek shelter at the Chateau Laurier. While her husband served sandwiches at The Bear’s Den — their family-owned bar turned emergency shelter near Highway 31 — Moore entertained her two sons Steve, 11, and Lane, 5, during their unexpected holiday.
Lee Nam Nam, owner of Lebest Nails on Elgin Street, looked puzzled when asked why he opened his business during a state of emergency.
“We’re always open Monday to Friday,” he said.
The storm overwhelmed farmers and residents of rural areas who lost power and heat for days, but most Centretowners were spared the tumult plaguing the suburbs and rural communities. The ice storm was mostly wet, occasionally cold, dark and inconvenient for Centretown residents.
Along Elgin and the northern stretch of Bank Street every second store and restaurant was open. Seniors stepped carefully along slushy sidewalks and teenagers swarmed the Rideau Centre in the evening.
Military staff lunched at McDonald’s before trekking to the Cartier Square Drill Hall, where they co-ordinated the army’s aid effort. General André Guy Omard offered his first impression of the ice storm.
“Life looks pretty normal here, in the city,” said Omard, who also served in Winnipeg during last summer’s flood. “Power outages can be an inconvenience, but it doesn’t compare to having a river move towards your home.”
The homeless joined the newly homeless in card games at the Jack Purcell Community Centre, Centretown’s temporary emergency shelter. One person slept over on Wednesday night (Jan. 7). Thursday through Saturday six people used the cots, while others asked for coffee, food, showers and babysitting services during the day.
There are no available statistics on how many Centretown residents lost power, say Ontario Hydro officials, but by January 11 the area was completely restored.
“It’s been a real pulling together of the community,” says Regis Alcorn, program co-ordinator of the Jack Purcell Centre. More than a dozen people called each night offering their homes should the shelter run out of space, she says. But there were spare cots every night and the shelter never filled to capacity.
Marcel Boucher and Bashir Smily, two Centretown residents, awoke Thursday night in pitch-black apartments, feeling rather than seeing their damp breath on the air.
The storm forced Smily into a shelter Friday night, which meant cancelling a weekend visit with his son. “It’s too cold for my son. I’m also concerned about the safety of transporting him here,” says Smily, whose son lives with Smily’s ex-wife in Nepean.
Life was busier for some city and regional workers, who found they had become local heroes.
“Everyone seems really happy to see us. They’re thanking us and bringing us coffee,” says Charles Lavoie, a city worker, who is clearing fallen trees from Centretown’s streets and sidewalks 12 hours each day.
“I’m lucky. I got three hours sleep last night,” says Terry James, a regional worker. James follows the hydro crews to turn on traffic lights as power is restored. It’s an important job in the downtown core where cars, buses and pedestrians continue to roam.
Centretown’s relative calm during the storm made it possible for many in the community to help those who remained powerless during the cold weather last week.
Mac Harb, MP for Ottawa Centre, turned his constituency office into a drop-off donation centre for Glengarry, Prescott and Russell.
The office filled with donations of “everything from cookies to candles, from batteries to blankets,” says Tim Sen, Harb’s community assistant.
Volunteers drove several trucks, cars and vans loaded with goods each day.
The office won’t turn away supplies this week, but they are asking good Samaritans to call the Red Cross.
“I wanted to do something to help out. The pictures I saw on TV made me feel terrible,” says Harb. “The response has been fantastic. It’s a good community, you know. Very good.”