Goderich Tornado

Larry J. McCabe,

Clerk-Administrator

One of Canada’s Top Ten

Weather Stories for 2011

August 21, 2011

Disaster to Planning

to Rebuild

General Event Facts • At approximately 3:53 pm the tornado entered the harbour area from the west (off

Lake Huron), moved up the lake bank and moved in an east southeast direction through the town – less than two minutes

• The F3 tornado lasted about 15 minutes, with a total track of 20 km. – An F3 or Fujita Scale 3 means peak winds between 253 and 330 km/h.

– First F3 tornado to hit Ontario since April 1996

• Width of damage through town was 1.5km

• 1 death and 37 people injured

• The preliminary damage estimate for Goderich alone was $100 million – 54 buildings demolished (19 Commercial, 35 Residential), an estimated 283 buildings required

repair

• Major natural gas leaks – mains damaged from up rooted trees, gas had to be turned off for the entire town and small village to the north of town.

– 50 Union Gas employees on site, within two weeks all customers back on!

• Entire town without power

• First Emergency Control Group meeting within 3 hours of storm

• Police – 432 offices deployed to Town

• Trees – 500 down on public lands, 25 acres at cemetery flattened - Not included the lake bank

• 2 horizontal grinders (100 truck loads/hr) – within 6 days all town streets cleared

The Square

Courthouse Park

reconstruction

underway

Fall 2012

Spring 2013

Hydro Facts

• Substation #2 damaged

• Operations Centre destroyed, utility vehicles trapped inside

• Within 8hrs of the storm 40% of the power was back on, which picked up facilities like retirement homes, water plant and wastewater plant, 2 gas stations, rec centre (OPP command centre) and emergency shelter/temporary emergency control centre

• Within 2 weeks, power returned to all 3700 customers with the exception of maybe 250 accounts - severely damaged buildings – 100 poles replaced, 20 transformers down and 4833m of lines repaired

– 50 additional linemen plus equipment

• Total cost for new capital, repairs and assistance is about $1.5 million – Expenses are NOT covered by insurance and do NOT qualify for ODRAP

Hydro Operations Centre

Hydro Losses

• Z-Factor Application made Fall 2011. The results of OEB decision:

a) Yes – there was an extraordinary event

b) No – to plan to recover costs over 63 months as $4.00/month per

customer as presented

c) Loss to form part of the Cost of Service Application

• Scheduled for May 2013

d) Loss amount to be accumulated in a variance account

• Cost of Service Application

• Interim Rates approval for May 2013 requested, rejected by OEB –

remain as Cost of Service process

• Cost of Service 2013 Projected to cost utility approx. $240,000

Goderich Harbour

Goderich Harbour

• Sifto Salt Mine - ship loading equipment, office building and storage buildings destroyed

– Private sub-station = scrap metal

• South Pier Terminals – grain storage warehouse destroyed and elevators damaged

• 7 hydro poles down

• WCHE was able to restore power in 9 days

• First shipment of salt loaded less then 3 weeks after the storm

• Security needed to control traffic into the harbour

Harbour

Today

Ontario Disaster Relief

Assistance Program

• Monday, August 22 – Premier McGuinty tours the tornado damaged areas and announces up to $5 million in disaster relief funds – $2.5M for Town’s disaster response and recovery

– $0.5M for the surrounding municipalities disaster response and recovery

– $2.0M to assist affected private individuals, farms, small businesses and non-profit organizations (2:1 Funding)

• Goderich & Area Disaster Relief committee (arms length from town) created from members of the public. The Committee’s role is to administer the program and claims received during the recovery process, this includes raising funds: – Fundraising committee raises the funds for the private component of the

program, the province matches the dollars raised 2:1

– Mid-2012, over $3.9 million was raised, over $12 million with the matched provincial funds (additional formal request) to assist the private side in recovery

ODRAP Committee Stats Applications:

# of applications (files) received 373

# of files approved for financial assistance 236

# of files closed because financial assistance is not required 102

# of files ineligible 35

Expended and Committed Funds:

Claims paid as of Feb. 15, 2013 $5,006,406.55

Funds committed to claimants but not paid as construction has not commenced $1,202,788.58

Total funds required to pay all claims $6,209,195.13

Fundraising:

Total amount of money raised by local volunteer fundraisers $4,017,602.32

Interest earned on deposits $34,183.41

Total $ available from fundraising $4,051,785.73

Contributions from the Province of Ontario:

Under the up to 2:1 matching formula, the Province is committed to contribute $2,157,409.40

The Surprises!

• The Tornado forming on the Lake

• Heavy rains Aug 24th and additional tornado warnings

• Ministry of Labour – critical time lost (3 days) – Weather!

– Discussions and Roles

• Asbestos – AMEC, an environmental company (public lands only)

– Canadian Safety Ltd., an abatement company (public lands only)

– P100 ‘fit’ testing (private – public property concerns)

• Planning and Heritage Issues

• Municipal solicitor’s involvement

• That the cost of Hydro’s required infrastructure repairs are not covered by ODRAP or other provincial/federal disaster funding program

– To recover these costs, Hydro is applying for a Z Factor Rate increase, a very meticulous and costly process - on the backs of the customers

• Having the natural gas turned off to the entire town – Natural gas generators useless

• Reaction of Emergency Operation Control Group members, staff, politicians & public

Moving Forward – the Planning

• Sept 24th 2011- first Public Meeting regarding the rebuild of the downtown core and town parks – Very good attendance from residential and business

community

• November 2011 – Council selected the Planning Partnership to complete a Downtown Core Master Plan and Courthouse Park Landscape Design

• End of 2011, 119 tornado related building permits had been issued, total construction value $20.39M

• Temporary Use Bylaw and Tornado Bylaw finalized on Nov. 21, 2011 – Committee preparing Bylaws were town solicitor and another

municipal lawyer (pro bono), plus town planner

• Temporary Use Bylaw – allows businesses that were damaged or destroyed in the tornado to temporarily reopen in a location they may not normally be permitted i.e. house, highway commercial location – 18 months

• Tornado Bylaw – temporary amendment, allowing buildings that had to demolished to be rebuilt in the exact same footprint as before even if that building doesn’t conform to the current Zoning Bylaw and Official Plan i.e. requires variance, house built in commercial designation, etc

• Waived Site Plan fees

New Trees for Courthouse Park

Estimated cost Recovery and Rebuild Year(s) Goderich Hydro Town of

Goderich

Total

Immediate recover of lost

infrastructure

2011/12 $1,200,000 $1,200,000

Recovery and Rebuild

Courthouse Square – interior

work

2012/13 $150,000 $3,100,000 $3,250,000

Remaining projects/stages 2013-2015 $2,000,000 $8,000,000 $10,000,000

Total Expenses $3,350,00 $11,100,000 $14,450,000

Sources of Funding

Taxpayer/Customer Rates $3,350,000 $9,845,000 $13,195,000

ODRAP $625,000 $625,000

Gas Tax $230,000 $230,000

Insurance Proceeds

$400,000 $400,000

Total Revenue $3,350,00 $11,100,000 $14,450,000

Tax impact – 1% increase in general municipal tax rate equals $63,000

Funding Application – CIIF application unsuccessful for Courthouse Park

- MIII application unsuccessful – Core Area

Rebuilding

New Construction in the

Heritage District

Spring 2013

Lessons to be Learned

• 1995 Cyclone – 1000 trees destroyed

• Emergency Operations Control Group (EOCG) executes emergency plan

– Declared August 21st

– Over October 14th

• Assistance of Emergency Management Ontario - Invaluable

• Emergency Services - Invaluable

• Communication imperative - blackberries, radios

• Immediate decision making by

– EOCG

– Senior Staff

• Council updated at meetings

• Legal Representation

Lessons to be Learned . . . . . cont

• Professional and Trained Volunteer Resources

– Police Services (OPP)

– Public Works Crews

– Parks Crews

– Local Distribution Companies (LDCs) – Hydro

– Union Gas

– Chief Building Officials and Building Inspectors

– Victim Services – 500 people supported

– Red Cross – 2600 homes visited

– Salvation Army – 1400 meals/day

– Society for the Prevention of Cruelty of Animals (SPCA)

– Critical Incident Stress Management (CISM)

– Hospital

– Health Unit

• Temporary Zoning and Official Plan amendments / heritage

• Public Consultation /updates (media and flyer) /public (business) forums

• Record keeping/scribes (no time to make your own notes)

• Vehicle signage/proper equipment (shoes/masks/training/vests etc)

Lessons to be Learned . . . . . cont

• Individual volunteers, create list of names – not to be employed on public lands (MOL & asbestos)

• Staff, EOCG, politicians & public all affected differently

– Some faded, others rose

• Bombarded with press, emails & requests – all with ‘well’ meaning intentions

• Rules/no rules (?)

• Hydro Infrastructure (Z-Factor)

• ODRAP – public and private

• Interim Control By-law (Section 38, Planning Act)

• FOCUS *

Thank you!