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HomeMy WebLinkAboutINS-13-070 - Windstorm Event REPORT TO: Community and Infrastructure Services Committee DATE OF MEETING: August 12, 2013 SUBMITTED BY: Jim Witmer, Director of Operations, ext. 4657 PREPARED BY: Greg Hummel, Manager of Park Planning, Development and Operations, ext. 4598 WARD(S) INVOLVED: All DATE OF REPORT: August 2, 2013 REPORT NO.: INS-13-070 thth SUBJECT: Wind Storms: July 19. & July 27. RECOMMENDATION: For Information. REPORT: thth On July 19 and again on July 27 2013, the City of Kitchener was hit with severe wind storms that toppled trees. The impact of the storms in some cases damaged buildings, property and interrupted hydro supply as trees were uprooted, branches broken and limbs left on the ground. th On Friday July 19, wind began to increase at approximately 3:30 pm and traffic and forestry on-call were responding to ‘road closed’ signs being knocked over and limbs being broken from the increased wind velocity. The Region of Waterloo was advised by Environment Canada that a severe thunder storms watch was issued. At approximately 5:30 pm, Kitchener was hit with a torrential downpour and severe winds that lasted fifteen minutes. Winds were registering 119 kilometers per hour. At this time both forestry and sewers on-call had been notified of trees and branches on the ground as well as power outages around the city. The power loss in some areas of the city directly impacted pumping stations as station alarms were set off and back-up generators were turned on to keep the stations working. Additional forestry staff were called in to deal with the many calls coming to the corporate contact centre. Through Friday evening, staff addressed the main issues of trees blocking roads and falling onto private property. With the Ribfest starting in Victoria Park, Victoria park staff were called in to make safe the areas within the park where trees had come down in proximity to the Ribfest event in the commons area of Victoria Park. Operations staff were in dealing with the initial brunt of the storm until midnight on Friday. As additional calls were logged through the corporate contact centre, additional staff were brought in to deal with the aftermath through Saturday and Sunday. Approximately fourteen staff were called in to deal with forestry issues for twelve hours on Saturday and an additional fourteen hours on Sunday. 13 - 1 From the service requests that were being forwarded from the corporate contact centre; it th became very clear that the storm on July 19 had impacted the entire city. From these requests, staff could establish the response priorities. These priorities were: 1) Removing trees that had fallen on roads and to get the roads passable. 2) Ensure that city sidewalks were safe from overhead risks. 3) Address the issues in active parks where permitted events were scheduled. 4) Address neighbourhood parks, natural areas and passive recreational areas. Following the storm, forestry enlisted the services of other operations staff to enable the clean- up following the storm. The Forestry section has three crews of foresters out dealing with trees that need to be removed, trees across sidewalks, onto private property, branches that are broken and still hanging in the trees as well as dealing with citizen complaints and issues. Other sections within Operation have reallocated four additional crews that are cleaning up debris from the storm on a street by street basis. Three of these crews have rentalbrush chippers and one crew is using a front end loader and two dump trucks to haul away debris. There is also a crew that is concentrating on clearing walking trails located throughout the City. Trees located in greenbelts that have fallen into private property or are touching private homes will start to beaddressed next week. There are numerous parks that have major tree damage. Crews are focusing on those parks with the most damage and making their way through that priority list. Kiwanis Park and Victoria Park are very close to being completely cleared of debris. Cemeteries staff has cleared up as much of the debris as they can and are now waiting on Forestry crews to deal with the larger issues. Forestry hopes to have all storm debris cleared in approximately four weeks from the storm event date. th The storm that hit on Saturday July 27, the priorities remained the same and both forestry and operations staff responded to deal with trees and buildings that were affected by the high winds. The week following the storm coincided with the Regional Yard Waste pick-up in Kitchener. Corporate Communication received confirmation from the Region that material bundled in three foot length, weighed less than fifty pounds and had branches less than three inches in diameter would be taken by the yard waste collectors. The yard waste that met these parameters were picked up. Corporate Contact Centre: As previously provided by e-mail, the chart below shows the number of calls that came in during thth and after the storm events that occurred on July 19 and July 27. As can be observed, the most important factor in dealing with storm events is Corporate Contact Centre. By directing calls to the contact centre, the staff can ask the pertinent questions to understand the severity of the issue, location, and specifics that frontline response staff needs to know. The contact centre by way of the call creates a service request that is sent directly to the supervisor in charge of that response. The types of questions that are asked to ascertain the severity of the problems are: What is the location of the tree? (We will only enter a request for City owned trees and branches). 13 - 2 What is the size (length/diameter) of the broken tree/branches? (the exception of specific storm handling guidelines provided by Forestry - branches typically need to be larger than 4 inches in diameter to dispatch out). Is the branch/tree blocking or hanging over a sidewalk? (Could the branch fall onto a pedestrian?) Is the branch/tree impeding traffic or hanging over a road? (Could the branch fall onto the road?) Is the branch/tree hanging over a vehicle, fence, roof, or other personal/private property? Is the branch/tree within close proximity to Hydro wires? (Has Hydro been out to prune the branches near the Hydro wires yet?) Is the branch blocking a traffic sign? Is the tree request coming from the WRP or KFD? From the service request, priorities can be established and work response can be carried out in an efficient and effective manner. Hydro: Kitchener-Wilmot Hydro were out addressing many calls following the storm dealing with power outages in the Bridgeport, Kiwanis Park, Lousia Street, Victoria Park and many other areas of Kitchener. Hydro crews were working around the clock to address the outages and were focusing on the areas with high volume loss of power. Individual incidents were taking a lower priority and would be addressed 48-72 hours following the storm. 13 - 3 An estimated 15,000 customers were without power on Friday night; half were back online within 12 hours. Power had been restored to most homes except for a small number of customers still awaiting reconnection as of Monday morning following Friday’s storm. It should be noted that trees falling onto hydro lines can only be addressed by Kitchener-Wilmot Hydro forestry staff. It is legislated that City of Kitchener forestry staff cannot work within three meters of the hydro lines. Because of this legislation, there were a number of roads that could not be cleared and opened until hydro staff had a chance to remove the debris from around the lines. Once the hydro lines were moved from closeproximity of the trees, city forestry staff could then assist in removing trees from the roadways and making them passable and accessible. Fire Department: The Fire Department responded to 29 emergency incidents from 5:30 to 7 pm on Friday at the height of the storm and an additional 31 incidents overnight Friday, many storm related. Crews were out in the neighbourhoods Saturday and Sunday checking on vulnerable occupants that may have been without power and assisting with tree removal from the roadways and public sidewalks. Storm Costs: The impact of the storms on the City of Kitchener budget is approximately $400,000. This cost reflects the direct cost of services to clean up. To manage these unexpected storms, resources were adjusted to support the need in the areas required for clean-up. Forestry staff normally deals with street tree raising, structural pruning and dead wooding on streets at this time of year. Due to the storms, these activities were paused to deal with the storms. As other operations sections assisted with the clean-up, some of their normal summer activities were paused until the clean-up is complete. Some of these activities are crack sealing, catch basin restoration and sod repair. With the pausing of these activities, the budget line item of these activities may be in a positive position at years end. The one area where the budget will be impacted is the amount of overtime needed to address the clean-up. Overtime was used immediately after the storm to deal with the first priority responses. The overtime spent to-date and rental equipment will cost approximately $50,000 to $100,000. This overtime is not budgeted and will have a direct impact to the bottom line of the operations division at years end. Lessons Learned: The response to the storm and the priority rankings list of: 1) Removing trees that had fallen on roads and to get roads passable. 2) Ensure that city sidewalks are safe from overhead risks. 3) Address issues inactive parks where permitted events are schedules 4) Address neighbourhood parks, natural areas and passive recreational areas. This priority list seems to have met the needs of dealing with issues of the storm and meeting the expectations of the community. By following these priorities, those most impacted had their issues dealt with and allowed staff to prioritise the work to be addressed efficiently and effectively. 13 - 4 Corporate management used the Emergency Level One protocol to ensure that all issues were being addressed. This included all departments that could assist in the storm clean-up including the Fire Department, Corporate Communications, office of the Mayor and Council and Operations. By following the protocol, communication between departments remained open and pertinent information could be sent out through social media to keep citizens informed. The corporate contact centre became one of the most important sections in processing calls and by placing the calls in service requests, establishing the priorities. These priorities ensure that the most important concerns are addressed immediately but in an efficient and effective manner. All calls must be sent through the contact centre. The City of Kitchener Community Emergency Management Program Committee (CEMPC) will be reviewing the storms that affected the city in July. This committee meets once a month to look at and plan for various emergencies and will be able to use this experience to review the steps taken to ensure the most appropriate emergency response in the future. ALIGNMENT WITH CITY OF KITCHENER STRATEGIC PLAN: Quality of Life: Good government balances multiple perspectives, knowledge and lived experience. FINANCIAL IMPLICATIONS: By pausing existing work and focusing on the storm clean-up, the net budget position will not change. Only the overtime hours will impact the net budget. At this time we expect and net budget impact of $50,000 to account for the overtime needed for the clean-up. ACKNOWLEDGED BY: Pauline Houston Deputy CAO, Infrastructure Services Department 13 - 5 13 - 6