Toronto ice storm wreaks havoc – teamwork means seniors get the care they need

Badly damaged trees, blocked off street during Toronto Ice storm 2013

Toronto ice storm 2013 – Trees down, power knocked out, roads closed, transit halted.

Toronto, December 21 – Freezing rain weighed down and toppled trees, knocking out hydro to hundreds of thousands of homes and blocking roads throughout the city – a thick layer of ice coated roadways making driving hazardous.

December 22, the Canadian Red Cross along with the City of Toronto set up 10 warming centers throughout the city.** The TTC reported service outages on the Scarborough Rapid Transit line, and the streetcar network. The Bloor Danforth subway line was partially closed due to power outages at Victoria Park Station. No service was available on the entire Sheppard subway line. Shuttle busses were pressed into service to help minimize disruptions.***

December 23, Toronto Hydro reported that during the height of the Toronto ice storm over 300,000 customers were without power – many for days, enduring cold and darkness.* Entire neighbourhoods were affected, making it impossible to seek refuge at a neighbour’s home. Many sought relief at warming centers or were able to find a vacancy at one of the hotels in the city that still had power.

Teamwork ensured elderly clients received the care they needed

And through it all, with the help of committed, caring staff and a lot of teamwork, Eldercare Home Health continued to provide the care our elderly clients needed.

We moved one client from his home where the power had been knocked out to a warming center, and arranged for a caregiver to provide care at the center until a family member was able to locate a hotel room. Our caregiver then accompanied him to the hotel and we continued to provide care there.

We re-routed and re-assigned caregivers to see other clients whose families had also relocated them.

Caregivers even agreed to provide care to a client who refused to leave her cold dark home.

Many of our staff went to extraordinary lengths to make sure that they were there for our elderly clients during the Toronto ice storm – from leaving home to go to their shifts extra early (to allow for numerous transit delays), to responding to last minute calls for assistance from clients.

Our on call Nurses, in addition to their regular duties responding to client health emergencies, acted as controllers, making sure clients were safe and had what they needed, and that all staff knew about any change in location for their shifts.

Thank you

Thank you to our terrific staff, and to our clients and their families – for your faith in us and for your assistance.

It is at challenging times like these when a strong work ethic, a sense of responsibility, and a kind heart really do make a difference.

Lisa Wiseman, Founder, retired

* http://www.torontohydro.com/sites/corporate/newsroom/pages/newsroom.aspx
** http://www.redcross.ca/blog/tag/ice-storm
*** http://www.ttc.ca/News/2013/December/index.jsp