Vulnerable people’s task force checks up on seniors, supplies food
When the power went out Friday, Hélène Laurin thought it would be a brief interruption.
After 24 hours, with no end in sight to the outage, the 68-year-old took the meat from her freezer and went to her sister’s place in Orléans for a feast.
After 48 hours without electricity at Laurin’s Viewmount Drive building, public-housing staff showed up outside with free pizza, water and flashlights.
And Laurin, who’s one of the handful of drivers in her building with a car, promised her neighbours she would go for coffee in the morning if the power still wasn’t on.
“I went knocking on a few doors just to make sure that the more elderly were doing fine, that they didn’t need anything,” she said. “I had told them, if (the outage) goes on I would do a run to McDonalds to get coffees.”
The power came back overnight Sunday night, and Laurin didn’t have to do the Monday morning coffee run.
But she wasn’t the only one checking up on her neighbours, some of whom are elderly and disabled.
With more than 10,000 Ottawa Community Housing residents left in the dark after the second tornado on Friday, public-health and social services officials formed a vulnerable people’s task force with the Ottawa Food Bank, Ottawa Community Housing and Ottawa Search and Rescue volunteers. They operated out of a command centre set up on the ground floor of the public-housing building at 445 Richmond Rd.
“A big concern is food. As a result of having power outages for over 48 hours, a lot of the individuals lost the food they had in their fridge,” said Gillian Connelly, manager of Healthy Communities at Ottawa Public Health.
“We have teams of individuals going in doing wellness checks, to make sure health issues and food concerns are being answered. Mental health is another concern that we’re well aware of as a result of it being a stressful situation.”
Laurin and her neighbours were among the thousands of community housing residents who received a visit on Sunday or Monday. The wellness checks were conducted by teams made up of two people, one from the Ottawa Volunteer Search and Rescue organization and one from the city.
Adding to the food concern was the fact that all 11 food distribution centres in the west end lost power, and their supplies of perishable food.
“Our first goal, once those 11 food banks regained power, was to resupply them with perishable food and non-perishable food,” said Ottawa Food Bank director Michael Maidment. “We’ve done that this morning. Our trucks have been rolling.”
The food bank team also made emergency deliveries of food to community housing locations without power.
On Viewmount Drive, the delivery of bread, fruit and other snacks was a welcome surprise.
“I’d say more than half the people in the three buildings showed up and got supplies,” said Laurin. “It was nice actually because we weren’t expecting that at all.”
Another Viewmount Drive resident, George Forest, said he didn’t know what was edible in his unit. “I’m suspicious,” he said. “The refrigerator doesn’t smell right. We’re going to go check what we can toss. We don’t need food poisoning.”
During the door-to-door wellness checks, city staff and searchand-rescue volunteers also distributed information on food safety, emergency social assistance and how to cope with stressful events, including a list of resources.
Connelly said it’s the second year the city has worked with the Ottawa Volunteer Search and Rescue organization, whose members are identified by their high-visibility shirts. The partnership has been invaluable, she added.
“In years past, we would have grabbed city staff to go out door to door,” she said, giving the example of a boil-water advisory.
“But these guys are trained, they have the resources.
“Their skill sets are excellent, and they’re able to mobilize a large amount of people and get them out in a succinct way. We’re so thankful for them.”
I’m suspicious. The refrigerator doesn’t smell right. We’re going to go check what we can toss. We don’t need food poisoning.