Okanagan sends its best to Maritimes

Photo: Contributed

Helping others in times of disaster is a labour of love for Chief Larry Watkinson of the Penticton Fire Department.

Watkinson was one of hundreds of professional, military and other responders who travelled to Canada’s ravaged east coast in the wake of post-tropical storm Fiona earlier this month.

A lot of the work he did during the week he was in the area of Sydney, N.S., was assessment and just plain manual labour – but he did much more than that.

“The humanitarian piece is a very big part of it for me,” said Watkinson in an interview Wednesday.

“I’ve been on a lot of major international deployments and it’s soul food for me. It fills my tank and this being a Canadian event hits even closer to home.”

He recalled early one morning shortly after arriving in Nova Scotia and walking up a driveway to do an assessment on a damaged house.

“There was a man sitting outside having a cup of tea and a smoke and he just looked totally beat up, just emotionally crushed,” recalled Watkinson.

“His house was damaged by trees, his car was completely crushed, his foot was broken in the storm and he had no power, no heat and no insurance.

“So being able to offer our services to someone like that who so clearly needs help, well, it is just so rewarding.”

There was another 91-year-old man who was in much the same predicament who also got the help he needed, but couldn’t afford, from Watkinson’s crew.

“It was so great. One day you could do a direct assessment on the property owners and you could be helping them the very next day, so you were able to see the immediate relief from the actions of your team,” said Watkinson. “We did everything from advanced disaster management to mucking out debris from homes that were flooded.

“The people of Nova Scotia are a very resilient bunch, but, like anyone, when you’re down in the dumps the future can look pretty dim.”

The chief’s other disaster relief work includes a deployment to the Bahamas in 2019 following Hurricane Dorian, and in Kathmandu several years earlier when an earthquake killed and injured thousands of people.

“Like any time you want to be there to help people in our own community, I feel like those who have the skills and the ability to do that kind of work should raise their hands and help other communities in strife, that’s the direction I go,” said Watkinson.

And there’s an added bonus to his deployments abroad.

“I bring back great value and experience to help emergency management here in Penticton,” he said.

Four men from the South Okanagan-Similkameen have joined their colleagues from Fortis to help get the lights back on in Atlantic Canada.

FortisBC dispatched a crew of 14 people – 12 powerline technicians and two operations supervisors – to P.E.I. on Oct. 2 to help restore service to Maritime Electric Company Ltd. customers who lost power after Hurricane Fiona struck the region.

The electric system sustained considerable damage from the storm and, as part of its emergency response protocols, Maritime Electric put out a call for support to other electric utilities from across Canada.

The local contingent consists of powerline technicians Christian Hopper and Colby Cooper, plus apprentice McLean Donohoe, all from Oliver, and powerline technician Clayton Vermette of Princeton.

“Even with our experience, it’s shocking to see so much damage—it’s hard to explain how the wind can bring down so many trees, flip RVs on their sides and tear roofs off of houses. Every line seems to have a tree on it,” said John Radies, FortisBC operations supervisor, in a press release.

“The people of P.E.I. just went through a surreal event and have been without power for days. It gives you a very good feeling to see the smiles on faces when you show up to repair power in their neighbourhood, then even a bigger sense of gratification when you restore power and know you just made someone’s day.”

The two operations supervisors from FortisBC are leading a crew of power line technicians, pole setters and utility-certified arborists from New Brunswick, who are working to clear trees and repair lines along the coast in central P.E.I.

Meanwhile, FortisBC powerline technicians from Kelowna are working directly with Maritime Electric crews to repair main transmission lines, while FortisBC crews from the Kootenays and South Okanagan are working east of Charlottetown to bring power back to pockets of customers in the Georgetown region.

Parent company Fortis Inc. has approximately 240 employees dispatched in Atlantic Canada. The last time FortisBC crews were called to assist outside provincial borders was when the Turks and Caicos Islands sustained considerable damage from Hurricane Irma in 2017.

FortisBC crews are expected to remain in P.E.I until end of this week.