INCIDENT ACTION PLAN

Flooding of the City of Uptown’s downtown core

Emily Gilles
7094287
Emergency Preparedness and Response
Cathy Egan
Wednesday October 11, 2017
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Table of Contents

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Introduction ..................................................................................................................... 2
Direct Hazards of the Flood ............................................................................................. 2
Assumptions.................................................................................................................... 4
Resulting Hazards ........................................................................................................... 5
Incident Action Plan......................................................................................................... 6
References .................................................................................................................... 11
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Introduction

Floods are natural hazards that commonly occur all across Canada. Flooding can

be a result of extensive, prolonged rainfall, melting snow, or dam failures (Toronto,

2016). During unseasonably warm weather within Southwestern Ontario in January, a

weather event occurred where it rained heavily for 24 hours, resulting in the overflow of

Rocky River, spilling over the banks, flooding the downtown core of the City of Uptown.

Water has flooded into restaurants, businesses and basements of residential

condominiums. As a result of the heavy rain, the roof of a long-term care facility has

collapsed. As part of the local health unit in a flood-prone area, a hazard analysis was

completed in order to prepare for the flood.

Direct Hazards of the Flood

Public health and other risks directly associated with the flooding of the downtown of

Uptown were assessed by their level of probability to occur and their severity of impact,

given a high or low designation for each.

Hazards directly related to the flood that have a high likelihood and severity are

waterborne zoonotic disease outbreaks, power outage, and injuries resulting from failed

infrastructure. Waterborne zoonotic diseases, such as leptospirosis (WHO, 2017) and

E. coli, can be transmitted to humans through heavy rainfalls exasperating the runoff of

manure upstream into the river system or facilitating the movement of rodents to dry

areas, where they shed the organism, possibly creating outbreak situations (WHO,

2017). Power outages can occur during a flood event when the heavy rain and/or

rushing water take out powerlines. If power is cut off to food premises, businesses and
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condominiums, this inhibits power to be used for food storage and cooking,

handwashing / drinking water, as well as the inability to run patient care utilities such as

ventilators, impacting the availability of food, sanitary procedures, and life-saving

devices. Injuries resulting from failed infrastructure, roof collapse of long-term care

facility, will cause for the evacuation of all staff and patients to a shelter and/or hospital

depending on the patient’s conditions. A temporary shelter will need to be prepared for

such staff and patients that will minimize the spread of disease among patients and

supply enough food and water for at least 72 hours.

Hazards assessed with a low/high or high/low designation are contaminated drinking

water, debris blocking roadways, and drowning/hypothermia. Overflowing of the river

system can contaminate surface water, overflow street drainage systems, or create

back-flow issues within sewage systems. With the water and sewage treatment facilities

placed away from the river, there is a low probability that the treatment facilities will be

flooded with water from the ravine, although precautionary measures are to be taken to

ensure back-flow of sewage systems and proper drinking water treatment are managed

during a flood emergency. Blocked roadways can occur when the rushing water carry

branches and other shrubbery (MoO, 2016), as well as any anthropogenic items

(garbage cans, bikes, etc.) onto roadways causing traffic blockages, possible injury –

this will require police service and city roads departments to work in coordination to

divert vehicle and human traffic away from such areas (Toronto, 2016) in order for

efficient clean up procedures to occur. The possibility of drowning and/or hypothermia

(WHO, 2017) can occur during a flooding event if there are pedestrians near the river

during the initial event, falling in the river or become trapped in a flooded area. Heavy
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rain and rushing water can cause the river banks to become unstable, crumbling and

allowing for water to overflow. The temperature of rivers in Southwestern Ontario in

January can be quite cold, as snowfall and colder weather decrease the temperature of

the water. Incidents of falling into the rushing flood water or becoming trapped in

flooded area expose individuals to the cold water, inducing hypothermia. Public health

announcements about the dangers of rushing waters and flood areas, as well as

riverbank patrol by conservation authorities will help to mitigate human injury or deaths

related to drowning and hypothermia.

Assumptions

Within the City of Uptown, the main area affected by floods is the downtown core;

where municipal water and sewer services are available. Both the sewage treatment

plant and water treatment facility are located away from the flood-plane and are served

on a different power grid. It is assumed that the local hospital has 143 inpatient beds

with services for emergency care and surgery, among others and is located away from

the flood plain. Due to the close proximity to the river, businesses and restaurants are

presumed to be aware of the flood-prone zone they reside in and have constructed their

own emergency plan in preparation of such an event. Due to the roof collapse of the

longer-term care home, it cannot operate in such conditions, forcing the evacuation of

all staff and patients. The high volunteer culture within the city and several varying news

outlets, allows for direct communication with the public about the dangers of floods and

evacuation procedures.
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Resulting Hazards

Hazards that may result from the flood include; foodborne disease outbreaks,

enteric/respiratory outbreaks occurring within shelters, respiratory ailments, carbon

monoxide poisoning, and flash freezing. These are essentially secondary risks, as they

are not directly caused by the flood but result from hazards that are directly associated

from the flooding event. Some of the hazards like carbon monoxide poisoning and flash

freezing were assessed as low likelihood and low severity, as public health warning

announcements and risk mitigation strategies will already be in place for these hazards.

Enteric/respiratory outbreaks occurring within shelters are classified as a low likelihood

but high impact, this is because the medical histories of the patients being transported

to the shelters are well know and therefore mitigation strategies can be developed to

segregate certain patients or have them transferred to the hospital during such an event

to decrease the spread of disease. However, in regards to foodborne illness outbreaks,

this was assessed as a high likelihood and high severity as it can result from multiple

hazards. Power outages can cause a lack of temperature control (storage and cooking)

within food premises, flood waters can contaminate food items and infrastructure, as

well as foodborne outbreaks that can occur in the shelters where vulnerable populations

are situated (long term care patients). Strategies to mitigate these risks are outlined in

the Incident Action Plan.

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Incident Action Plan

Incident Name

Flooding of downtown core of the city of Uptown

Operational Period
From (Date/Time) January 11, 2017 To (Date/Time January 13, 2017
07:00 pm 11:00 pm
Current Situation

The overflow of Rocky River has flooded the many buildings in the downtown area of
Uptown, causing restaurants and businesses to close until damage can be repaired.
The EPH Team is working to ensure that conditions at the restaurants and
businesses are safe and free of health hazards prior to reopening.

Goals

• To ensure flood recovery efforts are done so to prevent the loss of life and
injury to persons
• To minimize the damage to residential and business operations as well as the
environment
• To ensure that the temporary care facility is set up in a way to minimize the
spread of disease and ready for evacuees by January 14, 2017 by 10:00 am
• To ensure that the restaurants are cleaned up and inspected prior to opening
after the flood to minimize foodborne illness transmission
• To ensure businesses and residential condominiums are cleaned up and
inspected prior to reopening to minimize respiratory ailments from mould
development

Top Priorities per HIRA Grid Analysis (Impact/Probability)

High/High Mitigation Assigned to Resources

Strategy (agency and/or Needed
specific person)

Water testing Dorothy Zbornak Support of Public

Waterborne zoonic conducted prior to (Environmental Health Ontario
disease heavy rainfall Health) Laboratory to
transmission predictions conduct testing
Dick van Dyke
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(Safe Water
Specialist and
EPH)

Injuries from Evaluation of Sal Omy (Manager, Communications

infrastructure failing injuries, Communications) with hospital for
determining if patient transfer
patients go to Long-term care
hospital or shelter staff First Aid
kits/stations for
EMS injury treatment

Power outage Monitor power grids Sophia Petrillo Back-up generator

leading up to and (Finance Manager) supplies for long-
during heavy rain term care facilities,
Energy company hospitals, shelter,
EOC

Ensure all Peter Parker (Food 4 PHI’s conducting

Foodborne disease damaged food and Safety Manager at inspections of food
outbreaks goods are disposed PHU) premises
of
Robert Bobbington Thermometers for
Ensure (MOH) fridges
temperatures of all
refrigeration units Posters to remind
are in compliance of proper food
with the Food handling
Premise
Regulations Ensuring food
handler certification
Schedule EPHPs to
conduct food 10 volunteers at
inspections prior to shelter
restaurants
reopening

Periodic
inspections of
shelter food
services
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High/Low or Contingency Plan Assigned to Resources

Low/High (agency and/or Needed
specific person)
Drowning and other Public warnings Sal Omy (Manager, Communication
water-related water about dangers of Communications) with news outlets
injuries rushing water reach public
Local conservation
Patrol of river authority 10 Conservation
officers to help
EMS patrol river banks

Respiratory/Enteric Review of medical Rose Nylund Separate rooms for

Outbreaks within records of sickness (Health Planner) segregated
shelters for segregation individuals

Communications
with hospital for
transport

Mould development Building Dorothy Zbornak 2 PH inspectors

within infrastructure inspections for (Environmental
water damage prior Health) 3 By-law officers
to re-opening
City By-law

Contaminated Monitoring of the Cliff Huxtable Communications

drinking water water treatment (Emergency with treatment
system and Preparedness plants
sewage lines Coordinator)

Hazardous debris Directing traffic Police services and Auxiliary police

blocking the away from flooded City Roads officers for direct
roadways roads department traffic immediately
after flood
Placing road Signs to
closure and danger communicate road
signs to keep public closures, danger
away due to fallen debris
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Low/Low Actions Assigned to Resources

(agency and/or Needed
specific person)
Carbon monoxide Public Health Ted Bundy Communications
poisoning announcements (Director of Social with media outlets
about dangers of Services)
using propane
BBQs inside, etc –
promotion of safe
to use sources of
heat
Flash freezing Monitoring of Blanche Devereaux Communications
weather (Human Resources with Weather
temperatures prior Manager) stations
to and post-flood
City Roads 2 Water trucks with
Pumping of department hoses
standing water off
roads 6 Road sander
trucks
Road sanders on
stand-by to reduce
freezing of water on
roads

8. Organizational assignments

Executive Lead Robert Bobbington, MOH

Command

Incident Manager Ted Bundy, Director of Social Services

Liaison Officer Marcia Brady, Emergency Preparedness Coordinator

Command Staff

Communications Sal Omy, Communications Specialist

Safety Officer Cliff Huxtable, Emergency Preparedness Coordinator

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Operations Section Chief Dorothy Zbornak, Environmental Health

Planning Section Chief Rose Nylund, Health Planner

General Staff

Logistics Section Chief Blanche Devereaux, Manager, Human Resources

Fin/Admin Section Chief Sophia Petrillo, Manager, Finance

Prepared by: Emily Gillies

Command Planning

January 1, 2017

Approved by: Robert Bobbington

January 2, 2017
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References

Ministry of Ontario (MoO). “Hazard Based Planning.” Emergency Management Ontario,

Ontario Government, 25 May 2016,
www.emergencymanagementontario.ca/english/emcommunity/program_resources/haza
rdbasedplanning/flood_guideline.html.
City of Toronto (Toronto). “Emergency Plan Risk Specific Plan: Flooding.” July 2016
https://www1.toronto.ca/City%20Of%20Toronto/Office%20of%20Emergency%20Manag
ement/Files/pdf/OSFs/2016%20PDF%20ESFs/Flooding_Plan_RSP_160720.pdf
WHO. “Flooding and Communicable diseases fact sheet.”
http://www.who.int/hac/techguidance/ems/flood_cds/en/index1.html