My grandma served as a military medic at 1 Field Ambulance, at CFB Edmonton, Alta. During her time in the military, she was deployed to the Quebec ice storms that occurred on Jan. 4, 1998.
After this was declared a state of emergency, all emergency personnel were sent to help. Police officers, firefighters, the military and all medically available personnel were deployed to start evacuations and clean up.
My grandma’s unit’s job was to go door-to-door to ensure that civilians were okay. They helped transport civilians to hospitals by ambulance.
“Civilians that did not require medical attention were transported to CFB St. Jean for shelter because these people did not have power or heat, so they were not able to cook meals for themselves or provide for themselves,” she said.
She said that back in 1998 there was no social media yet, so going door-to-door was one of the only ways to provide help.
“The ice was so thick that even the telephone poles crashed to the ground, and having no way to communicate with civilians made a dangerous situation even more so.”
They did a road move in their boxed ambulances to assist with the Quebec ice storms. It was a very long and hard process.
I have interviewed my grandma about this event today in her house and one of the things that stuck with her the most was that, “the Prime Minister of Canada, Jean Chretien stopped in to see the military and thanked us for our help!”
I asked her how long she was deployed.
”A month and a half”, she said. “ It is something I will never forget!”
by Jayde Goodwin
Hughenden school student
