As firefighters rushed to calls in the early hours of July 22, Colton Sisco’s mother Tera Sisco was working the night shift. She was listening to first responders on a live scanner, waiting for an emergency alert to go out.
“I heard them begging, essentially is what it sounded like. Begging for an emergency alert,” Sisco said.
Brooklyn Fire Department first requested an alert as early as 1:12 a.m. and according to recordings from Broadcastify.com, repeatedly asked for one until an alert went out at 3:06 a.m. According to RCMP, they also requested EMO put out an alert as of 1:24 a.m.
As Sisco listened, she said about an hour went by and there was still no alert. At 2:28 a.m. she called her son’s father, Chris Sisco, over Facebook messenger to warn them both. Colton was at Chris' apartment that night.
“And woke him up and when he put his feet over the bed. He said he was in water. I could hear the panic in his voice,” Sisco said.
As Chris called 911, Sisco also called to wake up Chris’ neighbours, the Harnish family.
As it was described to her, Sisco said the house was starting to crack. Chris struggled to open up the side door and it took two people to push and pull open the front door. The group tried to flee in the one vehicle left but they were in trouble.
“With the tide coming in the river and the water coming out it literally turned into a whirlpool in that area and they got stuck in it,” Sisco said.
She said the two families couldn’t stay where they were because the house would eventually move off its foundation. From what she understands, the truck had just left the driveway to turn toward access to dry land when it was lifted up and went into the water.
Sisco said they all got pulled into the water but a civilian was able to swim to them and eventually get a boat to help the group find taller trees until first responders were able to reach them.
“I believe they were in the water for about an hour,” she said.
The emergency alert came at 3:06 a.m., telling residents to shelter in place. Less than 40 minutes later, another alert warned residents to evacuate because the dam was at risk of breaching.
Sisco said before she received the initial alert at 3:06 a.m., she had heard on the live scanner that a child was in the water.
“By the time the initial emergency alert came, I knew my son was gone,” the mother said.
“I was their emergency alert and it still wasn’t enough time."
CALLS FOR CHANGE
Coping with enormous grief, Sisco wants to champion change.
She believes there should be less red tape and fewer barriers in place for an alert to go out, and more trust placed in those on the ground.
“I feel as though if people were able to listen to the boots on the ground, the people in it, I feel that amongst the lives that were saved that night, which there was many lives saved, that there at least would’ve been two more,” she said.
Sisco also believes alerts need to be held to a certain response time standard, similar to first responders.
“I think our EMO system should be no different. We should have that ready to go. It should be delivered within a timely manner and almost two hours is not acceptable,” she said.
The mother points out how the emergency alert system relies on cell phone towers but wireless devices can call 911 without being connected to a network. She wonders whether it would be possible for alerts to run off the same system.
“If you have a phone that’s not even hooked up to Bell or Rogers, or Eastlink you can still call 911,” Sisco said. “And our EMO systems don’t go through that.”
Sisco also believes organizations should have pre-written weather alerts ready to go that can be edited as needed so people aren’t wasting time trying to word the alert.
PROVINCE RESPONDS
Heather Fairbairn, communications advisor with Nova Scotia EMO, said Nova Scotia has a well-defined process in place around requesting and issuing emergency alerts.
“This process was followed and NSEMO worked to get the messages out to residents as quickly as possible,” Fairbairn said.
The province noted municipalities lead the emergency response in their area and would determine the content and timing of alert based on the information they receive from first responders on the ground.
Fairbairn points out that situations can evolve quickly and vary greatly from one area to the next and the response, including public safety messaging, for each may be different.
“That is why centralized coordination of resources and messaging within the jurisdiction is necessary,” Fairbairn said.
A debrief will be done to understand the impact and make improvements.
“The use of the Alert Ready system will certainly form part of those discussions, this could include expanding the scope for those that have direct access to the Alert Ready system,” Fairbairn said.
“We want to thank the regional emergency management organizations and first responders across the province who put themselves at risk and did their best under extremely challenging conditions to help keep Nova Scotians safe.”
WEST HANTS RESPONDS
Mark Phillips, CAO with West Hants Regional Municipality, said a report outlining the municipality’s emergency response is being put together and details including times when alerts were sent to the province will be forthcoming.
Behind the scenes that night, Phillips said the municipal team was trying to connect with each other and describes there was a “break” in communication, adding he was also remote and not initially accessible due to technology.
“This came up on us very quickly and obviously the time of the day is not very favourable as well,” he said.
The CAO highlighted the severity and intensity of the flooding, adding they try to design systems, processes, technology and infrastructure for certain scenarios.
“And sometimes we exceed those scenarios that you train for,” he said. “And sometimes they’re overwhelmed or sometimes there’s just either a breakdown or a disconnect for whatever the reason and sometimes, in this case I believe it was the intensity of it and how quickly it came on.”
Phillips said they “forewent the approval process very quickly” to get an alert out.
“We have a high level of trust in delegation in our team to quite frankly do what needs to be done when it needs to be done,” he said. “When the first or second is not available for whatever reason that we just mobilize ourselves.”
Phillips said the municipality feels for the families who lost loved ones, and emphasized if there’s a way for staff to improve on the emergency response in the future then it’s a commitment that everybody takes very seriously.
“And that’s no reflection of a sense of failure on behalf of anyone, it’s just a commitment to do the very best that they can,” he said.
