Recent Storm in Ottawa and the Need for Self Sufficiency | Lori Mills

Lori Mills is a long-time resident of the Ottawa area. She joins us today to relay her first-person experience of the recent major storm event that left many without power for numerous days. Lori’s account is an example that illustrates the need for people to become more self sufficient, relying less on the government for help. On the Beginnings of the Storm…. And then I got an emergency alert. So now this is an hour after the storm. That I’m receiving the emergency alert. Very helpful.  At the same time, I got a text message from my parents saying that their gazebo was torn apart and then HELP all in capital letters. So, I said I need to head over there. They live about 12 kilometers [from me.] It took me 45 minutes to get there. And that was because there were trees down everywhere, power lines were down all over the roads and they had, literally people. Had come and put-up caution-tape to stop people from turning onto the street. There was a fire truck right across the road and they detoured us from what looked like an absolute war zone. There were trees down on every single property. They were on the houses; they were on the cars. There was one where there’s two cars in the driveway side by side, and a tree had fallen from either side, right on top of the cars. It was so shocking to see. I could not believe my eyes. On the Tangible Failures of Government … There was no advanced warning of any kind that I knew of mind you. I don’t listen to mainstream media. So, I suppose it’s possible that they might have warned, but nobody I knew anything about it. And certainly, the hydro trucks were out in full force and they were working, but people would get through on the phone and they would say, you’ll have power at 7:30 tonight and things like that. Which of course didn’t happen. Any information that you could get and even on the radio at this point, they’re saying they’ll have power restored areas by such and such a time. And I don’t think anybody got power back when they were told they were going to get power back.