When Mayor Alex Nuttall woke up on Sunday morning, the scale of the Barrie storm’s destruction became immediately clear.
“I looked out the window and I was thinking, whoa, like there’s a lot of trees down,” he recalled.
But as he stepped outside, the true extent of the damage hit him.
“It was mayhem. There were trees down against houses, over cars, in the streets. It was really catastrophic in terms of the amount of damage that’s been done.”
The ice storm had knocked out power to the entire city at one point, leaving residents in the dark and crews scrambling to restore electricity. Now, days later, most of the power had been restored, except for a few small sections. But the cleanup, Nuttall warned, would take far longer.
“It’s taking three or four days to get everyone back up and going, and we are likely going to be cleaning up the trees for weeks and weeks and weeks,” he said. “The amount of trees that have come down, it’s probably thousands, if not tens of thousands.”
In response, the city has mobilized a massive cleanup effort. “We’ve called in 23 contractor crews to help around the city. We have our existing city crews out and about cleaning up. We’re looking for more,” Nuttall explained. “There’s just so much to do all at once. It’s a really difficult thing.”
Dave Friary, Director of Operations, described the city’s response efforts as extensive and ongoing, with cleanup efforts expected to last several months.
“Our day-to-day starts with monitoring the weather,” Friary explained. “We knew the storm was coming a couple of days in advance. Unfortunately, it started with rain, so there wasn’t much we could do at first. We had to wait for the temperature to drop before deploying our sanders and salters.”
As the storm progressed, freezing rain began accumulating on tree branches and hydro wires, causing widespread damage.
“We called in staff from our forestry division as the ice built up, but as the limbs and trees started snapping, our priority shifted to closing roads and ensuring public safety. Downed hydro wires made the situation even more dangerous,” Friary said.
The storm, which hit Saturday night and continued into Sunday, left streets impassable and public spaces littered with debris. “Some streets had five, six trees down on just one street,” Nuttall said. “I’ve never seen anything like this.”
Emergency crews worked through the weekend, initially focusing on reopening roadways to ensure access for emergency services. “We deployed heavy equipment and loaders just to push trees and limbs off the roads,” Friary noted. “Now, we’ve moved into the cleanup phase, using chip trucks and other equipment to deal with the debris.”
City services have been stretched to the limit as they work to clear roads, sidewalks, and parks. “Any boulevard trees around the city that have been impacted, that’s the city’s responsibility,” the mayor said. “We’re trying to clean up parks, clean up streets, clean up sidewalks, clean up boulevards.”
To assist residents, the city has opened up the landfill for storm debris. “Anyone who can get into the landfill, please take it there,” Nuttall urged.
The provincial government has been in regular contact, Nuttall said, with Premier Doug Ford and Minister of Municipal Affairs Rob Flack reaching out soon after the storm. Jill Dunlop, the minister responsible for emergency preparedness, was set to visit the city.
While provincial support has included hydro workers and additional cleanup crews, Nuttall said more help would be needed.
“We’re going to be millions of dollars into this response,” he said. “Not including the individual property owner responses. There will definitely be a need for emergency funding.”
Despite early warnings about the storm, provincial assistance wasn’t requested beforehand. “That usually comes after the fact,” Friary explained. “Right now, our focus is on cleanup, but we will likely request financial assistance for the costs associated with recovery. We’ve already engaged 22 contractor crews to assist with the effort, but it’s going to be a long, expensive process.”
Residents should prepare for a prolonged cleanup effort.
“If I could tell everyone one thing, it’s to be patient. Clean-up will take several months,” Friary advised.
“While we hope to have roadways and boulevards cleared by summer, wooded areas, parks, and city-owned naturalized spaces will take longer. Trees have fallen onto private properties, and we’re responsible for clearing them.”
