Sometimes I hate some of the scenario work I have to do when putting together emergency plans for our teeny little community. 1,400 people, no municipal services whatsoever, an understaffed volunteer fire company, no full-time government employees at all....

So the latest thing to cross my desk is a review of the North American Ice Storm of 1998. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_American_ice_storm_of_1998

The key thing in this scenario is summarized here:

"Prior to the 1998 storm, the last major ice storm to hit Montreal (1961) deposited around 30 to 60 millimetres (1½ to 2¼ inches) of ice. However, the 1998 storm left deposits twice as thick, downing power lines all over the region, damaging most of the trees in Montreal, and leaving streets covered in a thick impassable layer of ice."

And the key impact was:
"Many power lines broke and over 1,000 pylons collapsed in chain reactions under the weight of the ice, leaving more than 4 million people without electricity, most of them in southern Quebec, western New Brunswick and Eastern Ontario, some of them for an entire month. At least twenty-five people died in the areas affected by the ice, primarily from hypothermia, according to Environment Canada. Twelve more deaths and hundreds of millions of dollars in additional damage were caused by the flooding farther south from the same storm system."

So, in my scenario planning, guess what the major issue turns out to be in this scenario? I mean aside from the obvious - no way to respond for EMS/Fire/PD in heart of the storm?

WATER & POOP. 100% of my area is on wells. Power goes out, most people have something to burn in to keep warm, but the wells go out, and in many cases septic systems are pump-up to sand mounds.

So in the planning process, I'm developing a centralized water distribution point (the National Guard has wonderful water tanks that they can bring in) and we'll also have sufficient power to operate water wells at the firehouse to refill the tanks - BUT - we have to get each tank-load certified as "safe to drink" by the county department of health - so now I need to plan a runner to fill sample containers, drive to the lab, and come back with the certification for each 6,500 gallon tank we fill. That means I could have delays before we can release water to those who have containers.

So that leads me to....if that's the scenario we're ending up with for an ice storm, and you're on a well, for your own sake, make sure you have a generator that can at least run your well, and is, optimally, propane powered so you can forget about fuel problems. We can bring in propane refilling trucks easily enough in a few days after the roads are clear, it's not so easy to bring in gasoline or diesel fueling services.