Thursday marks the 10-year anniversary of the 2015 ice storm, considered one of the worst natural disasters in the region’s history.
Cumberland County EMA Director Travis Cole said the ice storm did not have any grace for Cumberland County as high winds and heavy ice accumulation led to thousands of people being trapped and without power. Cole said for Cumberland County residents the storm was an eye-opener.
“Since then I’ve seen a lot more home generators and folks using gas appliances when they can versus electric just so the impacts are less should something like that happen again,” Cole said.
Putnam County EMA Director Brandon Smith said he recalls how challenging it was to respond after the storm.
“Just the complications that come with working an ice storm with powerlines falling, trees falling, and blocking access routes, as well as the ability to get resources into those people from emergency services and resources in general was very difficult because of the extreme cold as well,” Smith said.
Smith said though the storm is a time most residents would like to forget, the storm helped the department better prepare and respond to natural disasters. Smith said among the areas that have drastically improved since then is communication with the public.
“Mayor Porter was new into the office at that time and one of his priorities was to communicate honestly with the general public,” Smith said. “So the ice storm was a good exercise for us in all learning his directives as far as how we communicate our systems for how we communicate and then challenging those systems.”
Cole said sometimes EMA departments learn from someone else’s struggles but with the ice storm that was simply not the case. Cole said what a coincidence that we have snow and ice on the ten year anniversary of the historic ice storm.
“It’s maybe a little ironic,” Cole said. “I mean we expect snow to happen especially up here on the plateau through February and even into March so it’s not surprising but you know it is kind of ironic here we are having some snow covered grounds today.”
Smith and Cole said most people who experienced the ice storm in 2015 probably think about it every winter.
