Newfie June - The State of Emergency


All of the recent blizzards that have hit Eastern Canada have reminded me of a time, back in the winter of '76 or '77 (my middle-aged memory can't recall which).

It was when I was a brand new registered nurse. I was working a 12 hour night shift, from 8 pm to 8 am. It had been snowing steadily throughout the day and by the time I went to work in the evening; it had turned into quite a blizzard. I don't know what happened during the night but the term "heavy snowfall warning" that the weatherman had warned of, was quite an understatement. By the time my shift ended in the morning, more than three feet of snow had fallen since the day before. Gale force north Atlantic winds had whipped up snow drifts as high as the roofs on bungalows.

A state of emergency had been declared by the Mayor of St. John's and that meant only emergency vehicles were allowed on the roads. That also meant that relief staff could not get in to the hospital and none of us who were already there, could get home. We were stuck! The hospital administration decided that the student nurses who lived in the adjoining residence would have to share their rooms for staff to rest. All staff was put on rotating shifts of 8 hours on and 8 hours off. During your off time, you would go to the residence and find and empty bed to crash in until your next shift.

The electricity failed for short periods on several occasions. Of course, the hospital had an emergency generator, but, since the storm was still raging, we were asked to try to conserve energy in case we lost power for a longer period of time.

Only those who have had to dig out from an Atlantic blizzard can appreciate what I am talking about. The snow is so heavy it fells like you're lifting cement. Well, it wasn't long before all of those Newfie men, who didn't have to go in to work, decided that they would start trying to shovel out from the storm. Of course, if you take hundreds of mostly out-of-shape men, who usually (at that time anyway) have a high fat diet, and let them loose on a snow pile that is over their heads and have them start shovelling….you know what the result is going to be. At least a dozen or so will have an attack of angina or a heart attack. And, sure enough, they started dropping like flies. Trouble was…the roads were in such bad shape that first day that even the ambulances were getting stuck. We had fire trucks with chains on their tires and volunteers on snow mobiles pulling toboggans, bringing in heart attack victims to the E.R. Women, ready to give birth, were brought in to the hospital by snowplows.

After the first couple of shifts I got so tired that the next two days are a blur. I do remember that most of us smoked back then. You can imagine that on day two, when all of the cigarettes were gone, there were a lot of angry, impatient people about. We all had to start wearing surgical scrubs as our uniforms became quickly "ripe." The laundry could not operate at full capacity, partly because there was only one shift of folks to run the whole operation and also because the electricity was not dependable. So, one set of scrubs was all we could each have. We had to sleep in them, work in them and eat in them. The smell by day three was … shall we say…noticeable! To top it all off…we didn't have toothbrushes. I remember that my teeth felt like they were fuzz covered. It was disgusting, but what choice did we have?

The kitchen staff was trying to make meals as best they could, but were trying to conserve food at the same time as they didn't know how long we would be holed up there.

Imagine, for a moment, that hungry, dirty, smelly staff members, functioning on very little sleep, all with bad breath and many with nicotine fits, are the only ones to look after you….and you are sick in bed! Sounds like an episode from a horror movie, doesn't it?

It actually wasn't that bad for the patients. We all knew they were the first priority and an extreme situation like that actually gives a strong sense of community and togetherness. We actually had patients, who were ready for discharge from hospital when the storm struck, helping staff deliver meals to sicker patients, tidying up, visiting elderly patients to chat and generally trying to help keep spirits up. It was a strange and unforgettable experience.

By the end of day two the snow had stopped and by day three the roads were clear enough to allow traffic. At last we could go home!

I was never so glad to see the outdoors in my entire life. It felt like I had been marooned for weeks…not days. My mother, God rest her soul, had a big pot of fresh, homemade soup on the stove, a tub of water drawn and a clean bed ready. I slept 'til half-past Tuesday, I swear.

It was a nuisance at the time but it is now almost 30 years later and I still recall the occasion vividly.

So, to the folks in Halifax…take heart. You are storing up memories to tell your grandchildren about. And just think…Spring is just around the corner.

Stay warm,

© Newfie June




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