Are resources sufficient to ensure the safety of non-autonomous older people during prolonged power outages? According to one citizen, who has spent the past few days worrying about his grandmother’s safety, the answer is no. The Laval authorities, however, claim to have put in place measures to guarantee the safety of its citizens.
Kévin L’Esperance, a doctoral candidate in public health at the University of Montreal, visited his grandmother on Friday afternoon. “When I landed, there had been no electricity or heating in his building for two days,” he says. She was lying in her bed and I thought she was dead. »
Mr. L’Esperance’s grandmother has lived in the same low-rent housing in the Chomedey district of Laval for 50 years. She suffers from bouts of dementia. A CLSC Ruisseau-Papineau nurse visits him every day to give him his medication.
“There were no resources at the CLSC level, no way to find a space where she could have slept” during the power outage, laments Mr. L’Esperance, who found his grandmother wrapped in a heavy winter coat, at home. “She requires a medical team to take care of her every day, so I couldn’t just take her home. »
He also claims that “nobody really asked the question” within the CLSC as to whether his grandmother was going to “be ok during the power outage”. “Friday, there was no way to reach the people responsible for his file,” he says, since most of the CLSC staff had gone on Easter leave.
The head of public relations for the CISSS de Laval, Pierre-Yves Séguin, replies that his organization was proactive during the crisis. “From the beginning, we made calls to home care patients to make sure they were okay. For those who were vulnerable, they were repatriated to CISSS de Laval establishments. »
Shelters for citizens
While Mr. L’Esperance’s grandmother was able to count on daily visits from a CLSC nurse, not all residents of her building are entitled to the same follow-up. “I went to get food for three or four of his neighbors because all their food had expired due to the breakdown,” he says. Power finally resumed on Saturday morning. But some residents were not at the end of their sentences, according to Mr. L’Esperance.
“One of the things that struck me was that many of them find themselves without a phone, which is a great source of distress. Most of them have land lines, but a tree fell on the line outside. »
At the City of Laval, it is indicated that “several municipal buildings to accommodate citizens who wish in particular to warm up and charge their electronic devices” have been made available to citizens. “Two shelters (the Régent-Martimbeau community center and Axion 50 +) opened since [vendredi] until 10 p.m. [samedi] were made available to citizens who wished to spend the night there,” adds Public Affairs Advisor Nesrine Saci, by email.
She adds that “staff numbers at 311 and 911 have been increased to be able to respond to citizens as quickly as possible. »