‘I gotta keep going’: Woman whose son died in devastating floods pushes for action

Monday marks six months since Nova Scotia declared a state of emergency when torrential rainfall devastated parts of the province.

Tera Sisco’s six-year-old son, Colton, was one of four Nova Scotians who died in flooding in West Hants.

The boy’s room in Sisco’s home is still very much as he left it, with her telling Global News he had tidied it up before going to stay at his father’s place that Friday night in July.

Soon after his death, Sisco started a Facebook page called “Colton’s Call” in her campaign to push for better emergency preparedness in the province.

“I have moments where I just want to cry all day,” she said, “and moments where I’m like, ‘No, I gotta keep going.”

Colton was swept away in rushing floodwaters as he and his father tried to flee to safety in the overnight hours of Friday, July 21.

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Six-year-old Natalie Harnish, 14-year-old Terri-Lynn Keddy, and 52-year-old Nick Holland also died in the flood. Their bodies were later found after an extensive search.

It’s estimated three months’ worth of rainfall fell in less than 24 hours that weekend.

The public alert telling residents in part of West Hants to stay home was issued almost two hours after area firefighters requested it from the ground.

“There’s no need to keep the public waiting in the dark when their lives are at risk,” said Sisco.

Ever since her son’s death, she’s been pushing for improvements to the province’s Alert Ready procedure.

“I’d like to see a first responder being able to reach out to someone, going, ‘All right, leave it with me and I’ll get it handled,’ and it will go out. Not a six-step system,” she said.

According to a document from another municipality obtained by Sisco and shared with Global News, that process requires a regional emergency management coordinator (REMO) to connect with the radio dispatch agency that would send out the alert, after first being contacted by a local first responder agency.

Then the REMO must fill out a fill out the “NSEMO Alert Ready Request Form”.

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The document says after that, the Chief Administrative Officer must approve the form with an assigned primary identification number (PIN), before then contacting radio dispatch again to issue the approved alert message.

The mayor of the Regional Municipality of West Hants says his government has made changes to streamline its alert process.

“The municipality has an agreement in place now with Valley Communications for an alert request dispatch,” said Abraham Zebian. “So for us, we’re hoping that will go out a lot quicker.”

“Our municipal authorization policies have changed,” he added, “so it’s much quicker, so we’re not relying on one individual to give us authorization as opposed to multiple now are able to do that, who are on the ground or in the thick of things.”

But as for the rest of the process, Zebian says that’s up to the provincial Emergency Management Office.

“I would like a revamp of the whole provincial alert system,” he said. “Hopefully it does come soon. I never want to have any other community in the province or in our entire nation experience what we experienced.”

The area’s spotty cellular coverage was also raised as an issue at the time, and Zebian said he’s hoping the $47.3 million investment announced by the province last fall will help with that.

“We do have a third party who is now procuring a parcel of land in the Brooklyn area that will provide full coverage for the whole area,” Zebian explained.

Potential changes

Nova Scotia’s Emergency Management Office says it’s working on potential changes to the Alert Ready process, after Premier Tim Houston directed it to consult with communities and first responder organizations soon after the disaster.

Executive Director Paul Mason says the office held those consultations last fall, but doesn’t have a firm timeline on when Nova Scotians could see any changes.

“We’re in the midst of compiling that information and formulating some recommendations that we can forward for review and direction,” said Mason.

“Obviously with these types of things you’d like to move as expeditiously as possible,” he added, “one never knows when the next event if going to occur, hopefully not for a while. Our job is to be as ready as we can and help our partners be ready.”

Provinces all have their own processes and procedures for issuing Alert Ready critical alerts, which interrupt broadcast programming and are pushed to cell phones.

In Alberta, for example, municipalities and First Nations, along with police forces and Alberta Transportation, can issue emergency alerts. Environment Canada can also issue alerts during severe weather events.

Mason says the NS EMO is looking at practices in other jurisdictions as part of its review.

“We’re working hard on it and what we want to do is make sure we get it right,” he said.

Meanwhile, Municipal Affairs and Housing Department spokesperson Heather Fairbairn says the after-action report looking at the provincial response to the floods remains “in progress.”

‘Lives might not have been lost’

For volunteer firefighter Brett Tetanish of the Brooklyn Volunteer Fire Department, any potential changes can’t come soon enough. He was deputy chief the night of the floods, helping respond to roughly 100 rescue calls.

He first requested an emergency alert at 1:12 a.m. July 22. But the first alert prepared by the Regional Emergency Management Office of the Municipality of West Hants wasn’t issued until 3:06 a.m.

“We don’t have two hours, three hours to wait for that alert to go out,” Tetanish said. “We have 20 minutes, sometimes not even that.”

Now chief of the fire department, the lives lost that night still haunt him.

“The amount of time it took for that alert to go out,” Tetanish said. “I feel that lives might not have been lost if the alert was out in a timely manner.”

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He’s disappointed the province hasn’t moved more quickly toward changing the system.

“We have to not forget those four people and keep pushing forward with this emergency alert system,” he explained.

But in the meantime, he’s focused on making sure his department has new tools to respond in case of another catastrophic flood.

“We’re aware of climate change and the impact that’s going to have on us in the area,” Tetanish said. “We very quickly … purchased two rescue boats that are meant for flood and swift water rescue, and fourteen swift water rescue suits.”

The bigger picture

Asked how she’s been dealing with her son’s death, Tera Sisco says she’s started writing to him in a journal.

“And then I go out and I’m trying to raise awareness, and so while I’m raising awareness I’m very open to talking,” she said.

“Doing that helps me … look at the bigger picture and hopefully help other people that could potentially be in this situation.

“I have a little boy that was a huge part of our world in this family,” she said. “I have to remember him.”