In these dog days of summer, it can be hard to imagine just how bad the winter weather can get. But four months ago, on March 28, 2025, a devastating ice storm pummeled central Ontario. It knocked out power for days, made roads and highways impassable and left a wake of destruction that is still visible. 

For ProResp’s 2,000 patients in the area, the ice storm was a potential life or death situation. Without power, their oxygen concentrators stopped working. Fortunately, Royal ProResp—serving Barrie, Orillia, Muskoka and surrounding areas—had a plan and swung into action.

The ProResp team set up a command centre. “Calls were coming in five a minute,” said Loradena, one of the only team members who had power at her house, which she turned into the central dispatch. The whole team worked around the clock to make deliveries.  It was hard, dangerous work. 

“I was making a delivery to a more rural spot in Innisfil and you could hear all the trees crackling around you,” recalled Kyle, a Service Delivery Representative. “Trees were just coming down, so on the way back out there was a tree blocking the road that hadn’t been there when I went in. That made for a tricky situation. Other deliveries we had to carry tanks up 16 flights of stairs with no emergency lighting. It was hectic, but our patients were so understanding. They knew we were trying our best.”

One patient, Gary, and his partner Laura, shared their experience. “When the hydro went out it was scary, because Gary is on 24/7 oxygen,” recalled Laura. “We had a tank from an earlier outage but I could not remember how to get it attached. I was panicking and I called ProResp and they calmly talked me through it. They kept us supplied all weekend while trees cracked and swayed and collapsed all over the neighbourhood. Our delivery guy, Shawn, took four tries just to get to us because of all the downed trees—but he never gave up. The temperature in the house dropped down to the low 50s but we just stayed under the blankets and hunkered down. It was a very frightening time, but we felt secure knowing that our neighbours and ProResp were looking after us. ProResp staff are so polite and accommodating. We cannot say enough good about them.”

“Our staff had no power at their homes, trees down, flooding, and still they did not hesitate to mobilize and work together to serve every one of our patients across the whole area. I am so proud of our team and what we accomplished in the aftermath of that storm,” added Stephanie, a regional manager for ProResp.

Now, go enjoy the warm summer weather because this is Canada, and winter will be back! 

Learn more at https://www.proresp.com/proresp-cares