UNITY — Emergency Preparedness week is set for May 1-7. The week is an opportunity for you to take action to ensure you are prepared to protect yourself, your family and your community during an emergency.
It is a week set aside to encourage Canadians to take concrete actions to be better prepared to protect themselves and their families during emergencies.
Residents can find more details on provincial emergency plans on the website , under the communities/emergency planning tab.
Recent extreme weather in southern Saskatchewan has highlighted the need for emergency preparedness, when communities experienced prolonged power outages as a result of bad weather.
Kerrobert Mayor Wayne Mock, tells the Press-Herald / SASKTODAY.ca their community has a detailed emergency response plan, which is designed by a safety and emergency consulting company and it is updated annually. The Kerrobert ERP can be found on the town of Kerrobert website.
“As per the plan, our main contacts in the event of an emergency are as follows: incident commander is Kerrobert Fire Chief Brent Zerr. Our emergency measures officer designate is Deputy Mayor Del-Marie Kissick and Councillor Brad Murphy oversees media relations,” Mock says.
“The plan includes details, procedures and requirements to implement an emergency response to event-specific emergencies such as natural events, transportation events, industrial events and accidents. It includes vital contact information for the incident commander and the emergency measures officer as well as lists and locations for evacuation centres and emergency equipment, mutual aid agreements, what needs to be done for public protection, etc.”
Luseland Councillor Charlie Boser, is part of that community’s emergency measures organization. He tells the Press-Herald / SASKTODAY.ca, “We are in the process of finalizing our EMO situation, as in who is heading up the committee and other matters pertaining to the organization.”
Boser continues, “We will have a meeting soon to set up a committee. We are aiming to have more than one or two people on it so that someone is around when needed, as people do have holidays booked or illness happens.”
Boser says there is a plan in place its just a matter of finetuning it. At present, Boser, is joined by Assistant Administrator Virginia Brice along with Councillor Neil Kennedy and the three of them are the EMO co-ordinating committee. They will also work alongside the Luseland Fire Board in developing and updating their plan, ensuring everyone is on the same page.
Unity’s Emergency Measures Co-ordinator, Terry Smith provided a number of updates from the EMO committee. Smith says tabletop exercises are enacted in mock incident practise. The Unity EMO also meets with railroads to have a plan in place in case of emergency, although COVID-19 has inhibited in-person meetings. Their organization also were able to meet with provincial organizations to help better prepare although the pandemic has also prohibited these gatherings.
Smith's role in Unity is to communicate with the mayor, council and first responders as well as with government agencies. He also performs organizational duties such as operations, planning and logistics as well as information sharing.
Should an emergency occur, Smith would advise council of emergency declaration and appoint an emergency site manager. He would oversee implementation of the emergency plan and request mutual aid if deemed necessary. Smith would also be in charge of reviewing and authorizing media releases while co-ordinating EMO activities, keeping an accurate record of activities and decisions.
Unity’s EMO committee consists of Smith along with 11 other members from the RCMP, fire department, mayor, council, RM of Round Valley, first responders, health authority and public works.
“Normally there would be four meetings a year but with COVID concerns there has only been one meeting since I became the chair, but another one is in the near future,” Smith says.
“We can reassure residents that this plan has been worked on by many people over the last number of years and it contains very detailed instructions that is quite easy to follow.”
Major incidents would include severe weather and dangerous goods or rail occurrence. Other incidents under their direction are deemed in medium to less severe categories and can range from fire or explosion to utility failure or flooding amongst some of the emergencies that would be part of their preparedness planning.
Public notification of emergency would include a town alert system, social media and even going door to door, depending on the situation.
Smith’s advice to residents is,“Heed warnings from EMO and respond as requested.”
All people interviewed for this story referred to the recent southern Saskatchewan weather that cause prolonged power outages and the kind of emergencies that presented, until power crews could work through adverse conditions to get power restored.
Community EMOs, along with provincial and federal governments remind people to have their household’s emergency plan in place as events can happen quickly and with little or no warning. While protection plans are in place, the value of having an emergency preparedness kit for your household is invaluable.
Depending on the season, prolonged power outages can present a variety of issues. Extreme weather conditions or fire can result in immediate evacuations and having an emergency kit ready on a moment's notice will help with some of the essentials needed in the hours and days ahead.
The website offer resources and tips for having an emergency kit ready for your family’s needs.
