Safety of the community is a top priority for the Municipality as the community heads into river breakup and wildfire season.
Regional Emergency Services (RES) and the Emergency Management Branch held a day-long emergency social services training on March 27, 2017.
Sixty six people from 21 organizations took part in the exercise, which allowed them to prepare for potential emergency situation that could activate an evacuation and require a reception centre.
Different functions and roles resident could find at a reception centre would be food services, pet care, security, emotional support and first aid.
The simulation had people from the Golden Years Society pretending to be evacuees and put members of the municipality and community partners to the test.
Cathy Steeves, emergency social services coordinator with Emergency Management explains a scenario that the volunteers were faced with.
“Let’s say the scenario was you’re separated from your wife and you don’t know where she is, but you show up at the reception centre. They would talk to the people in registration saying ‘ya, I am just here to find my wife… I don’t want to sign in or register’,” Steeves said.
“The people behind the desk at registration had to carefully, tactfully and respectfully convince this evacuee to register because that is one of the purposes of the registration is to help find their family members.”
One of the main objectives was for certain community organizations to see how they fit into the emergency social services model.
“We were really trying to fit skill to function, to services and how it all fits together,” said Steeves.
Steeves said following the community’s own experience last year people are wanting to be more prepared.
“The people have been absolutely stellar in their response to help out when the time comes, I want to thank them for that, especially considering what we came through,” said Steeves.
“To rise to the occasion now and say ‘we’re still here and in fact we want now to serve the community in a more substantial way the next time it may happen.'”
Residents should prepare a 72-hour grab and go bag and have a plan in case an evacuation were to occur.
