A series of brochures has been published to outline evacuation planning for eight areas within qathet Regional District (qRD).
Jessie MacDonald, evacuation planning assistant with the qRD regional emergency program, has been working for more than a year to publish the brochures, which grew from a number of planning meetings held through the regional district.
MacDonald said she worked with Ryan Thoms, regional emergency service manager, and has been putting together this series of eight brochures during the COVID-19 period, since April of this year. She said she had been working with the graphic designer, on the content and getting the brochures printed.
Community evacuation guides are available for Lund, City of Powell River, Wildwood, Tla’amin Nation, south of town, Savary Island, Texada Island and Lasqueti Island. They provide detailed information on making a plan, making a grab-and-go kit, as well as an outline of the specific region in the brochure, a section on knowing what to do, a map of the area, an invitation to join the community notification system and reliable sources of local information.
The brochures grew out of a series of community evacuation meetings held in the eight various areas from April to August 2019.
“We had really great turnout to each and every one of those meetings,” said MacDonald. “Those locations correspond geographically with the brochures.”
One of the key messages organizers took from those meetings was that more local resources were required. People wanted to know specifically what kind of evacuation preparedness they should take into consideration for their neighbourhoods and communities.
“After we completed those meetings, it came out as a number one priority to get public information to our community members about emergencies and evacuation preparedness,” said MacDonald, adding that the brochures are central to the public information process.
She said it would be great for people to have them on bulletin boards in their houses. They could also put it in their grab-and-go kits, which is something the brochures advocate.
In total, about 11,000 brochures were published. They were printed in varying quantities, based on population sizes in the eight areas.
“We are in the process right now of distributing them to local organizations and businesses, and getting physical copies distributed in the community and region,” said MacDonald.
Right now, the full set is available at the Powell River RCMP detachment, Powell River Airport, city hall, qRD office, Powell River Chamber of Commerce, Powell River Visitor Information Centre and in Tla’amin Nation when the office is open. MacDonald said qRD is working on getting the brochures to the fire departments, gas station counters, poster boards and other locations.
The brochures are also available at qathet.ca, in the emergency services portion of the website, in the emergency preparedness section. Brochures can also be downloaded from the website, where they are stored in PDF format.
In each brochure a unique description of the area is outlined and the emergencies that might be most common. There are also maps inside of each brochure specific to an area.
Included in a legend are featured locations for reception centres, where people may go to gather for transportation services or emergency social services.
“We also have the fire department locations, boat ramps, transportation routes and some even include marine evacuation routes,” said MacDonald.
She said the regional district has not experienced a mass evacuation for any neighbourhood or community in the region. She said there are agreements in place and relationships with neighbouring regional districts that would be able to receive evacuees in a safe location if ever required.
MacDonald said even the transportation of livestock has been factored into evacuation planning.
She said she has been training with the regional emergency operations centre and on a monthly basis, moving forward, each of the regions will be reviewed.
“We’ll look at aspects of evacuations that would be common across all areas of our region, and each month, we’ll take a different subregion and look at the specifics,” said MacDonald. “So, for example, looking at transportation for Savary Island, and maybe moving to south of town and looking at animals, how are we going to provide those resources? In Powell River, if we have a neighbourhood that needs to be evacuated, what are the communications required?
“We are going to look at a variety of evacuation components and apply them to different areas.”
The evacuation planning process has spurred some local organizations to further preparedness. For example, Lang Bay Community Hall has applied for funding through the evacuation planning process to upgrade the electrical system so a generator can be put in, so doors can potentially open to community members in time of need. Italian Community Hall is also looking at what can be done to facilitate emergencies, according to MacDonald.
“It’s great to see what positive impact has resulted from these conversations, this preparedness piece and planning we’ve gone through,” said MacDonald.
A next step for MacDonald will be the prospect of meeting with small groups in outdoor settings to talk about specific evacuation planning for their households or immediate neighbourhoods. Such meetings would involve COVID-19 protocols.
Residents interested can reach out to the regional district and be connected with MacDonald. Creating those relationships in neighbourhoods is important, said MacDonald.
