Last Saturday's high-magnitude quake off Haida Gwaii has Tri-City residents wondering what to do if the Big One hits this region.
Local emergency preparedness officers have been fielding dozens of calls from concerned residents and the media asking for tips and suggestions about disaster planning, proving that it's never too late to get ready for an emergency,
Now, with disaster clean-up taking place in the U.S. and Canada after Hurricane Sandy, there's a sense that weird weather, such as heavy rains, flooding or a severe snow storm could cause problems, too.
"You get everybody coming out of the woodwork asking for these kinds of things," said Greg Kanya, manager for emergency programs for the city of the Coquitlam. He said it often takes a disaster somewhere else in the world or close-calls near by to get people thinking about emergency preparedness, but that's not a bad thing if people take action.
The first thing people should do is have a plan in place for an out of town contact and put aside provisions and medical equipment and other basic needs so they can take care of themselves for the first 72 hours following a disaster.
"We welcome people's questions; we want them to be prepared," said Tara Stroup, emergency program officer for Port Coquitlam emergency services.
She said provincial legislation requires cities to have emergency plans in place and all have designated reception centres, which would be manned by volunteers and city staff and would provide central points of contact as well as a place to get shelter, food and water and a place to power up a dead cell phone battery.
These reception centres are typically at community centres, although their functionality after a disaster would have to be determined first before people are directed there and information would go out via radio, television and social media sites Twitter and Facebook.
In Coquitlam, people are asking about the city's ability to recover from a disaster, where to go to get more information and if the dam will hold.
"People want to know about courses or they're asking us to provide the information directly," Kanya said. As for the seismic stability of the dam at the Coquitlam reservoir, Kanya pointed out that it was rebuilt in 2008. "That significantly dealt with any concern with regard to earthquake."
All three cities, Coquitlam, Port Coquitlam and Port Moody provide numerous resources on their websites about emergency planning. As well, Coquitlam and Port Coquitlam provide free courses on personal emergency preparedness, and PoCo offers more detailed courses as well, such as Light Urban Search and Rescue and Basic Fire Suppression.
Port Coquitlam is also starting a new committee called Public Preparedness Initiatives to spread the word about emergency preparedness. Some ideas include setting up display booths at recreation facilities and putting training sessions on Youtube, Stroup said, adding: "We're always looking for more volunteers to man our reception centres."
In Port Moody, type in the world "emergency" for links to emergency preparedness information.
COMMUNICATION
Have an out-of-town contact for family members to contact in an emergency; get a battery-powered radio and store the batteries in a plastic bag; Social media will be popular ways of getting out information, you can buy chargers and connectors to power up laptops and phones with car batteries. But note, cell phone communication may be overwhelmed in a disaster and you may have to rely on old-school radios for emergency info.
SCHOOLS
Schools typically have enough supplies on hand to shelter up to 50% of students for 72 hours. This means that parents should plan to provide for their children and should have a designated person, known by the school, to pick up a child. Schools will only release children to these people.
SHELTER
Families are encouraged to provide for themselves for the first 72 hours but there may be times when homes are impacted. Cities will have reception areas to handle displaced people and, in the event that several people are impacted, group lodging facilities will be arranged, such as a local hotel.
Check out the cities websites for emergency information, how to plan for your family, assembling a grab and go bag, business emergency preparedness, and emergency planning for pets and people with disabilities.
