Last December, a violent windstorm blew through Southern Vancouver Island and Gulf Islands. Power and communication lines lay strewn across the roads cutting off both services and leaving residents in the dark. At one point, 100% of the roads on the Southern Gulf Islands were closed and, in addition, ferries were cancelled, snarling transportation for everyone including first responders.
My constituency office began hearing straight away about the challenges that Gulf Islanders faced as a result of the storm. Just days before Christmas, the Gulf Island communities were tested with the most significant challenge of their resilience in over a decade. BC Hydro crews went to work immediately to reconnect neighbourhoods and private residences. Communications service providers were slower to act. Customer service call centres were uninformed of the local conditions and frustrated customers flooded our email and voice mail with complaints.
Who do we call?
The provincial emergency response program is administered by local governments. On the Southern Gulf Islands, it is delivered by the Capital Regional District (CRD). Just as the rest of the systems, the CRD was put to the test. By and large, their response was successful although the storm highlighted their weaknesses which they worked to address throughout the past year.
As winter 2019 approaches, it’s important I acknowledge that the storm last year was also a learning experience for me and the constituency team who work on behalf of our communities. There were aspects of our service that I am quite proud of and there are areas that I can also improve.
While the CRD review and report of their response to the 2018 storm is an internal document, BC Hydro’s report is available publicly.
The CRD has developed a website with many resources that will assist you in preparing yourself and your neighbourhood in the case of an emergency.
I encourage you to visit the site and also download a copy of their handbook Prepare Yourself: A Guide to Emergency Preparedness in the Capital Region as it has resources to assist you in your personal resilience. It is also equipped with the appropriate contact information of the people and organizations who are responsible for delivering emergency services in your community. Finally, if you are on Twitter, follow @PrepareCRD to receive timely updates.
While the provincial government is responsible for developing emergency response across British Columbia, at the time of an incident my office does not have any role or capacity in the implementation or execution of the plan. My role is to advocate on behalf of my constituents and the communities I represent where gaps in service delivery appear. We have published on our constituency website an exhaustive list of many of the resources available. Please do not hesitate to contact me and my constituency team to bring both issues with the delivery of emergency services and opportunities to improve services to my attention.
The most important takeaway for my personal household and our communities is to be as well-prepared as possible in advance of the disaster. The work we do now will assist each one of us in being more able to withstand extended periods without power, communications and transportation services.
Thank you for this timely reminder!
As in all endeavors, ‘theory’ sometimes exceeds ‘practice’, as in the case of last year’s emergency.
In particular, on Saturna Island (where I’ve lived 25 years) we had a similar disaster to other islands when the wind storm brought down power lines, telephone lines, and shut roads down.
However, here we had NO COORDINATED RESPONSE, just a lot of talk, a few volunteers going around ‘checking on people’, and a ‘Emergency Response Coordination’ (with the CRD) that looked good on paper but not in practice.
When communications go out, the ‘General Store Bulletin Board’ (as it is always promoted as the go-to place for info) is NOT acceptable, nor is it acceptable to have our tax-funded Saturna Island Fire Protection Society appointed ‘Emergency Coordinator’ do nothing in fact to support what the provincial government and our CRD claims is necessary (and what we pay for).
I even witnessed two fires set (in the middle of the windstorm!) in our neighborhood on a property belonging to one of the ‘volunteer firefighters – emergency rep’. That’s right, and that’s what I reported to our volunteer Fire Chief, only to never hear anything further (but the fires were immediately put out!)
What is my point? It’s nice to proclaim resources, links and public policy statements. But unless people on the ground are able, willing to fulfill these promises, when the next emergency hits we (on Saturna) ‘will be on our own’ again.
“be as well-prepared as possible in advance of the disaster”
I am amazed at how ill-prepared many people were. Probably a quarter of the island (Salt Spring) left and stayed with relatives or friends off-island.
We have wood heat and gasoline lanterns and stoves. We have a small generator, capable of running our well pump, freezers, and a few lights and such. We played board games by the light of Coleman lanterns. We sang songs. We took our tractor-mounted generator around to neighbours, running each of us one hour out of four, to keep our freezers frozen, and to heat up the occasional tank of hot water.
It was more like camping than a disaster! The international students we host thought it was great fun! One actually said, “Can we do this again?”
It doesn’t take much preparation. We have a shelf in the laundry room with lanterns, candles, flashlights, and a camping stove. The biggest hurdle would be if you only have electric heat.