By Sebastian Kanally, Times Chronicle
The town of Oliver’s after-action review of the May 6, 2023 flooding indicates many positives in their emergency response along with specific recommendations to improve its plans and response.
Paul Edmonds, principal consultant at Red Dragon Consulting was hired to conduct a review of the town’s response to the event which he presented to council on January 8.
Edmonds began with the fact that numerous things did go well in the town’s response to the emergency freshet.
The review found there was effective creek monitoring, staff availability, and communications with ministries. The review noted there were also resident check-ins and a high awareness of the BC Emergency Management System (BCEMS).
The main challenges that the review found were in the town’s process. The review notes that there was not an Emergency Operations Centre (EOC) activated which would have resulted in more organized coordination. There was also no state of local emergency put in place.
The activation of the EOC would have allowed them to more readily establish that state of local emergency, provide briefings, have public communication updates, and provide site support activities from a center.
The recommendations provided are to review emergency program best practices, strengthen the emergency management committee, assess the budget and finances, and enhance training and awareness in the emergency response plan. This includes, Edmonds noted, having a more specific role and scope of the Fire Department in dealing with such emergencies.
Edmonds also explained that public confidence through communication can be improved. He provided the example of recent extreme cold weather warnings that were being communicated to people via social media.
Lastly, the town could improve disaster risk reduction. This includes assessing what risk levels are within the town and taking proactive action to reduce the risk.
Performing work to build infrastructure back better, such as resizing the culverts that were damaged in Wolf Cub Creek is one such example that Edmonds provided.
This recommendation of disaster risk reduction, is a primary focus of the province’s new proposed Emergency and Disaster Management Act, which will purportedly encourage municipalities to be more proactive in reducing risk.
Town staff will be bringing a draft work plan for the emergency program informed by these recommendations to the January 29 meeting.
The town of Oliver’s emergency plan requires that the town complete this sort of review after an emergency. The flood event did fall within this category and the town was successful in receiving funding from the province to hire Red Dragon Consulting.
