Emergency management, it seems, is a never-ending job.
Community Emergency Management Coordinator (CEMC) Linda Dickson, recently updated councillors on the status of the municipality’s emergency management plan.
Dickson presented her report for 2010.
“The first part of the report highlights the areas as required under the Emergency Management and Civil Protection Act,” she explained.
She said a revised plan was adopted by council in April.
The plan is common to all municipalities in Wellington County and was used during the annual emergency management exercise in May.
The primary focus for training in 2010 was the Provincial Incident Management System 100 course.
In 2010 all members of the Control Group are required to complete the training.
Additional emergency management training in 2010 included:
– provincial basic emergency management courses,
– scribe training
– duty officer training, and,
– shelter workshop conducted by Guelph Wellington Red Cross Exercises.
Dickson said some of this training was specifically for support staff.
On May 20, an emergency management exercise involved the county and all member municipalities operating their emergency centres at the same time.
That exercise also included a number of external agencies, Guelph Wellington Red Cross, Salvation Army, Victim Services, and St. John Ambulance. She said two shelters were opened to test shelter policies and procedure.
Dickson said one of those shelters had a field component as local high school students came in to take the role of evacuees.
“We opened up the shelter in Mount Forest as well as part of that exercise. A lot of good lessons were learned.”
The main components of the exercise centred around communications and looking at the shelter plan.
In addition, the exercise also dealt with power outages and fuel supplies.
Public Education
Dickson said a revised County of Wellington Emergency Preparedness Guide was released and distributed in the Wellington Advertiser and through the Wellington County page, also in the Advertiser.
Displays were set up in the municipal office and libraries and a draw for two emergency 72 hour kits was held along with raffles for weather radios in each municipal office.
She considered the next phase in the evolution of emergency management will be the continuation of public education in dealing with severe summer weather.
Further enhancements
While that highlights what is required, Dickson said efforts are being put into further enhancements.
An inventory and analysis of generators in the municipality is currently underway.
That, she said, is partly a result of that exercise. “In the exercise, we simulated a power outage that lasted for about four days. Along with that we simulated what fuel shortages would take place because of severe weather.”
She said that while public works departments often have an ample supply of fuel in the winter when they know there could be severe weather, “We have to take into account power outages and how they affect emergency services – such as fire and ambulance and where are they going to get their fuel.”
On top of that, Dickson said, could be the impact of running generators for pumps to provide a water supply or for emergency operation centres.
“That’s where we’ll be looking in this analysis,” she said.
Dickson added that an ad hoc working group was formed comprising representatives from county and city departments – police, fire, ambulance, public works – to take a look at how to enhance interoperability amongst all emergency response agencies and organizations in Wellington and Guelph, and to investigate possible options and opportunities for integrated communication networks and systems.
But it’s not just the technical side of radios, telephones and data. She said communications also includes what happens in large events when all those departments talk their own language.
“If they’re talking different codes – sometimes that communications gets lost. It’s looking at the whole big picture of the technology and the people involved.”
Council adopted the report with little discussion.
