Emergency Preparedness Week is May 3-9
If a disaster were to hit right now, would you and your family know what to do?
It’s a question Altona and Rhineland municipal emergency coordinator Perry Batchelor wants everyone to consider as we head into Emergency Preparedness Week May 3-9.
The theme for the nationwide awareness campaign this year is “Be Prepared. Know Your Risks.”
“People usually don’t think about these things until they’re in a crisis,” Batchelor said. But that’s not the time to wondering what you’re supposed to do if the power goes out or floodwaters are threatening your family’s safety. A little advance consideration and planning can go a long way towards keeping everyone calm and safe.
One key part of every household’s emergency plan should be a kit filled with everything you might need to make it through at least three days.
“The first 72 hours, you can expect to get no help,” Batchelor said. “If, for example, we had a tornado strike one of our communities, all our municipal resources and emergency personnel are going to be dealing with that strike.”
The attention will be on people who need emergency care, and you can do your part to free up first responders by ensuring you’re able to stay off the streets and shelter in place through that time.
It’s not a bad idea, either, to consider longer-term emergency needs, Batchelor noted. If a blizzard or ice storm were to knock out power for several days, do you have what you need to survive until it’s restored?
“You’ve got to think about food, water, power, how you’re going to cook your food, how you’re going to stay warm, how you’re going to charge your various devices so you can continue to get information,” Batchelor said. “And if you’re looking at an evacuation, do you have prescription pills? Are you covered for the evacuation period? You should have a go bag of some sort you can grab with a change of clothes and all your identification, your medications.”
It’s something most people never really think about until they’ve lived through a natural or man-made disaster and have had to either shelter in place or flee their homes unexpectedly.
“Disasters strike at the most inconvenient times, but if you have a bag or you have a checklist, at least it’s there ready to go,” said Batchelor.
Another thing everyone should do to stay on top of what’s going on is to sign up for your community’s emergency alert systems. Simply head to your municipal website to register.
“That’s instant messaging,” Batchelor noted. “And it can be used not only in a disaster but for service interruptions or boil water advisories, things like that.”
It’s free to register, and doing so in advance ensures you’ll get a text, phone call, or email immediately when something bad goes down directing you on what to do next.
“We really encourage people that now is the time to sign up, not during a disaster when you’ll crash the system,” Batchelor said. “Every cell phone should be signed up … and I really encourage parents to allow their kids to sign up for it too.
“It’s a tremendous resource that allows us to communicate instantly with whoever’s on it.”
If you’d like to learn more about how to keep your family safe, there’s an Emergency Preparedness Expo planned for Tuesday, May 5 from 6-8 p.m. at the Altona Fire Hall (84 1st St. NW).
“We’ll have a number of different resources showing up—Altona Fire, Plum Coulee Fire, public works, RCMP, EMO [Manitoba Emergency Management Organization], the Hutterian Emergency Aquatic Response Team, which is really quite something to see,” Batchelor said. HEART is an underwater search and recovery team based out of the Oak Bluff Hutterite Colony.
The expo is a chance to see emergency equipment up close, chat with first responders about what emergency planning they advise, and enjoy a free hot dog supper.
Batchelor also reminds Altona residents that the emergency warning siren will conduct a four-minute test at 1 p.m. on Monday, May 4. The siren is tested daily for a few seconds at noon, but this longer tests ensures the full warning cycle is working correctly. Other area communities will likely also be sounding their sirens to test them next week—check your municipal website for alerts.
People sometimes complain they can’t hear the siren when they’re inside their homes during these tests, but that is not the purpose of these sirens, Batchelor pointed out.
“It’s an outdoor warning siren telling you to shelter immediately, so if you’re inside already you probably won’t hear it,” he said, noting the last thing you should do when you hear the siren is try to go see what’s going on—it is a warning of potential imminent danger for anyone caught out of doors.
You can learn more about emergency preparedness online at getprepared.ca.
