A 72-hour emergency kit. (City of Red Deer)

By Josh Hall (Twitter: @Vancan19)

MAY 3-9

Understanding emergency preparedness more important now than ever

May 5, 2020 | 8:00 AM

Knowing the risks in your neighbourhood, creating a family plan, and having a 72-hour emergency kit are the three most important steps to take in order to be prepared for an emergency.

National Emergency Preparedness Week runs May 3-9, 2020.

Karen Mann, director of emergency management at the City of Red Deer, says the key message this year is prepare, respond and recover.

She points out emergency events could affect you while you’re at home, in your vehicle, or at work and school, and could range from windstorms and floods to train derailments and spills of hazardous materials.

With severe flooding currently taking place in Fort McMurray, it’s important to note that Red Deer is not quite in the same boat, but does have similar risks.

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“Our city does have creeks as well as a river, which are some of the highlights of our parks and trail system, but that does mean we could experience flooding. What the City has done in the last number of decades is try to ensure residential is not built anywhere inside a high-risk area for flooding,” she explains, acknowledging there are a few exceptions.

“We have very few residential properties that would be impacted by river flooding unless the river went to a very extreme flood scenario.”

Mann says Red Deer has at least one advantage to Fort McMurray in that there is a dam upstream, thus the City is given notice when elevated levels of water are going to be released.

While Red Deer does get ice jams, the rate that the ice breaks up lends itself to scenarios where the surrounding land will usually be able to avoid significant flooding.

Mann says the river won’t crest until sometime between late May and early July.

“I always hope people will come to understand the importance of family and individual emergency preparedness on their own, but we do tend to see surges of uptake in our messaging when there have been recent events such as the Fort McMurray flooding or COVID-19,” shares Mann.

“We saw an uptick after the Fort Mac fire, there was more interest after our windstorm, and I think COVID-19 has signalled to people the importance of emergency preparedness, but there’s a difference between having a 72-hour kit and stockpiling.”

Mann says in advance of emergencies, which are often unforeseen, it benefits everyone to have a community mindset rather than one of individualism. That applies to emergencies where the directive could be to evacuate, or to shelter in place.

Since the COVID-19 pandemic began impacting Alberta and Red Deer, approximately 1,500 people have signed up for the City’s Notify Red Deer alert system.

For more information on how you can better practice emergency preparedness, visit RedDeer.ca/getprepared.