It’s been something that has been talked about for as long as I can remember: “It’s just a matter of time until a major disaster hits the Lower Mainland.” What’s the percentage of people who are actually prepared for a disaster when (not if) it happens?  Probably not as high as you think.

While there’s no shortage of information on what you might need to help your family survive the first 72 hours after a disaster, tonight you’ll have an opportunity to hear about it first hand in the Maple Ridge Council chambers.

An Emergency Preparedness Session is being held tonight in the chambers from 7:00 – 9:00pm.  Tonight the focus will be on Emergency Social Services, what they’re about, what they do, and also information on volunteering to be a part of ESS.  In order to volunteer, your home must be properly prepared, because it would do no good for you to participate in disaster response or relief if your home, family, and pets weren’t secure.

Barbara Morgan of Maple Ridge – Pitt Meadows Emergency Social Services has given us permission to reprint an article she authored in its entirety:

You Have 15 Minutes To Evacuate – What Do You Do?
Barbara Morgan, EMC

Kids are back to school and their parents are back to the routine of making lunches, supervising homework and shuffling the kids from one activity to another.  I say this as I am one of those parents that have put away the swimming pool, cleaned out the closets, settled into a routine and am snuggling in for the predicted mild winter and all the blessings it will bring.

What might be different from you and me is that I have thought about what would happen if that day to day routine was interrupted by flood, storm, earthquake or fire.  I have thought about the devastating affect if I was separated from my baby (well actually she is 12 and would be horrified, signified by that maturing adolescent look I get when I am embarrassing her, that I have called her my baby).  Nevertheless it would have a profound emotional impact if a disaster or emergency would prevent me from getting to her.

I have also thought about what my resources would need to be should I be cut off from such items as food, water, tools, money and communication.  The need to be self sufficient I have addressed as the responders might not be able to get to me for quite some time (actually they will come and get me, read on to see why).  How am I going to cook, where will I get medications, the list goes on.

It really is not as big as a chore as you think to become emergency prepared, the first step is recognizing that disasters happen.  Now I know the old story of it’ll never happen to us, it always happens to other people.  I can remember quite clearly the pictures being broadcast over the news of New Orleans after their flood.  The reports afterwards all indicate the biggest factor of personal devastation was denial.  They had been told for so long that one day that levy is going to break but up to that point it never did.  I will also tell you that it took a measly fifteen minutes from the breaking of the levy to the water reaching ceiling height and that most people were still in bed.  There was no time to make preparations, barely enough time to collect family members while you swam amongst home furnishing in the dark, some never succeeded.

Bringing it a little closer to home, can you remember the buzz around the Freshet of 2006?  After the threat had been diminished, I was walking out of church beside two elderly women conversing on how much work it was to prepare for potential flooding. They apparently lived in the Pitt Meadows floodplain.  I was silent (which would amaze my friends), just listening as together they shuffled with the crowd, until one of them made a comment.  “I think they were just trying to scare us with all this hype”.  You see I am the Emergency Social Services Director for Pitt Meadows and Maple Ridge and in that capacity I am privy to the most up to date information on emergency situations.  So I just had to introduce myself and enlighten them on some details.  The threat was real, so much so that the almighty Fraser had already reached its bank limits and a rain storm was predicted for that first weekend in June. Had it come, the water would have flooded the majority of Pitt Meadows and large portions of Maple Ridge.  All went well as it was a beautiful sunny weekend and life continued on.

I assure you that the City of Pitt Meadows and District of Maple Ridge’s emergency departments are working hard behind the scenes but you need to do some work on your own.  As we move into our stormy season there is time to do some preparatory work on gathering some supplies together.  Most supplies you have lying around the house in some capacity or another.  If you need some ideas and direction, we are holding an Emergency Preparedness session on Monday, September 28 from 7 – 9 in Council Chambers at the Maple Ridge municipal hall.  We would love to see you there.

Information: Barbara Morgan (bmorgan@mapleridge.ca) or 604.465.5221

Thanks again to Ms. Morgan for giving us the permission to include her article in this post.

Andrew Douglas (ad@ridgemeadowspost.com)