“Unprecedented”: This is how the latest protective service report by Squamish Lillooet Region District defines the last two years in a region where major emergencies are not uncommon. The ‘unprecedented’ has become the new normal, say the report which will be presented to SLRD board today.
In total the Emergency Operation Centre at SLRD was activated for 121 days last year for three main emergency events. June heatwaves, summer wildfires and fall atmospheric rivers lead to four states of local emergency, 19 evacuation alerts and 16 evacuation orders being declared last year by SLRD.
“As we enter 2022, the SLRD has now had three years in a row where major emergencies and disasters have touched every corner of the region, with the pandemic underpinning multiple heatwaves, floods, debris flows, landslides and wildfires,” the report says.
“Climate science is clear that this is our new normal, making climate action and disaster risk reduction our top priority for supporting community resilience,” the report by SLRD notes.
In the EOC, staff are working extended hours in high stress circumstances, and are in direct contact with people in extreme distress as a result of hazard impacts.
A new ‘Disaster Psychosocial Resilience and Critical Incident Stress Management (CISM)’ debriefing training are now part of the training needs for employees working in the Emergency Operations Centre.
Here are some of the emergencies handled by SLRD staff from 2009 to 2020.
2009 widespread Area B wildfire evacuations, •
2010 Pemberton Valley area evacuation due to the Mt Meager landslide
2010 and 2013 Catiline Creek debris flows at Lillooet Lake Estates,
2015 Boulder Complex / Elaho wildfires that burned at the head of the Squamish Valley all summer,
2015 Birken landslide that destroyed two properties and narrowly avoided fatalities,
2015 and 2016 Seton Portage debris flows that impacted property
2016 Pemberton Valley flooding that included emergency dike protection works,
2018 Anderson Lake wildfires that kept communities from Seton to D’Arcy under evacuation alert and order from May to September.
2019 and 2020 Upper Squamish Valley Wildfires, with the tactical evacuation of the community in April 2020 ahead of a very fast-moving fire that destroyed property and threatened lives.
