By Barb Brouwer
Contributor
Evacuating residents in the event of a disaster is top of mind at the Columbia Shuswap Regional District following the extensive Bush Creek East Wildfire.
Acting on an Oct. 3 report to the board from Cathy Semchuk, Emergency Program (SEP) coordinator, a sole source contract was awarded to Red Dragon Consulting to develop and create new evacuation plans for 10 high- risk communities within the regional district.
CSRD directors were unanimous in their approval of the regional district entering into the sole-source contract with Red Dragon Consulting in the amount of $29,940 plus taxes.
SEP received Union of British Columbia Municipalities funding through the Community Emergency Preparedness Fund to complete evacuation route planning in April 2021. Red Dragon Consulting Ltd. was subsequently hired to create and develop quick reference templates and guidance documents for evacuation route planning specific to the CSRD.
Community guidance documents were developed and featured a zoned approach to evacuation planning. Zone mapping was created and included a one-page quick reference tool providing modelled data on population, situation assessments, evacuation decision-making timelines, physical evacuation clearance times and zone-specific information.
Read more: Province funds wildfire evacuation route planning in Shuswap
Read more: Funds prepare North Okanagan-Shuswap districts for disaster
“These quick reference guides provide the Emergency Operations Centre (EOC) with community specific information enabling the EOC to make educated, fact-based and sound decisions quickly,” wrote Semchuk, pointing out Red Dragon is very familiar with the Shuswap Emergency Program coverage area and Emergency Response and Recovery Plan. “By engaging the same consultant used in 2021 to create and develop CSRD’s evacuation route planning documents, it will ensure continuity of work, will alleviate the need and lessen time required by staff to acquaint a new consultant with SEP’s ERRP, geographic hazards, past events, and critical infrastructure.”
As well, Semchuk maintains that giving the contract to Red Dragon will save up to three months of initial engagement and will allow the consultant time to conduct a more thorough and in-depth analysis of each of the high-risk communities.
newsroom@saobserver.net
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