With another dry summer ahead, preparedness is top of mind for Shuswap Emergency Program (SEP) personnel.
In a May 12 presentation to City of Salmon Arm council, Columbia Shuswap Regional District Regional Fire Chief and protective services manager Sean Coubrough, said a below-average snowpack will see the region getting dryer faster, and that's expected to lead to a "more severe fire season this year."
"We are very lucky to have some dark weather right now 鈥� we鈥檙e not getting a lot of precipitation though, and from what I鈥檓 hearing, across the board鈥� BC Wildfire is gearing up for what is expected to be another terrible season of wildfires," said Coubrough.
With the low snowpack melting sooner, flooding is not anticipated, though Coubrough cautioned that could change with rain events. He also said parts of the region impacted by past wildfire are also at risk of "geohazards" including landslides, debris flow and debris floods.
"Because the root structures of these hillsides are gone, there's nothing to hold them up," said Coubrough. "This seems to be a new realm with the province to be considering in terms of how we, as an emergency program, are to respond.
"So we鈥檝e ben working with the province, who has engaged a group called Stantec, they are geotechnical engineers, they've come up with an early warning system that takes into account accumulated precipitation in an area and can predict with some accuracy 鈥� and we鈥檙e still waiting to see how accurate this predictive model is 鈥� but can predict where we can expect to see some landslides so we鈥檙e going to continue working with them on that."
Coubrough said one of the big projects he's working on now is the replacement of the Scotch Creek Fire Hall, which burned down in the 2023 Bush Creek East wildfire. He and SEP are also working to bring things in line with the B.C. government's new Emergency Management and Disaster Act, which will require an updated hazard risk and vulnerability assessment. SEP will also be updating its emergency management plan 鈥� work that will be guided in part by the 2023 wildfire experience. That experience was documented in a 2023 After Action Review (AAR), that SEP has been using to make ongoing improvements.
One of the things to come out of the AAR was the need for further Emergency Operations Centre (EOC) volunteer training.
"In 2023 we had over 80 people working in the reception centre at one time 鈥� that鈥檚 a lot of people in a small confined area and what they came to us and told us was we really need to be trained better. So that鈥檚 our focus," said Emergency Program Coordinator Cathy Semchuk. "Our focus is making sure that people feel comfortable鈥� when they鈥檙e taking on those very important positions during an activation."
Semchuk applauded the B.C. government for ongoing work to modernize its emergency program. A recent change to come from this enables EOC's to provide financial support to evacuees by e-transfers.
"Rather than setting them up with a hotel room, we provide them with an allotment of $200 a night and they can choose whether they want to stay at an RV park, an Airbnb鈥� all those options we couldn鈥檛 supply before, they are now able to access themselves, so it opens up a huge amount of accommodation鈥�," said Semchuk, pointing out how a shortage of hotel rooms in 2023 "made it extremely difficult for the evacuee and extremely stressful for the volunteers."
To receive those e-transfers, Semchuk said you have to have the BC Services Card app.
"The biggest support that we can get from anybody 鈥� from the city, from the CSRD and from all our politicians 鈥� is making sure you let people know this is what you need to do鈥�," said Semchuk. "The biggest part of preparedness that you can do is download the BC Services Card app and create a profile before an event, because then when they come to visit us at reception centre, that profile is already there and we can just call it up on our system and work very quickly."
Later in the presentation, Semchuk explained having people use the app frees up time for EOC volunteers to support those who may not be as tech savvy.
Semchuk also shared information about SEP's recently released . Released to help residents be better prepared, the guide provides preparation and evacuation tips and emergency contacts to help individuals and families respond quickly and effectively in an emergency. The guide includes maps highlighting key evacuation routes.
"The community鈥� wanted to have a public-facing document that they could read so they would know what to do before, during and after an emergency, and out of the 2023 After Action Review it became very apparent to us that we needed to create a guide for our residents," said Semchuk.
SEP is also pursuing grant funding for evacuation route planning specific to the City of Salmon Arm.
"In discussion with the consultant who has done the planning for our rural areas, he is saying that it's going to be possibly up to 25 different zones in the city鈥�," said Semchuk. "But again, we're waiting on that application. We're already to go, we just have to hear that we've been approved. I'm 99.9 per cent sure we're going to get approval."
Asked about a timeline for this, Coubrough said an evacuation route plan for Salmon Arm will depend on city staff.
"The team at the city is going to have a lot of the legwork to do with this," said Coubrough. "We鈥檒l plug in and help where we can, but again the information is very municipality specific, so that鈥檚 going to come down to the team here in terms of how quickly we can get things done as well as the contractors and who we get."
Asked where the EOC would be should Salmon Arm face an emergency, Coubrough said that's a big question that needs to be discussed. Currently, the CSRD boardroom is used for the EOC.
