The Regional District of Fraser-Fort George conducted an emergency management training exercise at the Regional District’s Emergency Operations Centre.
This was done with the Regional District, the City of Prince George, the Lheidli T’enneh, the Ministry of Emergency Management and Climate Readiness and the BC Wildfire Service.
“Our agencies are coming together to plan for a multi-jurisdictional mock event and make sure that we have open communication channels, that we’re able to train new staff, and that everyone is prepared for when future events hit our area,” said RDFFG Manager of Communications Hilary Erasmus.
Erasmus noted this was the first time the agencies had been able to get together to train for a while.
“With the frequency that emergencies are hitting us, we felt it was really prudent to get together and make sure that we have staff who are trained up, who are familiar with each other and strengthen our working relationships,” she explained.
Erasmus there will be a second phase to the training exercise in the spring.
“They’ll do more on the ground, there might be an ESS component, Emergency Support Services, which the City of Prince George is very involved with,” she explained.
There were more people in the room than there normally would be during an actual emergency situation.
“There are about five or six key roles within an emergency operations centre,” Erasmus explained.
“It really depends on staff availability who are called in at the time and who can respond. We’re all local government professionals who have other roles, but we are trained for this and step into the roles when we can.”
Erasmus noted they want residents to be aware of how local governments are prepared to communicate in the event of an emergency.
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