A massive flood hit Squamish on Tuesday (Sept. 15) but luckily it was contained entirely within the walls of the RCMP building's Emergency Operation Centre.
The Squamish Emergency Program (SEP) and BC Hydro were in full disaster mode during Exercise Hush, a training scenario involving a major flood due to a breach in the Daisy Lake Dam.
Staff from the district and other agencies buzzed around the centre in coloured vests representing various duties from equipment management to city planners. The exercise was meant to prepare and train staff to deal with scenarios in nature and to test response times while identifying any gaps, said Mayor Greg Gardner.
"The scientific data the scenario was built upon certainly has implications far beyond this exercise. We can see what worst case scenario could potentially look like and use that intelligence to ensure appropriate response protocols are in place," he said.
Starting with Exercise Gold in November, Squamish will join Vancouver and Whistler in Olympic emergency training exercises in preparation for being a transportation core.
The transportation system is designed to be uninterrupted during the Olympics so Squamish needs to be prepared to handle an influx of people in case an unforeseen event significantly halts traffic, said Squamish Emergency Program co-ordinator Jim Lang.
"We're really in the centre of where a lot of things can go sideways," he said.
The flood scenario dry run was expected to whip emergency employees into shape before the spotlight hits the corridor. It's better to be confirming knowledge during Olympic preparations than learning from scratch. And it's vital to have procedures in place to handle the unexpected, said Lang.
"To pull off a one-day exercise is tough. But if we were to do this for two weeks, three shifts a day, it kills if you're not prepared," he said.
If a state of emergency was ever to be called, SEP in conjunction with the district would have a lot of power. For example, it would have the ability to take over grocery stores and ration food, said Lang.
"Those kinds of powers are huge but they're available to us if we need them," he said.
"If we felt for some reason that we needed to build a dike and a house was in the way, those extraordinary powers could actually allow us to take and bulldoze down somebody's house in order to save another 150," he said.
Residents are expected to do their part by arming themselves with emergency kits in case they are ever forced out of their homes. To learn more visit www.getprepared.ca.
