“I am just begging every Cortes Islander to pick up and go through the plan before all this happens, so everybody is aware,” said Strathcona Regional District (SRD) Protective Services Coordinator Shaun Koopman. “Please don’t wait till the last minute to educate yourself about evacuations and emergency support services and how you’re going to be notified and whether or not you have insurance and all those important evacuation considerations.”
Regional Director Noba Anderson invited many of Cortes Island’s key businesses and community groups to a Zoom conference call to explore responses to COVID-19. Thirty-nine people connected by phone or computer and a second person appeared on several computer screens. Many embraced the idea that we should act as if the virus is already here. In-so-far as is practical, most attendees appeared to want to see Cortes self isolate.
Two distinctly different threats and, a variety of methods of dealing with them, were identified at Cortes Islands Neighbourhood Emergency Preparedness Program (NEPP) workshop at Mansons Hall on April 16, 2019.
In light of the wildfire situation in British Columbia’s interior, it seemed like a good time for an update on our area’s emergency preparedness. So I asked Shaun Koopman, the district’s Protective Services Coordinator, “Is Strathcona Regional District prepared for a major emergency?”
Cortes Island Volunteer Fire Captain Eli McKenty received the page at 8 a.m. There was a fire at the Recycling Center on Squirrel Cove Road. As the island’s fire chief was not available, McKenty was in charge. He had, as yet, little indication of what lay ahead. Never-the-less, while he was waiting for his crew to assemble, McKenty received word that one of the recycling centre’s staff called. The flammable shed storage is burning and there is sounds of explosions. The staff member called 911 and was fighting the fire. McKenty alerted the ambulance and, as a precaution alerted an elite provincial fire fighting unit that it might be needed. Arriving on the scene some 40 minutes later, he discovered the fire had already spread to the trees. If this were an actual event, tomorrow’s newspaper headlines would probably say something like “Cortes Island Fire Leads To Mass Evacuation“. In reality, this table talk was one of the components of Cortes Island’s Emergency Preparedness and & Awareness Weekend.
