By Hayley Ferguson

City hosting emergency preparedness information sessions

May 2, 2019 | 1:39 PM

Medicine Hat, AB – Evacuations can be one of the most stressful things a community ever faces.

With national Emergency Preparedness Week approaching on Monday, the City of Medicine Hat will be hosting information sessions on how people in the city can be ready for not only evacuations, but any kind of emergency.

The three information sessions, which is hosted by the city’s emergency management team and the advisory committee on disability, will take place on Tuesday.

There will be a focus on people living with disabilities, seniors, and newcomers to Canada. Merrick Brown, director of emergency management for the city, encourages all residents to attend though.

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“Every year we practice emergency preparedness exercises with what is called our advisory committee for disability issues. But this year we thought we’d put it out to the entire public on what to expect during an evacuation, what emergency preparedness means.” He continued “Even though we do have first responders, we only have a limited number of first responders.”

Brown also wants to remind people that although flooding is the main thing that comes to most peoples mind, it isn’t the only issue you need to be ready for.

“As we’ve seen all across North America, anything can happen. We can have tornadoes, we can have, as we’ve seen, major wind storms, major snow storms.” Brown said. “Very much weather related, but we can also have man made events. Whether this be from vehicle incidents on the Trans-Canada Highway. Any type of dangerous goods incidents. Really we need to be prepared for just about anything but evaluation is an evaluation.”

The city is a member of the Municipal Emergency Management Partnership, a group that includes the nine largest municipalities in Alberta.

“We all get together and essentially learn from each other. What eachother’s doing, share plans, share issues that we may have. But also we, the emergency management committee is very very close and we share stories, after action reports.” Brown explained. “Even from the prospective of what’s happening out east right now. We’ve taken a lot from that, as to communication and early communication, and various things like that.”

For full details visit the City of Medicine Hat’s website.