Emergency Preparedness Manager Luke Palmer

By Aaron Mahoney

Are You Prepared?

City of Lethbridge hosting Disaster-Con to stress importance of emergency preparedness

May 9, 2019 | 11:13 AM

LETHBRIDGE, AB – Whether it’s floods or wildfires, the instances of extreme weather-related incidents are on the rise in Canada.

They often happen when we least expect them, and suddenly, you might need to think about your kids at school or getting across town to rescue your pets.

That’s why the City of Lethbridge is encouraging residents to be prepared and have a family emergency plan and emergency kit to save time and make real situations less stressful.

On top of an emergency plan, the Alert Ready test on Wednesday, May 8 at 1:55 p.m. was more successful locally than last year’s test, according to Emergency Preparedness Manager Luke Palmer.

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Though they will have to wait for the actual data, Palmer says from what they heard it was a little more positive than last year’s test.

The Alert Ready system is a federal program that is managed provincially, and outside of just Lethbridge, Palmer added that they are hearing there are improvements.

“The big thing that they’re stressing is that individuals are checking the capability of their phones, so that’s going on the Alert Ready website and seeing what the requirements are,” he continued. “They’ve also identified some of the hiccups that are noted in the program like having an out-of-date operating system or not being connected to a cell tower, or cell towers being out of range.”

Palmer says they are working on it, it is improving, but it’s still a process, and that’s why these tests are so necessary.

Local emergency services will continue to bang the safety drum when they hold their first annual Disaster-Con on Friday at Park Place mall. The event begins at noon and will go until 6 p.m.

The following agencies will be in attendance:

– Canadian Red Cross

– Alberta Health Services

– University of Lethbridge

– Lethbridge Police Service

– Lethbridge Animal Shelter

– Lethbridge 311

– Lethbridge Fire Prevention

– Alberta Emergency Management Agency

– Animal Emergency Task Force

– City of Lethbridge Emergency Management

Members from each agency will be on hand to talk to the community about what to expect in an emergency.

Palmer says with the rise in emergency related events in the country it’s critical to make sure the public knows what to do should a situation arise.

“Public information is the key component to emergency services thriving. We ultimately need to let the public know that there’s a risk, and we need to let them know what they need to do to maintain their own safety because if we don’t, they’re going to seek it out themselves and that’s how rumours start. By getting ahead of it and testing out these programs, it makes it easier for us to notify individuals of what’s happening to keep them safe.”

Last year, Statistics Canada reported that only 33 percent of Canadians said they had a 72-hour kit or household emergency plans in place in case of an emergency.

“It seems low, but at the same time, the data is just from Stats Can so we’re not totally sure what kind of questions they were asking. We are working to implore individuals to take more action in preparing their households, just in case,” Palmer said.