Physical distancing guidelines are in effect for flood mitigation during the pandemic, B.C. says

Provincial officials are encouraging municipalities to practise physical distancing during flooding emergencies this spring in everything from filling sandbags to dealing with people at evacuation reception centres.

Emergency Management B.C. has come up with guidelines for communities and the public on how to limit the spread of COVID-19 during the pandemic.

"Due to the COVID-19 virus and the directed health protection measures, the conduct of emergency response work, including flood response, needed to be adapted slightly to meet that environment," said Jeff Allen, executive director for training, exercises and public education for Emergency Management B.C. 

"Through the construction of temporary berms, the recommendations are focused on physical distancing [while] completing the same tasks that have been done in the past."

Some of the measures include using only the outer two chutes on a four-chute, sandbag-filling machine so that people are kept apart while filling sandbags, Allen said.

Traditional sandbagging lines, where bags are passed from one person to another in a long row of volunteers should be replaced by a "carousel approach" with everyone trying to stay at least three metres apart.

"Each person would then pick up a sandbag and the line would then move in a carousel kind of fashion toward where the sandbag needs to be placed on the berm." he said.

Allen said emergency support services departments in municipalities are adjusting their protocols to limit interactions between evacuees and volunteers.

The province has developed a digital tool that evacuees can use to indicate what support and services they need, so they don't have to come into close contact with emergency social services volunteers, Allen said.

'Everyone is told to maintain their distance'

Some municipalities in the Interior have put the guidelines in place already this spring.

It's been a week and a half since the Village of Cache Creek declared a local state of emergency and issued evacuation orders for properties along the creek that shares the community's name.

Now, water levels on the the nearby Bonaparte River are a concern, according to Wendy Coomber, town councillor and spokesperson for the emergency operations centre.

"Because of COVID-19, we couldn't do our sandbagging bee this year." she said.

"We also forwent the big sandbagging machine from Emergency Management B.C. and went for separate piles of sand instead."

Coomber said people filled individual bags for themselves and often filled additional bags for others in the community to use.

"Everyone is told to maintain their distance, which they do," she said.

"We have enough experience with COVID-19 protocols, that even if we don't like them, we know how to put them in place in a situation like this."