Prince George updates emergency evacuation plan

With summer approaching, the City of Prince George has released an updated evacuation plan in light of back-to-back record-breaking wildfire seasons.

Included in the update is a division of the city into nine zones, and the addition of community evacuation assembly points. An open house has been scheduled to educate the public on the updates, and testing exercises have also been scheduled with different agencies in the community to make sure the plan is viable.

The northern Interior city is currently in the first year of a five-year plan to improve its preparedness for future emergencies. 

"I think the hazard of wildfires has always been in the area. Arguably over the last few years perhaps the risk has increased," said Adam Davey, the city's manager of emergency programs.

The city wanted to update its plan because they thought it would be best to prepare and plan ahead, he said. 

Evacuation zones

The new evacuation map divides the city into nine zones.

The zones are intended for officials to inform residents which areas of the city are being affected, as well as which areas need to take action, such as evacuation, if an emergency scenario arises.

Five of the zones are based on the existing garbage pickup zone map in the city, and four new ones have been added for residents that don't live within those areas. 

Gathering points

There are now also 18 schools being used as community evacuation assembly points, Davey told Carolina de Ryk, host of CBC's Daybreak North. 

The main reception centre for people to gather at will be at Exhibition Park, where the CN Centre is located, he said.

However, if residents are unable to get there, they can now go to their nearest community evacuation assembly point. 

Evacuation testing

Over the next few weeks, the city will be testing the new plan with tabletop exercises, which will bring together about 20 different community agencies.

"We'll take a realistic scenario developed by the B.C. Wildfire Service and we're going to use a large 900-square-foot map of the city, and we're going to conduct a walk through-talk through of what an evacuation would look like and how we would handle it," said Davey.

The exercise will also consider the question of how the city will handle an evacuation if it is hosting evacuees from other locations.

Over the past two summers, Prince George hosted nearly 13,000 evacuees due to wildfires, Davey said.

"If we did have folks in town, evacuees from other areas, and also had to evacuate, we would just consider the evacuees and town residents and we would just act accordingly," said Davey.

An open house will be held at the Prince George Conference and Civic Centre on May 15 to help educate the public on the updated plan.

How you can prepare

"I think it's it's important to note that although the risk perhaps is slightly higher than in previous years, you know we still have been around for over 100 years and we haven't had to deal with anything more than a small localized evacuation," he said.

"So it's kind of a bit of a balance between preparing for the worst and hoping for the best."

Davey encourages people to be prepared for an evacuation as we head into wildfire season. 

He recommends having food, water, clothing, medicine and other supplies needed that can last you up to three days.

"Make sure again that you always have that 72 hours ability to leave if you ever had to," he said.