Straddled over the Red Deer River on the doorstep to the West Country, Sundre faces the existential threat of potentially devastating floods and wildfires.
The municipality's director of emergency management recently brought council up to speed regarding the ongoing effort to be prepared for a worst-case scenario.
"Emergency management is comprised of five distinct areas," Kevin Heerema, who is also Sundre's community peace officer, told elected officials during the Dec. 11 meeting.
"Prevention, mitigation, preparation, response and recovery."
As the director of emergency management, Heerema said his responsibilities include developing plans that encompass those key areas, as well as managing and coordinating all training, setting up and maintaining an emergency operations centre (EOC) in the event of a disaster or emergency, and establishing strategic partnerships with members of the community, industry, organizations and government agencies. Part of that also involves conducting tabletop exercises to prepare for a variety of potential disaster scenarios.
"We took part in the SPOG (Sundre Petroleum Operators Group) tabletop exercise which qualified us as our yearly tabletop exercise," he said.
"We're required to do one or two at least ó I strive for at least one a year."
Assisting him in developing plans is a deputy director of emergency management, a role taken on by Jim Hall, who is also the municipality's operations manager.
"We have our regular full-time jobs, and we take on these duties. It's supposed to be off the corner of our desks, and some days it takes over the entire desk and then some," said Heerema.
Each spring and summer, Sundre faces the possibility of flooding from three separate waterways as well as groundwater, he said, adding key initiatives moving forward include improving the overall readiness and preparedness of the municipality to effectively handle a disaster, as well as pursuing additional in-house training.
"We're looking at plans for a primary EOC location," he said, adding a future tri-services building would be ideal.
"We've been looking at a couple of other EOCs from other municipalities and just getting an idea of some of the things we may want to include in ours."
The emergency management director's full report is available through the Town of Sundre's website, www.sundre.com, by hovering the cursor over the "Government" tab and clicking on "Council Meeting Agendas and Minutes." Then, just select the Dec. 11 meeting's agenda under the "2017 Agendas" tab.
Coun. Richard Warnock inquired about the status of Sundre's evacuation protocols in the event of, for example, an encroaching wildfire.
"Currently we don't have a written-down evacuation plan," said Heerema.
"It's something that we are looking at. However, given the different disasters that could hit town, really to come up with a specific evacuation plan maybe is not necessarily the best time spent."
The unpredictable path and direction of a spreading wildfire or the source of a massive flood could potentially result in a preplanned evacuation route ending up being cut off, he said.
"Depending on what disasters we're dealing with, it's kind of difficult. It's almost going to be a reaction," he said, explaining the most suitable evacuation route would best be determined based on unfolding circumstances, and then promptly communicated to the public through appropriate channels such as emergency alerts, social media and the town's website.
"We are looking at some signage to help direct folks in the event of an evacuation and which way they're supposed to be going."
Following no further questions, council carried the report for information.
