Image Credit: Flickr / Government of B.C.

By Parliamentary Secretary for Emergency Preparedness Jennifer Rice

Sound Off

SOUND OFF: Responding to disaster

Nov 24, 2021 | 1:42 PM

THIS PAST WEEK HAS BEEN INCREDIBLY CHALLENGING and tragic for British Columbians. Severe flooding and landslides have cut off key highways, left communities isolated and forced thousands of people to evacuate their homes. Communities across the province, from Abbotsford to Merritt to Princeton, continue to grapple with dangerous flood conditions.

During these difficult times, your provincial government is working together with local and federal officials to keep people safe, keep them informed and get them the help they need.

I am incredibly grateful for the work of everyone on the front lines. Crews have been working day and night to reopen roads so people can get home or reunite with loved ones. Emergency Support Services has been providing shelter, food and other supports to evacuees and travellers.

The Ministry of Agriculture is working with farmers to help stranded animals, including using helicopters to drop containers with food and water on farms that have been cut off by flooding.

Despite disruptions to key travel routes, our supplies of goods are secure. Supply chains throughout the majority of the province remain resilient. We are working quickly to re-route shipments through alternate routes to get people the essential supplies they need, including food, medicine, water and fuel. We are asking everyone to be patient and buy only what you need for now – more is on the way.

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It’s at times like this that we truly appreciate the value of community. So many people across the province have stepped up this week, in big and small ways, to support those in need.

In the aftermath of the storm, volunteers gathered at Gurdwaras to cook food, while others used social media to collect donations of supplies. People filled sandbags through the night to protect the Barrowtown Pump Station in Abbotsford and a brewery donated 100,000 kilograms of grain to feed livestock. If you’re wondering what you can do to help, I encourage you to donate to the Canadian Red Cross.

There are countless other stories like these from around our province. In the face of tragedy, people in B.C. react with kindness and look out for those who are in need. That’s who we are.

The scale of this storm was unprecedented, but we know that the climate crisis is making extreme weather events more frequent and more intense.

Just like we have all pulled together this week, we need to collaborate on climate action to protect the province we love. Urgent action is needed and our government is leading the way by reducing pollution and moving to more clean electrical power. Our government is also engaging in a full scale rewrite of the Emergency Program Act to ensure that we’re recognizing the importance of mitigating disasters as well as the United Nations Sendai Framework – an international standard for disaster response that includes responding to the effects of climate change.

We have a lot of work ahead of us, as we rebuild roads and communities and tackle the climate crisis. I know that by working together, we can rise to this challenge.

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Editor’s Note: This opinion piece reflects the views of its author, and does not necessarily represent the views of CFJC Today or Pattison Media.