Damage to Highway 1 at Tank Hill (Image Credit: Flickr / Minister of Transportation)

By James Peters

Two & Out

PETERS: What government can and cannot do in the face of natural disaster

Nov 26, 2021 | 10:23 AM

CRITICSM OF GOVERNMENTS for not properly handling environmental catastrophes — like the one we saw last week — can at times be a little unfair.

When Mother Nature truly wants to show her power, human beings are largely powerless.

Could John Horgan or Justin Trudeau have held back the rains?

Do we expect Mike Farnworth to personally dam the flood waters? Do we expect Rob Fleming to, by sheer force of will, keep mudslides and flash floods from damaging our highways?

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Of course not.

Short of those type of omnipotent efforts, though, there are some steps governments can take to lessen the impact of natural disasters.

In the big picture, if we can say human-caused climate change is contributing to more severe storm events, governments can do a lot to address human-caused climate change.

It takes a great deal of political will to implement measures that will be expensive and unpopular, and that brand of political will is hard to come by.

In the short term, though, governments should do whatever necessary to ensure life and safety.

There is no guarantee using the Alert Ready system to warn of surprise mudslides would have saved the lives of those who were swept off Highway 99 near Lillooet or the woman who is missing after her home was washed away near Spences Bridge.

What is guaranteed, though, is that not using it did not help anyone.

The Alert Ready system was used successfully just this week in Vanderhoof, where it alerted residents of a gunman taking pot shots at the RCMP detachment. The alleged shooter was taken into custody and no one was injured.

There is no reason a tool like this should be in the toolbox if it is not going to be used for weather-related disasters as well.

Another step government can take is investing more into maintaining and upgrading disaster-resistant infrastructure.

There are hundreds upon hundreds of bridges in this province, for example, and only a handful of inspectors to ensure they are holding up well.

Building a more disaster-resistant infrastructure network would be another big expense, but it would be a smart investment that would pay off in the long term.

Finally, as we have said before, governments need to up their communications game.

There are First Nations whose communities have been devastated by last week’s disaster who say they still have yet to hear from government.

Reaching out with some assurances should be the least our leaders could do.

Governments cannot completely prevent these terrible tragedies from playing out — but they are far from powerless.

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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.