‘Documenting the lessons learned.’
That’s a report by the Mayor of Quesnel who says that the City is already learning from 100 Mile House and Williams Lake and surrounding communities which have been affected by evacuation alerts and orders.
Bob Simpson says one of the biggest leanings he personally gained was the need to give consistent, concise, and readable updates.
“That was one of the things that I was able to offer during this time, I posted twice daily. I had the luxury to look at all of the data and information, try to make sense out of it, and then post it in a readable form on social media. It just completely squashed a lot of the rumor mongering and fear mongering that was going on.”
Simpson says that they want to build that into their system where they would have a communications person who right from the start would take everything that was going on and make such reports that would go out to the public on a regular basis.
He adds that he does not want his City forgotten when it comes to talks by provincial and federal officials of recovery funds due to the wildfires as the hit on Quesnel’s economy especially for their retailers has been significant.
A draft lessons learned document is anticipated to be presented to Quesnel Council in late August which will seek Council’s approval to engage an emergency management specialist to help take the raw material and turn it into a comprehensive and detailed plan that the City can use to guide their actions in any future forest fire related emergency.
(The full interview with Mayor Simpson and the author of this report on July, 26 can be listened to on the provided link below)
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