A Spring Emergency and Preparedness Expo was held recently in the Lake City.
Paul McCarthy, Williams Lake First Nation Emergency Program Coordinator said it was a 2 day event held in the Gibraltar Room that brought together responders, agencies, and local governments.
“We built on working relationships and creating some communication channels for all the folks involved in this area when it comes to what we might face for emergencies.”
McCarthy said the Expo has been done on an annual basis.
“Normally it’s led by the provincial government, it use to be the Provincial Emergency Program then it was Emergency Management BC and now it’s Emergency Management and Climate Readiness. Local groups, Williams Lake First Nation, Cariboo Regional District, City of Williams Lake, and the Tsilhqot’in National Government all came together to host one day with more of a Cariboo-Chilcotin style and feel to it and we invited our provincial agencies to present as well.”
Day one McCarthy noted they had 62 people from BC Wildfire Service, Fire Departments, Emergency Program Coordinators, Emergency Managers, getting the forecasts and doing some readiness and then working on a few relationship building exercises.
“The next day we had Service Providers like Emergency Support Services, the United Way, First Nations Emergency Support Services and much more there, I think we had about 15 booths. We were open to the public to let them know about what they can do and what supports are available to them to be prepared for an emergency.”
McCarthy added the Emergency Expo was well attended and they had folks coming through the Gibraltar most the day.
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