B.C. Hydro should help foot the bill for a new emergency notification system, District of Squamish (DOS) councillors say.
Squamish Emergency Program (SEP) is applying for a grant to help pay for a $13,335 public emergency notification program that would, at the touch of a button, warn residents in specific locations of natural disasters and emergencies. It's an extremely important technology when examining the potential flood risk in the Paradise Valley, the district's emergency program manager Jim Lang told council on Tuesday (Oct. 11).
"This could save lives," Lang said.
In 2008, B.C. Hydro produced several scenarios that examined risks related to Daisy Lake Dam, backing the need for automated emergency warning system, Lang said. The worst-case scenario was based on an earthquake that would break the dam, spilling the probable maximum flow. Research indicated that in such an incident, floodwater would reach the northern portion of the valley in 50 minutes, peaking in one hour and 45 minutes. The rush of water would reach the Cheakamus River Bridge - near the confluence with the Cheekye River - in an hour and 45 minutes and peak an hour later.
The scenario doesn't give municipality staff and emergency responders enough time to notify Paradise Valley residents using the district's current manual emergency phone list, Lang said. If officials responded at the moment of the event, the Squamish Emergency Program would have 15 minutes to muster up approximately 30 emergency responders to do a door-to-door notification. The notification would take approximately one hour, leaving residents 30 minutes to get to higher ground. Even under the best of conditions, this task would be next to impossible, Lang noted in his report.
"Currently the Emergency Program has kept a phone fan list that is updated every other year and would take approximately three hours to implement," he wrote.
If the grant application is successful, the federal and provincial governments would pay for half of the program, leaving a $6,667.50 bill for Squamish. Although quick and easy to install, the project comes with an annual license fee of $1,200, which would fall under the Squamish Emergency Program budget, Lang noted.
B.C. Hydro has been handing out grant money to communities around the province and it's time Squamish got its cut, Coun. Corinne Lonsdale said. Although the system could be used to warn the district's residents about all kinds of emergencies, from interface fires to chemical spills, the Daisy Lake Dam, which is operated by B.C. Hydro, makes it particularly important to Paradise Valley residents, she said.
"Five-hundred dollars is what we got from B.C. Hydro [this year] and lots of other communities got lots of goodies," Lonsdale said.
Council unanimously endorsed a motion to see whether B.C. Hydro would contribute to the project and backed the grant bid for the new public emergency notification system.
The Squamish-Lillooet Regional District as well as other Lower Mainland municipalities are already using the system, Lang said. It allows emergency services to send out pre-recorded messages to people via phone and email. Each resident will include four forms of contacts for the program. That allows people to receive notifications at work and home, Lang said.
"We can have the messages pre-programmed, so all our volunteers can do other important things," he said.
