Outlying communities need emergency plans: report
Rural hamlets and First Nations near Fort McMurray weren’t prepared for fire
FORT MCMURRAY Rural hamlets and Indigenous communities in the Fort McMurray region are in dire need of emergency plans, states a new report on the 2016 wildfire that devastated the Wood Buffalo area.
The warning is part of a 178page report released Thursday by KPMG on behalf of the Regional Municipality of Wood Buffalo.
The report praised elements of the municipality’s recovery process, but also shared stories about communication failures between departments. It also suggested better ways to reach the public during a crisis.
“There are some hard truths that have emerged throughout this process. However, we are accepting these truths and embracing them as catalysts to change,” said Wood Buffalo Regional Emergency Services Fire Chief Jody Butz.
The report flagged a lack of dedicated evacuation or emergency management plans for hamlets and Indigenous communities as a serious issue. Those communities “may not have been sufficiently considered” within the municipal emergency management plan, the report concludes.
“Many Alberta municipalities have never considered the need to evacuate their entire community,” the report states. “The time required to fully evacuate a community and the resources needed … are likely underestimated in many evacuation plans across Alberta and in other provinces.”
The report found Wood Buffalo’s rural hamlets “generally felt unprepared for the wildfire” and for handling thousands of evacuees seeking shelter, food and fuel in the initial mass evacuation.
Sporadic availability of sewage and running water further complicated the response, as did the evacuation of Anzac and the Fort McMurray First Nation.
First Nations communities are required to create their own emergency plans and the municipality should co-ordinate with the communities during an emergency and be aware of each other’s plans and capabilities.
“While timeliness of the May 3 mandatory evacuation was an issue, a positive evacuation outcome was achieved through the evacuation of over 88,000 residents,” it said.
The system that rescued thousands of pets worked so well, the report recommends implementing it in future disaster plans.
While sifting through the remains of destroyed homes may have brought people closure, the report notes the non-governmental organization assigned with the task was overwhelmed at the magnitude of the disaster.
The municipality said it will adopt all 14 recommendations made in the review and is already working at solving many of the problems identified in the report.
“We have an opportunity right now to become more resilient as a community,” mayor Melissa Blake said. “This means more than ticking off a few check marks.”
The KMPG report for Wood Buffalo is the third major report published on the provincial and local governments’ reaction to the disaster. Two reports conducted at the request of the Alberta government — one by consulting company MNP on efforts to fight the fire and another by KPMG on the plan to get residents back home — also pointed to communication gaps and confusion in the early days of the fire.