Emergency planners in Medicine Hat are now adding the need to maintain physical distancing within their standing plans to address other emergency situations, including a potential of required evacuation of low-laying homes during a flood, officials told reporters on Tuesday. -- News Photo Collin Gallant
City emergency planners are now altering flood response plans to include the need to maintain physical distance in a potential flood evacuation scenario, officials said Tuesday morning.
“We’re facing challenges that we never thought we would,” said Merrick Brown, the city’s director of emergency management.
“We’re going back and revising all the hazard plans and putting a COVID lens on them. But just like we’ve got COVID (regulations in place), we’ve got this (handled), too.”
Brown said the city wouldn’t provide an overview of the plan, but would release that information if it comes into effect.
The South Saskatchewan River typically peaks in mid to late June each year, though creeks have flooded in April and May when warm weather and a large snow pack combines with new rain and already sodden soil.
The 2013 flood forced the evacuation of about 2,000 addresses in Medicine Hat and eventually left 500 homes damaged to the point they were uninhabitable for a time.
Most evacuees found shelter with friends and relatives in town, though some were housed at hotels or at a relief centre at Medicine Hat College.
How similar accommodations could be provided within pandemic orders to maintain separation is currently being worked out by city planners, said Brown. Specific information will be made available to the general public if an emergency situation arises, but not beforehand.
Brown also said that city crews will carry out annual spring flood training and review sessions in the coming months. That includes taking an inventory of supplies, a simulated call out and retraining workers to install and remove the flood gates that are built into berm sections and at the city hall parkade.
Alberta Environment has stated that there is a much larger than normal snowpack in the Cypress Hills and above normal snowpack in the mountains. The April to September water supply outlook for the Bow River Basin is delayed, according to the provincial ministry.
