Swift Current Reviewing Emergency Preparedness Plans

The City of Swift Current has a number of initiatives and resources to help keep the community safe during disasters and emergency events.

Swift Current implemented an emergency notification system about a year ago in order to protect the public in the event of a disaster. Unlike the national and provincial alert system, Swift Current Alerts operates right within the city to notify people directly when an emergency situation is occurring or about to occur.

Director of Emergency Planning, Denis Pilon, says the messages sent out could be anything from a power outage to a tornado warning, and any information you provide is confidential.

"It works over email, telephone, TTY, fax, as well as text messages, so we can very quickly send out an alert to people who have signed up for it and get the message to them. It can be very specific to small area also," he said. "Unfortunately, we can't just send out messages to just anybody because of CRTC rulings, so we need people to sign up for it."

As of right now, the City is reviewing and rewriting its emergency preparedness plan, and have just completed a risk analysis which will become part of the plan. With the help of Saskatoon Emergency Measures Organization, the City has prepared an online booklet that covers everything from planning to recovering from a disaster.

"A lot of times people seem to think that they don't have to do anything and that somebody is going to come and save them, and yes we will get to you, but you need to take care of yourself for 72 hours," noted Pilon. "We advise people to have a plan to take care of themselves, have sufficient food and clothing and that to maintain their own household for up to 72 hours, because we could be so overwhelmed that we wouldn't have time to get to them earlier than that."

The City also has a mutual aid agreement in place with a number of rural municipalities and other centers concerning manpower and equipment in the case of an emergency, according to Pilon. "We basically drew a circle 50 kilometers around and invited all of the municipalities to join a mutual aid agreement that says we would all help each other if there was an event, and we also have a mutual aid agreement with the eight large cities of Saskatchewan, so Saskatoon, Prince Albert, Regina, Moose Jaw and so on. That was put in place a number of years ago, and is designed for major events such a hazardous material spill where we would need massive resources from elsewhere."

Pilon encourages all residents to sign up for the alert system at swiftcurrent.ca, adding that all changes to the plan will come into effect immediately.