It’s Emergency Preparedness Week, and local experts are reminding Winnipeggers to plan ahead.
Emergency consultant Shelley Napier told 680 CJOB’s The Start that people often expect that authorities or others will have everything set up if and when an emergency occurs, but that’s not always the case.
“As a whole, I think that we just go through day-to-day life and think somebody else takes care of this stuff,” Napier said.
“In reality, we have to start first at the individual level to take care of any emergency that happens because we’re going to be on the front line of it.”
Napier said people often don’t think about emergency planning unless they’ve already lived through a crisis situation and are more likely to be prepared — such as residents of Elie, Man., who experienced Canada’s strongest recorded tornado in 2007.
“Certainly those people who went through that understand how awful it was and how devastating … so when they get weather warnings, they take them very seriously.”
Napier said she encourages people to plan ahead with a 72-hour kit, containing everything they and their family members might need — medications, first aid kits, changes of clothing — if there’s a sudden need to evacuate the home.
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“If you’re a young family with little children, you’re going to have to take different things with you. It’s going to be more time-consuming to evacuate, so the more preparedness you can do ahead of the event (the better).”
Napier said it’s important to always have your gas tank on the fuller side, should you have to evacuate on short notice.
The City of Winnipeg offers a free, online course about the various hazards that can affect Manitobans and what steps you can take to prepare — including creating emergency kits, and practising an escape plan should you have to leave the home in a hurry.
“We don’t want anyone left behind in an emergency,” said Jason Shaw, a deputy chief with the Winnipeg Fire Paramedic Service.
“Building a strong support network of family, friends, neighbours and caregivers can help you stay safe.”
Canada’s national public alerting system will distribute a test alert on TVs, radio and phones on Wednesday.
In 2023, the Alert Ready system distributed 1,086 emergency alerts across Canada.
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