If all the lights in the Langleys go out, and with them go the internet and telephone communications we all take for granted, it will up to people like David Jenkins to maintain lines of communication with the outside world.
On Saturday, Jenkins, an amateur radio operator, was busy testing connections with other radio operators during a simulated disaster at the Emergency Operations Centre in Langley City.
It was the annual “Field Day,” an exercise sponsored by Radio Amateurs of Canada (RAC) and the American Radio Relay League (ARRL) where the Langley Emergency Program’s volunteer radio operators test their ability to connect to thousands of amateur radio operators across North America.
A generator was humming outside, part of the test to make sure the system would work in the event of a catastrophic power failure.
As Jenkins talked softly into his microphone, Ginger Sherlock, the Emergency Program Coordinator for the City and Township explained how important the annual drill is.
“These guys are practicing for a major emergency,” Sherlock said.
She praised the volunteer amateur radio operators as “gurus” who will be able to communicate when virtually every other methods have stopped working.
“You can actually send emails over radio waves,” Sherlock said.
While the Langleys are unlikely to experience the kind of severe weather that other parts of the world have, such as hurricanes and Tsunami flooding, “we can still have a severe storm that puts out the lights for an extended period of time” Sherlock said.
READ MORE: VIDEO: A free ride in an earthquake simulator
And there is the ever-looming threat of an earthquake.
Sherlock notes a 2016 study in Washington, Oregon and Ohio shows residents should have enough supplies on hand to get by for two weeks because that is how long it will take help to arrive if there is a major earthquake on the west coast.
The Field Day exercise saw the Emergency Operations Centre’s communications unit active for 24 hours straight, connecting, communicating and passing short messages using various radios, transmission methods and multiple operators.
The goal was to confirm the ability to communicate without a cellphone or internet during an emergency and to demonstrate the program’s ability to work reliably and provide effective communications for the City of Langley and Township of Langley under adverse conditions.
In 2016, Langley became the first Emergency Operations Centre (EOC) in western Canada to participate in the annual exercise, placing first in Western Canada and second in Canada overall in their category.
In 2017, the Langley EOC came first in Canada.
READ MORE: How will your part of Langley fare in the Big One?
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