The Cowichan Lake area should be proud of how it is the first community in the Cowichan Valley to really use the December windstorm and the ensuing multi-day power outage as the warning it was, and resolve to prepare for the future.
Last week, Cowichan Lake residents and virtually every organization in town got together to look at what happened during and after the storm this time, and what should happen next time.
While there were great things that happened in Cowichan Lake, and many people stepped up to the plate, there was no central location or contact where people could go to get the latest information, or even to find out where they could volunteer to help out. This is a problem. When an emergency happens it is key that people know what to do, and who’s doing what. It’s that coordination that was notably lacking after the windstorm. In such a situation critical things can get missed, while others have people doubling up efforts. It was to the credit of the can-do and caring attitude of those at Cowichan Lake that so much help was put in place so quickly.
It is to Cowichan Lake’s credit that they immediately recognized these deficiencies, and how unprepared as a community as a whole we are to handle an emergency event, and got together to start setting up that coordinated emergency plan that can only serve everyone well in the future.
Lurking on the periphery is always the knowledge that this area is waiting for “the big one”, that big earthquake that scientists tell us is coming to the coast of B.C. in the future. When it does, residents will likely be cut off for a considerable period of time, and must be able to look after themselves, likely for at least several weeks. The windstorm and its aftermath of downed trees blocking roads, power cut off, phone lines down and more was like limited dry run.
The rest of the Cowichan Valley can learn from what Cowichan Lake has done here. We haven’t heard of any other communities who have come together in this way to talk about what happened and how everyone can be better prepared. Plenty of people are considering getting generators and the like, but individual preparedness can only take us so far. We need to collectively prepare if we really want to be ready.
It would be helpful, when a master plan is in place, to produce a document that could be distributed to all residents, so everyone is on the same page.
