Steinbach's Emergency Operations Centre (EOC) team had a chance last week to put its training into practice.
Emergency Coordinator Kel Toews says they had a training exercise Thursday night where they went through the motions of setting up a reception centre for evacuees.
Toews says about 15 members of their EOC team participated, along with several volunteers who came out and acted as evacuees. The exercise took place at Crossview Church. As part of the training exercise, Toews explains that they set up different areas of expertise. For example, they had their lodging table where evacuees would go if they needed a place to sleep. Similarly, they had a medical table for those needing help.
"When people come in as evacuees, we take down their name, their contact information, we direct them to whichever table they need assistance with," he says.
Toews says this is the first training exercise of this kind that his team has performed since he became Emergency Coordinator. He notes it gives them practice in case Steinbach is ever evacuated or is used as an evacuation site for other communities.
Toews says with wildfires ravaging parts of southeastern Manitoba in recent weeks, it was quite timely to hold this training exercise when they did. He notes there are all kinds of scenarios that could result in a reception centre being needed in Steinbach. As mentioned earlier, many of those scenarios could include neighbouring communities or even northern communities needing a place to retreat to in order to escape fires, floods, or tornadoes.
"Communities will try and set up their reception centre in their own community or as close as possible," he explains. "But sometimes that's not possible and we could get from northern Manitoba, we could get from the west, anywhere across the province could set up in Steinbach. They would just request that we act as the reception centre and we would set up for them."
Toews says similarly, if an emergency were to happen in Steinbach, it could be that Steinbach would contact a neighbouring municipality, asking them to perhaps set up a reception centre.
According to Toews, there were a couple of lessons learned from their training exercise, including the basic setup of their reception centre. He notes another lesson they learned was to expect the unexpected.
"Each evacuee that came to this practical training event was given specific items that they needed help with," says Toews. "These were all based on real events that have happened, and you may be surprised at how many different situations come up that you have to deal with. So, you have got to be versatile and be able to handle almost anything."
Toews says their team is now much better prepared as a result of Thursday's exercise.
Meanwhile, Toews says they are always looking for more volunteers to join the Steinbach EOC team. He says last winter they held a volunteer drive to bring up their numbers and today have a group involving about 15 individuals. The group tries to meet quarterly and hold a training event every couple of years.
Anyone interested in joining should contact the Steinbach Fire Hall at 204-326-1109.