B.C. expects ‘growing pains’ as it rolls out Alert Ready for fires, floods

Officials in B.C. say they are gearing up for what may be another destructive spring and summer and are promising to be more prepared than in previous years.

In addition to several new initiatives, the province is also expanding the criteria for when a public alert can be issued to include fires and floods. Public Safety Minister Mike Farnworth says the system is ready to be deployed for flooding, and will expand again for wildfire threats in early June.

It will be in the hands of local authorities and First Nations communities to decide if they want to issue the alert to residents in the area to notify them of any threats.

“I fully expect there will be growing pains in it and people need to realize that. One of the issues that we have to be prepared for and understand is over alerting for example, you know if you get too many alerts people start to ignore them, ” Farnworth said.

He says the province has also added more resources to the B.C. River Forecast Centre and Wildfire BC ahead of the spring freshet and hot summer months.

“We will make it so we can respond faster next time,” Farnworth said.

No clear answer to @mikefarnworthbc being asked about turn around time from ask to alert. Says there will be some finessing about how often to use – concern is too many alerts and ppl will tune them out.#bcpoli @CityNewsVAN

— LizaYuzda (@LizaYuzda) May 3, 2022

However, many have asked why the alert system is not expanding to also include heatwaves or other threats. The BC Coroners Service estimates more than 600 people died in the heatwaves over the summer, many of them seniors.

“It is not a silver bullet. It is part of a number of tools that we will have to be able to alert people to events that are happening and … the Alert Ready system, it’s very much intended to warn of imminent threat or imminent danger,” Farnworth said.

“When it comes to the heat alert, as I said there’s specific health issue implications around heat, that it’s important that we work very collaborative and closely with the Ministry of Health and determining what is the best way to use the heat alerts and when it should be done. And just for example, is it on a certain temperature range? Could it be in certain areas? You know, the work is underway and we’re going to wait and we will be we have that in place,” he said.

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Farnworth made the announcement during Emergency Preparedness Week, and urged everyone to make a family plan in case of an emergency.

A test of the wireless alerting system will be conducted on Wednesday afternoon at 1:55 p.m. PST, part of the semi-annual test of the national Alert Ready system. A message will be sent to mobile phones, as well as broadcast on radio and TV stations.

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However, many have questioned B.C.’s history with the technology, which has been available since 2018, but has been used very few times, despite record-breaking heat, rain, and even a tornado in the last year alone.

During the November floods, which forced the evacuations of entire communities, and closed the majority of highways in southern B.C., the province had said the system could be used to notify residents in Abbotsford about the encroaching flood waters, but local officials chose not to. Farnworth says the expanded province-wide system in place for 2022 also gives authority for the province to issue the alert in the rare circumstance that the local authority does not.

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The system was also not used to notify residents of Lytton about the encroaching wildfire in June during a historic heatwave. Residents say they were told to leave at a moment’s notice by officials knocking on doors. Two people were killed in that fire, and nearly all the homes and buildings were lost.

“It’s a new system, it is a tool, it is not going to supplant traditional methods of notification, those will still continue,” Farnworth said.

Lytton Mayor Jan Polderman says the alert would have been helpful for several reasons.

“Even 20 minutes of time, an extra 20 minutes, so you think ‘oh yeah, maybe I’ll get my property title and my passport together before I leave,’ as opposed to looking out the back window seeing the fire and running out in your bath coat. That makes a fair bit of difference,” Polderman said.

“I think once you go through disaster, you want to have as many options out there as possible. You know, last year when the fire hit, you know, if people weren’t at home, they would have been alerted. They would have known what was going on. You know, which may have been helpful,” he said.

Adding that without official communication, many turned to the wrong places to try and stay informed, only adding to the confusion.

“I think it’s helpful when people know what’s going on and instead of making things up when there’s an information vacuum people just make stuff up.”

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An alert was not sent last November when a tornado touched down in Metro Vancouver, uprooting and destroying trees in the UBC area. As the tornado was a watch, and not a warning. Many were forced to find out about the situation on Twitter as opposed to a broadcast-intrusive alert, and Environment and Climate Change Canada was not able to confirm a tornado had even touched down until three days later.

With files from Nikitha Martins, Denise Wong, and Hana Mae Nassar