The City of Kamloops is looking to become proactive in the case of a local disaster.

Emergency Preparedness Manager Will Beatty says the city intends to put together a working group to deal with any post-disaster recovery.

“Seeing the impacts on Lytton and the Shuswap as they try to recover from wildfire, the Kamloops Emergency Program team will be working towards creating a recovery team that can start the planning and recovery discussions, even while response objectives and initiatives are happening from a site level response,” noted a report going to Kamloops City Council on Tuesday.

“If we happen to lose a loss of life, or structures, in any of our neighborhoods, what does recovery look like?” suggested Beatty.  “How can we facilitate that recovery piece in the response phase, so that once the response has concluded, we can instantly start to rebuild.”

Beatty says the intention is to avoid drawn-out delays in rebuilding.

“The recovery piece is normally thought of after the response piece has concluded. When you see situations like that, you see members of the community actually not return to their community,” noted Beatty.  “Sometimes when you stay in that host community for, who ever knows how long — say 6, 8 months while the recovery process is still working its way through, sometimes it can be years — you start to establish roots in that community. Now, that community now becomes your community.”

Political leaders asked to stay at arms-length during emergency

Beatty’s report to council Tuesday also includes a recommendations that the Mayor and Councillors not be present in the Emergency Operations Center during an emergency situation.

“Even though it might seem like Mayor and Council should be in the Emergency Operations Centre, it is not appropriate to have the Mayor or Council adding pressure to the staff that are making operational and strategic plans and decisions about immediate needs for site level support,” states the report.

“This also filters down to emergency scene management and the immediate concerns around safety for and the impacts of the Mayor and Council members attending emergency sites. Incident Commanders and those alike would request that Mayor and Council stay away from the scene until such time is provided for an update or an appropriate escorted site visit is arranged.”