Evacuation Planning and You

EPC Mary Brown wants you to think "What if...?"

Story by Lions Bay Emergency Program Coordinator Mary Brown

You may have heard that the village has engaged the services of a team of experts whose job it is to develop evacuation plans for municipalities.

Those rumours are true. Staff and volunteers were able to secure a provincial grant to the tune of $40,000 in August, 2025. As Emergency Program Coordinator (EPC), and longtime Lions Bay resident, I know how important a workable evacuation plan is to us all. But here’s the scoop: no plan is ever perfect, especially when factors outside of control are in play, and a plan is only as good as the buy-in from the people affected by the event that triggers the evacuation.

As EPC, I often feel that I am also the Debbie Downer of the village, the Duchess of Disaster, and most of my emergency management thoughts begin with “what if?” This is the reason that I’d like to speak frankly about evacuation planning and how it affects us personally.

You are all aware that we live on a mountainside that is not only beautiful, but built on glacial till, has very steep topography, is covered in very tall trees and gets its fair share of wind and rain. The village is bisected by a major highway and a rail line. During summer months, we are inundated with thousands of visitors. There is limited marine access. We are capped geographically by Crown Land. The hard fact is that if (or when) a major disaster occurs that involves multiple municipalities, we in Lions Bay will not initially be able to count on provincial and federal help. This means the Village may be isolated and we will have to manage on our own.

However, forewarned is forearmed! What can we do on a personal level to mitigate factors in our favour?

1. Have a family evacuation plan that takes into account that not all your family members may be in one place at the time of the event. Plan how you will contact each other. What if cell towers are down and cell phones aren’t working? (There’s that ‘what if’ creeping into my thoughts again...) Arrange for an out-of-area contact person who will act as coordinator for your family whereabouts and safety. For my family, that contact person is in Edmonton.

2. Prepare your house to shelter in place for at least 72 hours. At least! Think of your home as a standalone entity. No running water, no electricity. What is in your home is what you have to work with. Try it out for 24 hours over a weekend. It’s a very illuminating exercise.

3. Transfer all your important papers to a storage stick. Insurance, banking, prescriptions both pharmaceuticals and optical. Keep it in your grab-and-go bag. Update information as needed.

4. Safely store extra fuel on your property. The operative word is safely! Don’t let fuels get old.

5. You will need four litres of water per person, per day, at a minimum. Don’t forget about your pets' needs as well. Store camping-style freeze-dried food packages. Water in plastic containers is good for about two years and then can be used for gardens and toilets. Freeze-dried food can be good for up to a decade. Recent innovations to dried foods have improved the flavour quality dramatically and they no longer taste like freeze-dried gym socks.

I’ve been wanting to institute a village-wide community shelter in place plan but to date have not received much buy-in. It would be based on a provincial plan called “In it Together” and could be structured on our former Block Watch areas. It would require one or two area coordinators per area. The idea is that in our areas or pods, we look out for each other. Who has extra plywood, who has medical or social/emotional skills, who has pet care skills, who has a generator, and on it goes. We take care of each other, but not to sound like an isolationist, we may also have to take care of village visitors who are also trapped here. Who has extra beds and food? Who has language skills?

All these ideas and scenarios are not fiction. My fervent wish is that we all get prepared at the personal level, family level, neighbourhood level and village level. In my next piece, I’d like to tackle what a village emergency evacuation plan will look like. In the meantime, please start thinking about “what if.”

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