Landslide Lessons Learned

District of Squamish staff reflect on Battani Creek disaster

Less than half a year after a debris torrent and landslide swept through Lions Bay, killing two residents, displacing many more and shutting down the Sea to Sky Highway, the District of Squamish is taking stock.

Though the Village of Lions Bay was severely impacted by the disaster, we are not alone. All the communities north of Brunswick Beach on the Sea to Sky were cut off by the debris that piled up across the highway, and our largest immediate neighbour to the north has marshalled their resources to take a closer look at how things were handled.

District of Squamish staff recently presented their Council with a report on initiatives put in place to assist travellers stranded by the event.

The June 3 report summarizes key successes as well as what they call "opportunities for improvement" in response to the sudden highway closure.

A positive was the speed at which the district was able to communicate with and coordinate different agencies – including the RCMP, Squamish Nation and Emergency Operations Centre (EOC). This resulted in rapid coordination between these and other agencies including the Regional Districts of Whistler and Pemberton, Vancouver Coastal Health and the Ministry of Transportation.

When Lions Bay put out the call, Squamish was also able to send emergency management staff to support Lions Bay's EOC.

It also used social media and Squamish Alert to effectively organize crisis communication, and since then staff have taken the opportunity to further improve procedures.

This includes expanding the list of incident-specific messaging templates within the Squamish Alert system to speed up the approval process and get the information out more quickly to the public.

District staff also lauded the resilience of the Squamish community, where residents quickly stepped up to offer lodging, food and information for people stranded on the highway.

At the June 3 meeting, Squamish Councillor Chris Pettingill asked if faith-based or other groups who want to help can be looped in. "Do we have a way to enable others who are looking to help to do so?"

His thoughts were echoed by Councillor Jenna Stoner, who noted that the folks who manage the road conditions pages on social media and groups like tour bus operators also quite often have the ability to reach people that formal systems do not.

Staff noted that communication and conversation with some of the groups has already begun, but that further engagement is planned to see if the relationships can be formalized. In the report, district staff noted that communications between agencies worked well, however they called for the creation of a more formalized mechanism of communication for regional coordination. "This would allow for an opportunity to ensure unified messaging to the public and optimize the use of limited Emergency Social Service resources during an emergency that has broad impacts across the Sea to Sky corridor."

They have already begun to work with regional partners to develop a mechanism that will facilitate even better communication during future emergency events.

They are also currently seeking clarification from the province as to whether Emergency Support Services (ESS) costs are covered if provided to stranded travellers. Currently, legislation provides financial compensation only for evacuees.

In addition, Squamish District staff members and ESS volunteers have taken the initiative to receive Evacuation Registration Tool Assistance training, to further assist in future emergencies.

Near the end of the meeting, Mayor Armand Hurford noted that a gift basket left at the front counter of District offices had been donated by the Village of Lions Bay to thank the community for their support during the response.

"It shows our efforts as a community were really appreciated by that small community. It was a small gesture, but there was so much going on and it was such a tragedy for the community, I think it really spoke volumes to how impactful our community's help was."

After Hurford thanked his staff for the report, he noted that there are "lots of lessons to learn here, and I do think it's important that we endeavour to do that."

Editor's note: BC Wildfire is reporting the Dryden Creek wildfire continues to burn out of control, but Squamish Fire Rescue says that the fire did not grow noticibly in size yesterday. Updates can be found HERE.

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