Emergencies & Livestock Evacuation FAQ

Guest: Christopher Walker, Emergency Services Manager for the Regional District of Bulkley-Nechako (RDBN).

In episode three, Megan and Emergency Services Manager for the RDBN Christopher Walker discuss steps, safety measures, and best practices for your family, property, and livestock in case of a natural emergency. Topics covered in this episode include evacuation alerts and orders, livestock evacuation, and how the RDBN operates in an emergency.

External Links:

https://www.rdbn.bc.ca/departments/protective-services/ESS

https://www.rdbn.bc.ca/departments/protective-services/emergency-information-plans/emergency-notification-types

https://www.rdbn.bc.ca/departments/protective-services/personal-preparedness/educational-materials

Transcript

Megan: Welcome back to The Growing Opportunities Podcast. I am Megan D’Arcy, the Agriculture Coordinator for the Regional District of Bulkley-Nechako. People often ask me what the regional agriculture coordinator does for the regional district, so this series of podcasts is going to help answer that question In a nutshell, the regional agriculture coordinator is responsible for actioning priority areas outlined in the RDBN Food and Agriculture Plan available on the RDBN website.

The current version of this strategic plan was compiled with the help of an advisory group that included producers throughout the region. The plan identifies agriculture related priorities for the RDBN that include supporting producers as they navigate government policies and requirements (for example, the recent area expansion of the BC Vegetable Marketing Commission), preparing for emergencies (let's face it, mostly wildfires), engaging a broad audience in regional agricultural activities and information (probably the best example is the GO Newsletter, and you guessed it, this podcast), and working towards climate change, resiliency and adaptation (for example, exploring community irrigation systems). The focus of this podcast series is to highlight the projects and other work being done to further implement these priority areas.

So thank you for listening in and keep growing! 

RDBN Liability: The RDBN is providing this podcast as a public service. It is neither a legal interpretation nor a statement of government policies. Reference to any specific product or entity does not constitute an endorsement or recommendation by the RDBN. The views expressed by staff and guests are their own and do not represent the opinion of the RDBN or any of its directors.

Presenters are not subject matter experts and information presented should be verified by certified professionals prior to informing business or legal decisions. 

Megan: With me today is Christopher Walker. He's the emergency services manager at the Regional District of Bulkley-Nechako. Hello, Christopher. 

Christopher Walker: Hello, Megan, 

Megan: I think it would be good to walk through a scenario, so if there was a wildfire that started within the regional district, can you just walk us through the process that happens at the regional district?

Christopher Walker: For sure. So depending on where the fire starts, we aren't notified right away. It's usually wildfire gets a call or is notified, they go investigate it, see if it's a real start or not. And they have their whole response process that they follow as they're the ones who are fighting the fires. The regional district doesn't do the direct attack of the fires.

We are a support agency to BC wildfire looking after the RDBN residents and property and livestock. So wildfire is out doing their response action, the fire, calling in assets, building plans to address it, and then there can reach a point where they are looking at the fire projections and what the models are showing for the growth, and they see that there's property or residence nearby and they may have a discussion and say, you’ll need to recommend an either evacuation alert or evacuation order, and then they will reach out to the Emergency Management Climate Readiness Ministry, who will then contact local authority, First Nations and start talking about the recommendation call with them, and we talk through what the fire is doing, the behavior of it, the assets that are on the fire, and then wildfire then tells us as the local authority that they're recommending we issue evacuation alert order for a specific area, and then we take that and go through our own analysis of the situation. Look at the addresses, look at properties. Who is there? How many residents. Is it seasonal, year-round people who live, residents who live there. And then we come back with, with our own version of the area they want to evacuate because we usually change it, make it fit better with roads and natural features and maybe both sides of a road versus one side of a road.

Megan: Can you just describe what an evacuation alert means? 

Christopher Walker: Yeah, for sure. So an evacuation alert is the first stage to the evacuation process. The alert comes out and when we issue it, it is a warning to the public that there is a serious event going on that has the potential to escalate, and that this is now your time to get prepared in case an order comes out, which means the order meet, it says.

You need to leave immediately, 

Megan: right? 

Christopher Walker: The alert gives you the time to prep, to pack, to gather your essentials, to evacuate your animals, to make plants, to have plans put in place to move your animals, or for egg agriculture producers to start relocating animals. 

Megan: Okay. And so when that process starts, there is an EOC formed at the regional district.

So EOC stands for Emergency Operations Center. So do you want to talk a little bit about that and what that looks like? 

Christopher Walker: Yeah, sure. So the Emergency Operations Center is. It's a combination of staff from all the various departments at the regional district who are trained for specific functions. So we have the management team, which is your EOC director, who? That's, I'm one of, we have our deputy director, we have our information officers, we have risk management officers, liaison officers, and then we have our policy group liaison who communicates with our elected officials. 

Then from there, we have our sections, we have operations section. They're the ones who take plans and they action them. They, we like to call them the doers. They go in. They're checking in wildfire. They're setting up reception centers with ESS. They're where the agriculture, um, coordinator sits under. And then we have our planning section. They're the ones who are creating the plans, doing documentation, drafting up states of local emergencies. They're the ones who are putting the specific information into evacuation alerts and orders. And then we have our logistics who deals with the acquiring of resources for us to use. And then the finance section, they're the ones who make sure that we are going to be compensated, dealing with expenses, talking with the province about what is eligible for funding what is not.

Yeah. That's a very quick overview. 

Megan: Yeah. It all sounds very organized and complex. 

Christopher Walker: It is. 

Megan: Yeah, 

Christopher Walker: for sure. 

Megan: So if you're a producer in the evacuation, in an evacuation alert area, what are your options if you have livestock? 

Christopher Walker: If you are an agricultural producer and you have livestock, there is specific funding that can be made available through the province that's access through the local authority to help relocate.

Your animals to a new location, the preferably one that you have already set up or you have located, and then to help with the cost of the transportation feed while they're away. And there's potential for some additional support, like getting range riders to help gather the livestock up for. Of the moving process.

There is a shelter in place that people can shelter their animals in place. Depending on the situation. The best option is to try to relocate. If you have those plans in place, ready to go, and then you just reach out to the regional district, EOC, and you end up talking to, uh, more often than not, it's actually you, Megan, who is the agriculture coordinator.

And then, yeah, working that process through of getting those supports and the funding in place. 

Megan: Yeah. So an example, if they do have to leave their animals behind, what are their options? So obviously it's important to make sure that they have lots of food and water. For them in case they can't get, the, people can't get back right away and the people have to leave.

So I guess that's actually, we should talk about that. So I guess in some cases people leave and in some cases they don't. Is that correct? 

Christopher Walker: Yeah. So when an evacuation order comes out and you get a knock on your door with an evacuation order. That is the regional district, that is the local authority saying you need to leave.

There is an imminent, life-threatening situation, and it's not something that we do lightly by any means. It's, we never like issuing evacuation orders. It just drops every aspect of your, of people's lives, of society and it's, it's intense, right? But when it does come out, we are very serious about it. There are those who decide.

To ignore the evacuation order and they choose to stay behind in the order area, which has a very complex situation there. We don't encourage that or support it. We recognize that adults who are of sound mind have that choice that they can make, but by no means is that encouraged or facilitated through the local authority there.

Going against expert recommendation from BC wildfire of the regional district saying there is this imminent life safety situation and we need to make sure that miners are evacuating out of the area as well. And so they do stay behind. They cannot freely come and go out of the evacuation order area. As soon as they leave.

They cannot go back in to stay. If they stay behind, they have to stay there. And also be fully aware that emergency services are likely not to respond while our CMP BC Ambulance, fire Rescue, they don't have to go into an evacuation order area to go if that person calls because they ignored the evacuation order.

Megan: Oh, that's interesting. I didn't realize that. 

Christopher Walker: Yeah, it's because then you're putting responder, responder safety at risk and 

Megan: Right. 

Christopher Walker: And we can't have our responders being put themselves at extraordinary risk because of somebody's choice to ignore the life safety issue. And that's why the evacuation order is so serious.

It's saying it is not safe to be there. Ambulance is not going to come in. That is always been the, what has been said from BC Ambulance is that they recognize the evacuation orders. 

Megan: That makes sense. It sounds like if there is an evacuation alert issued in an area that you live in, that your best case scenario is if you have the option to relocate animals that you should do it when the evacuation alert goes into place, not necessarily when the evacuation order goes into place. 

Christopher Walker: Correct. Yeah, and that's, and again, that's evacuation alerts. We do take those seriously as well, and we recognize the impact that has on everyone's day-to-day lives.

So when they do come out. We want to be connecting up with all the producers. We want to explain to them the situation if they have questions, and to help them make the best choice for them. So there is dialogue that happens during the evacuation alert, but that is when we have the time to do, and that is when we have the time to relocate the animals.

Megan: Yeah, that makes sense. Fire can be quite unpredictable, I'm sure. So it does make sense to try and give yourself as much lead time as you can. 

Christopher Walker: Absolutely. When we have fires that do a five to 15 kilometer runs overnight, you, you don't have the time to do the evacuation or the packing. Okay? That's why the alerts come when they do, is to give you that time.

So 

Megan: if you're a producer that has just like a large number of animals, or you don't have a buddy farm, or there's other reasons why you can't necessarily move your animals in an evacuation alert. And, but you decide to leave. So you pack up your personal items and you and your family relocate to either an emergency What, what's it called again?

It's Emergency Services Center. 

Christopher Walker: Uh, it's called a reception center. So reception 

Megan: center, 

Christopher Walker: sorry. When you evacuate, you, we direct, everyone says it on the evacuation orders that are handed out. It tells you what, where to go. The address of the reception center. You go there, you register for emergency Support Services.

ESS, 

Megan: right. 

Christopher Walker: That will, and they will help you out with lodging, food, and if needed clothing as well. 

Megan: Okay. 

Christopher Walker: And they're a place to gather for further information as well. They're staffed by some of the most extraordinary individuals we have in the region. It's majority is volunteer based and they're there.

Because they want to help a great people who just really care about their communities and they're there to help you get sorted and get the support you need in the meantime from that reception center. Or you can find the information on the evacuation order as well. If you do have a large number of animals you need to get back in to go feed them, go check on them.

We have a temporary access permit process that. You fill out an application, you can fill it out online at the RDBN website, or you can call the EOC Public Information line, which will be found on the activation order, and you ask that you know you need a temporary access permit, you put it in application, it's reviewed by the operations section at the EOC, and then we talk with Species wildfire service and say, Hey, we have.

Maybe it's three people. Maybe it's one person who, whoever it is, however many applications we go through, each of them say they need to get to all these different properties. Is the situation at a point where the risk is low enough that they can go back in during a certain time period? If they agree to come out by certain.

Point of the day. So we'll go through the wildfire. We'll say, we'll approve or deny permits based on risk to safety. They then show up at the checkpoint that we establish at the access point to the evacuation order area. They'll have the permit in hand. They check in with the checkpoint personnel and either.

We can escort the people into the area if we feel that they need to be escorted by a person, by a staff member, or they, we trust 'em that they will go in and they'll come back out when they are supposed to. 

Megan: It sounds like you need to make sure that if you do have to go back in to the evacuation order area to water and feed livestock, it sounds like you should try to get that permitting process underway quickly, like you should put the application in quickly.

Christopher Walker: Great question. Yeah. We want that application in. As soon as possible when things start to get really busy in the EOC, and if we have multiple fires or multiple events going on across the region, or we have a large singular event with multiple requests coming in. It takes time to process, 

Megan: right? 

Christopher Walker: And it's not just the RDBN who has to review this.

We have to talk to the incident commander on the ground in the field and say, Hey, is the situation at a point where we could allow these people to go back in? So we like to have all applications. If you need to get another Tuesday, you need to submit it on the Monday so we you get it in the day before.

I won't say by what time? 'cause it's fluid in a very dynamic emergency response situation. So you submit it the day before and then you will have, you should have an answer by the morning of the next day. We just need the time to get those, that process rolling. So getting it in as soon as possible is what we need and it's not.

And if you need to get it on the Wednesday, we need to submit for the Tuesday because each application, each temporary access permit is valid for. The peer, the timeframe that it says on the permit. 

Megan: Okay. So 

Christopher Walker: you won't get, you won't get one for the whole event, right? You will get one on a case, case basis each day.

Megan: Okay. So I guess ideally then you set up food and water for at least. One to two days if you can, so that you can make time for the permitting process, but also just in case there is a change in fire activity and you can't get back. 

Christopher Walker: Absolutely. A fire can jump a guard, it can cross a lake. It can go for a run through timber at five, 10 kilometers overnight.

Fire is very. Fast moving, it's dynamic. We at the regional district are not the experts on it. That is BC wildfire service, and we always defer to their expert knowledge. They are the ones out there on the ground. They know what is safe, what is not safe. Okay. So we really rely on them on that. And it's, and to be clear, it, we, it might sound a little bit like a.

Arduous process, but we really do want to work with our producers. We recognize they're going through difficult times and it's stressful. Any emergency event is stressful on everyone, and this is their livelihood too. So we want to work with our producers. We want to accommodate where we can. And we always appreciate that understanding of, we're not trying, we don't want to say no, but when we do have to say no, it's for.

Safety is for a very good reason. 

Megan: Yeah, no, that makes sense to me. So I wanted to talk a little bit about the role of the agriculture coordinator in the Emergency Operations Center. And I can start by saying that there is a spreadsheet that we keep track of and update periodically as we go through different years where we have more significant.

Fire and flood in incidences and basically that just tracks the resources that we potentially have available in the region. So it basically. Is a way for us to keep track of people that potentially have areas available for evacuated animals that might have a trailer that they could potentially lend for people to move animals.

And that's everything from a stock trailer size to cattle liners potentially. Uh, we also ask whether or not they have any feed and water available or what their water availability is like. 'cause sometimes in really dry years people are rationing water. So. They may not be the best place to relocate livestock to, if that's the case.

And that's a, that table is made up of people that have volunteered those resources, so they just want to help in an emergency situation. And so they have offered their, either their property or some of their resources. Oh, one of the other things is panels because sometimes, depending on the livestock that you're trying to relocate.

You might need particular fencing or you just might straight up need cattle panels to try. Try and keep everybody separate. So if, if you are a livestock producer in an emergency alert area, that is information that we have at the regional district in case you need help finding either a buddy farm or a way of transporting animals.

In terms of just the trailer piece, not necessarily. If you need specific crates or anything like that. Do you have anything to add to that? Chris, 

Christopher Walker: you really, really covered all the bases there. Yeah, just a couple of things. Yeah, the feed is a big part. I know in 2023 with the wildfires that we had, and there was also the underlying drug issue, which has been persistent each year so far.

But hay prices, I'm sure you, you're fully aware me, hay prices were insane and we had producers who couldn't get. Hay for their animals that they had evacuated at a reasonable price. And you know, there was haing shipped up from the Okanagan. But like once those issues are arising, when we have a compounding event of a wildfire and a drought situation and the drought is impacting water and food supply, that's other things that we can take at the EOC and we can start advocating for and raising that awareness to the province of there is some unmet needs here.

What can we do to address this situation? Sometimes we come up with solutions and sometimes we are able to find a, a unique course of action that helps address the situation. Sometimes we don't, we aren't able to find that, but so we do try to. We advocate and to solve these issues as they come up. So if we don't know about it, we can't raise the issue, right?

So if you're having that issue, we are, we, our A coordinators want to have that. 'cause then that feeds up into our operations section who then feeds up to our management and then it goes to the political level if need be. So, yeah. But communicate with us is one thing I'll reiterate there. And when you're having those challenges with water and feed, we want to know.

I, I, you know, one story of one producer, their water supply was basically dried up and they realized that some of their water was being used for firefighting activities, which they're grateful for. It helps protect property, and, but it also took away from the livestock, right? So the water was replaced after the fact.

It, the responders did come back. They did replace the water that they used, but that was something that. If they didn't connect in, we wouldn't have been able to know about that and wouldn't, weren't able to communicate with other agencies about. 

Megan: Right. 

Christopher Walker: Um. Yeah, 

Megan: so let's also talk a little bit about timing and funding.

We could start with funding. So as you mentioned earlier, there is funding available for, uh, the cost of relocating your animals, and that includes potentially purchasing extra feed so that if you have a place that you can move your animals to, but. If they don't have extra hay, there is potential there to put an application in to try and get funding for the hay that you would need.

Um, yeah. But I wanted to talk a little bit about who's eligible. So first, yeah, so if you have a hobby farm and you don't have farm status, then you are not eligible for that fending. It doesn't mean, you know, you should still check in with the regional district if you need help. But ultimately, as far as getting compensated for having to evacuate your animals, that is not currently on the table.

But if you do have farm status and you have to relocate. You want to get funding help for doing that? Then there's a couple of pieces to it. First of all, you have to, the paperwork happens at the emergency operations center and it's usually administered by the agriculture coordinator, but it has to happen during the emergency, so you have to initiate the process at the evacuation alert stage, and.

You can't get funding for moving animals to another property that you own. So it only comes into effect or comes into play if you are evacuating animals to somebody else's property. Uh. 

Christopher Walker: Yeah, that's correct there. Yeah. The funding is there to move them from your property to a buddy farm, so another farm that you don't own.

They're willing to host your livestock, the feed aspect. But yeah, the important part that you raise there is the Tobi farms, which to be clear on that is somebody who does not have the farm status through the province, they need to have that in order to be eligible for the funding. Now there is. Some legal language in the new Emergency and Disaster Management Act regarding hobby farm animals, but we're waiting for clarification on that and if there is any supports that come with that.

The province has not been very clear on that yet, so look. At your own resiliency, start thinking about who you know and who would be willing to take five cows, 20 cows, whatever kind of animals you have, and in whatever quantity you need to be planning for that to be proactive. 'cause if you don't, then you're going to be really stressed during the activation alert process of where can I go?

But like Megan said, always check back in with the EOC. Maybe there is a connection that we have that can help with that. 

Megan: Yeah, and just to add to that a little bit, for the producers that are eligible for getting compensation, for having to evacuate, just so that everybody's aware that it doesn't necessarily mean it's gonna cover the entire cost.

There's a rate sheet that comes out that's put together by the province, and that's the rate sheet that. We have to go by, and it's not necessarily intended to cover all of the costs of having to evacuate animals. It's really just there to help subsidize the process. But it could be that you have to still, there still might be some money out of pocket.

Christopher Walker: I was just gonna say, we've had a lot of incidents in the past where people will evacuate to get the funding, to move them, to get the feed funding as well, organize the feed to get dropped off the location and then. The animals are just left to the responsibility of the property owner there, and that causes a lot of confusion and sometimes frustration.

So just remember, once they're evacuated, there's still your responsibility. 

Megan: Yeah, that's really true. There is the list of people that we have that have potential resources that you might need to call on if you do have to evacuate your livestock. Those are people that are just genuinely trying to help in an emergency.

And so the last thing you wanna do is. Do anything that would damage that goodwill because we really need that at certain points in some of those years where things are really active and we have a lot of emergencies in different parts of the region. And also it just is part and parcel of having to evacuate animals and being a livestock producer like you obviously still have to look after your animals and make sure that they're healthy and well fed and watered, but also.

That they're not breaking out of their fences or cau causing any harm or damage to the person's property as well. So those are all really important points and I, and it probably goes without saying that everybody. Knows that, but it is important to reiterate it just in case, because I don't think it would happen because people were being irresponsible.

Even it could just happen because mm-hmm. They're so stressed out, Jen. Yep. They're just really trying to manage the situation themselves, and that is fair, but, but ultimately you are, like Christopher says, you are responsible for the livestock that you evacuate. And then the only other thing I was gonna say is that.

Everybody should have a plan. Yeah. It isn't just the smaller producers that have to have their plans nailed down. It's everybody. Because larger producers, if you need structural protection, lots of times you'll have lots of important infrastructure on your farmer Ranch. But there may not be the equipment to save everything.

So if something is rolling your way, then you need to know ahead of time, have thoughts about which buildings are the ones that you would save if you had to. And then also just for the safety of the firefighting crews, et cetera. It's important to, I mean, we've talked about this. I think in public meetings and stuff, but there is potential to put a map of your property at your gate in in a PVC tube that explains just basically the layout of your property.

If you have any hazards, so if you have any fuel tanks or maybe a bull pen with bulls in it that know people shouldn't necessarily be going into you where your water sources are, et cetera. 

Christopher Walker: Yeah, that those are excellent points. The wildfire occurs that are coming in. They're not always from this area.

They don't know your farm. They don't know this area, this region. They don't know what is around. So having something on your fence, on your gate that just says, here's. Here's where the hazards are, here's where the fuel tanks are. That can really help those crews get things set up quicker. 

Megan: Yeah, so just talking right through the process.

So if you have livestock and there's an evacuation alert that gets issued for where your property is located then and you have farm status and you have animals that you would like to relocate, then the first thing you need to do is connect with the agriculture coordinator in the EOC and then they can help you if you need to locate a place to move or if you need a trailer or if you need funding for feed, because you don't have any feed on hand because it's pasturing, you're actually pasturing at that point. And then so we go through the process and then once the evacuation alert has been lifted, then it's important to know that if you have evacuated livestock, you have to get them back home within 96 hours. 

Christopher Walker: Yeah, exactly there. When we resit an evacuation order or alert, 'cause you can be evacuated under the alert, right?

We send it out through our Voyant alert system, which if you aren't signed up for, highly encourage you to do so. It's called Voyant Alert. You can find it on the RDBN website. That is our mass notification system across the region that is used by RDBN, the municipalities, um, and several of the First Nations as well.

That is how we all, you can consistently get either alerts for your property, school work, mom's house, grandma's house, wherever you like that when we issue an evacuation order to order. You'll get a notification on your phone when we resend, the same process happens. It goes out through that. So if you want to know when you need to, when you are allowed to go back home, sign up for that app.

That is your most reliable way. Or you can follow the RDBN website as well. Once that hap, once that notification goes out, you have 96 hours, four days, once it's been rescinded, two. Return all your relocated livestock back to your property. There is funding to help with that as well. 

Megan: And then in terms of finding out more information about the potential, there's documents that assist you in helping plan for emergency management on your Farmer Ranch on the website.

Christopher Walker: Yeah, there's, there is a whole host of. Resources on the RDBN website under Protective Services that can help with personal preparedness, household preparedness. There is livestock information, there's videos, there's a lot of information under protective services at the RDBN website that can really help get the planning process started.

But you can find that. Yeah, so you can find that under there. And then you go to personal preparedness and then education materials. And you'll find several videos, infographics, brochures, all related to emergency management and how to better prepare yourself and your family for emergencies. 

Megan: Thank you very much Christopher, for having this conversation with me today.

I think we covered a lot of ground. 

RDBN Liability: Yeah, thank you. 

Megan: And both Christopher and I are available for other questions as well. If you just wanted, if you just have something specific you wanted to ask or a general question for preparing for emergency manage, like while doing emergency management or preparing for emergencies on your farmer ranch, please don't hesitate to contact either of us.

Christopher Walker: Thanks, vegan. 

RDBN Liability: This has been our latest series of the RDBN 

Megan: Growing Opportunities Podcast. Thank you so much for listening. Make sure to check out our other podcast series, wherever you get your podcasts, or on the RDBN website. Thanks to our producer, Pamela Hassan from Hassan Pod, Jason Lewellyn from the RDBN for reading our liability statement and the rest.

Of the RDBN Rural Services and Economic Development Team, further wisdom and support. If you have any comments or questions about agriculture and the RDBN, please contact us by going to r dbn.bc.ca. Keep growing.