Generally speaking, the community of Westlock seems relatively insulated from major disaster.
We’ve never been threatened by a calamity that caused thousands of deaths or forced the whole town to evacuate.
There’s no chance of us being hit by an earthquake, or a hurricane, and we’re certainly never going to see the streets crack apart and start spewing lava, as is the case in Hawaii right now.
And while we did have some pretty bad flooding this past spring, it’s unlikely we’ll ever get hit with a storm that washes away houses and cars.
So we’re pretty lucky in that respect. But always remember this: it will never happen here until it does.
“It” may be a tornado that sweeps through town, like the one that hit Edmonton in 1987.
Or “it” may be a wildfire thousands of acres in size, like the fire that nearly destroyed Fort McMurray in 2015.
That’s the whole point of Emergency Preparedness Week, which runs May 6-12. You can never be sure what’s around the corner and you can never say “it won’t happen here,” so it’s always a good idea to be prepared.
But with our own emergency preparedness section, we don’t spend a lot of effort warning you of what to do if a major disaster occurs. If you want to know how to assemble an emergency kit or an evacuation plan for your family, there’s plenty of information online on how to do that.
Our section focuses more on the people who assist us when disaster occurs — the RCMP, the EMTs and Victim Services. (Firefighters get their own week in October.) That’s why we profile these groups in stories and publish their head shots, so you can appreciate who’s helping to keep you safe.
These folks protect us from crime and aid us against the individual catastrophes like car accidents, house fires, etc. And when and if the big disasters occur, they will be called to the front lines as well.
Our message during Emergency Preparedness Week is not just to prepare yourselves, but to be thankful for our first responders.
Theirs is a stressful and often thankless job, especially in the case of law enforcement.
Take a moment to appreciate that.
