Plans to undertake an emergency response exercise next week in Cougar Creek have been scaled back as a result of several local firefighters being deployed to help with the Fort McMurray wildfire.
Town of Canmore spokesperson Adam Robertson said the emergency exercise is scheduled for Wednesday (May 18) and is a practice for the municipality’s response plan for another debris flow in the Cougar Creek watershed.
“Everyone knows June is when we are more prone to flood season, so it definitely gets us prepared for this time of year,” Robertson said.
Since the 2013 June floods, the municipality has worked on its emergency response plans, as well as acquired various equipment to assist in responding to natural disasters like a flood or wildfire.
That includes an incident command trailer for Canmore Fire-Rescue. However, because several of Canmore’s full time firefighters are part of Canada Task Force Two, they have been deployed to Fort McMurray to assist with that wildfire.
“We are now doing a scaled down version of the exercise, so there won’t actually be a lot going on in Cougar Creek,” Robertson said.
He said the command trailer will not be deployed as part of the exercise, but town staff will be along the creek on Wednesday to participate in the exercise.
Robertson added that even though the nature of the exercise in the creek has been scaled back, the exercise involves Canmore’s emergency command centre protocols and procedures and those will be tested.
“We are still going to test our updated emergency management plan,” he said. “And we will be initiating our Cougar Creek flood response plan from the emergency command centre.”
Robertson said municipal staff hope to plan a more fulsome exercise in fall for an on the ground response training exercise.
