-Written by David Whittier You managed to get the budget to get your EOC built. It’s all installed, the communications work, you’ve just finished putting the finishing touches on your emergency response plan, and you’ve trained a team of smart, hard working folks to work in it when necessary. You’re all set, right? Not quite.…
Written by David Whittier In the world of risk reduction and emergency management, there is value in consistency. Having a commonly understood set of objectives, standards and best practices make us more effective and able to work together. Disasters don’t respect international borders, so having a common framework is important. The Sendai Framework is just…
Written by David Whittier It’s a warm and sunny summer afternoon, and you are settling down on your deck with a nice iced tea and a stack of reports from the office, looking forward to catching a few rays while you catch up on your work. The phone rings. You look at the call display…
-Written by David Whittier Operating an EOC can be a complicated task, and it is made even more complicated because most agencies cannot afford to have an EOC fully staffed and operating 24/7, just in case. Many of the members are volunteers (or ‘voluntolds’) who carry on with their normal duties most of the time…
-Written by David Whittier In what does an EOC do we talked about the role of the EOC, and how important it was to remember that the EOC does not manage the incident. That is the sole purview of the Incident Commander. The EOC allocates resources, manages incident consequences, and maintains Situational Awareness. There’s another…
-Written by Shoji Whittier On June 24, representatives from Ally Emergency Management, Teck and FortisBC met at the Waneta Dam to practice putting their Emergency Response Plan into effect, in a table-top exercise organized by Ally. The scenario in question: a hypothetical wildfire spreads near the dam, threatening the operation of the dam itself, as…
-Written by David Whittier In the EOC Bootcamp series we’ve talked a lot about the EOC function: *what it is, *the importance of ‘reading in’, and a few *operating tips and tricks. I am sure some of you are saying, “that’s great, but how do we know when to activate, and how big should we…
Simply put, our Administrator Emma Point is the glue that holds Ally Emergency Management together. Working both behind the scenes and up-front with clients, she has a hand in just about every facet of our daily operations. Between keeping Ally organized, and raising two small children, Point is a woman who never shies away from a challenge.…
-Written by David Whittier I don’t know if I should be proud of this or not, but the first time I saw the acronym “RTFM” I had to Google it. I’m pretty good with acronyms as a rule, but this one was completely new to me, and I had no idea what it meant. RTFM:…
-Written by David Whittier As Emergency Management consultants, we at Ally have dedicated ourselves to helping organizations prepare for emergency situations. We’ve worked with companies, schools, municipalities, police departments and airports, and we know they are working hard to make sure you are safe and cared for if the unthinkable happens. But it’s not just…