{"id":10276,"date":"2019-05-06T13:11:27","date_gmt":"2019-05-06T16:11:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thelaker.ca\/?p=10276"},"modified":"2019-05-06T13:11:27","modified_gmt":"2019-05-06T16:11:27","slug":"be-prepared-when-weather-strikes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/staging-z.thelaker.ca\/?p=10276","title":{"rendered":"Be prepared when weather strikes"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Emergency Preparedness Week held May 5-11 <\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

WAVERLEY:<\/strong> When bad weather strikes, it\u2019s the provincials Emergency Management Office time to respond. But even before that, residents can do their part when weather warnings are issued to be prepared.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With \nEmergency Preparedness Week May 5-11, Rhonda Matthews, Emergency \nManagement Planning Officer with N.S. EMO, took some time to speak to The Weekly Press<\/em>\n about how residents can help them; what EMO\u2019s role is; and what they do\n in times of emergencies, such as flooding like what is happening in \nN.B. and the Ottawa\/Gatineau area.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Matthews explained how EMO would respond if similar would happen in low lying areas of N.S.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cFlooding\n has happened across the province in the past, and it can happen again,\u201d\n she said. \u201cIf people are living close to a river, they should know what\n the warnings are and reports when they\u2019re issued.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cBeing aware of what the risks are for your specific property will then guide you on how you can mitigate that flooding.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Matthews said residents can help them by having an emergency kit ready for when it\u2019s needed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe\n encourage everyone to have a kit prepared and be ready to be \nself-sustainable for 72 hours, that\u2019s if we couldn\u2019t get to you,\u201d she \nsaid. \u201cThe kit should have things like water, food for you and your \npets, medications, and any other items you think you would need for that\n time period.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAnother thing folks can do is stay informed by \nlistening for weather warnings when Environment Canada issues them, or \nan emergency that may be happening listen to the radio or go to a \ncomfort centre to get that information.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She said another thing people can do to help EMO is volunteer for Joint EM teams, which Halifax has across the municipality.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThose\n folks help do comfort checks with neighbours and send situational \nreports to the EMO manager, so she can make decision and respond when \nsomething major happens,\u201d said Matthews.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The N.S. EMO helps prepare the province, mitigate, respond, and recover from an emergency.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cTo\n do that we work with other government partners to make sure we\u2019re ready\n when an emergency happens,\u201d said Matthews. \u201c\u201cThere are many layers of \nemergency management at work to keep Nova Scotians safe.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Matthews said when a weather warning is issued residents should take it seriously.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cA\n weather warning is just a warning because we don\u2019t know how it\u2019s going \nto impact us as there are so many factors and it can change,\u201d she said. \n\u201cThe best thing to do is to heed the warning and make the best \npreparations you can.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On May 8, EMO will be testing the AlertReady system at 1:55 p.m. It will send Cell Broadcast to cellphones. For more information, check out www.alertready.ca.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt will simply have an alarm and you will get a message to say that it was a test,\u201d she said. \u201cWe\u2019re working towards improving that so it can be as ready as it can be when an emergency happens.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Emergency Preparedness Week held May 5-11 WAVERLEY: When bad weather strikes, it\u2019s the provincials Emergency Management Office time to respond. But even before that, residents can do their part when weather warnings are issued to be prepared. With Emergency Preparedness Week May 5-11, Rhonda Matthews, Emergency Management Planning Officer with N.S. EMO, took some time […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[496,2,50,460],"class_list":["post-10276","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-community","tag-emergency-preparedness-week","tag-fall-river","tag-halifax","tag-ns"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging-z.thelaker.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10276","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging-z.thelaker.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging-z.thelaker.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging-z.thelaker.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging-z.thelaker.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=10276"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/staging-z.thelaker.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10276\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging-z.thelaker.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=10276"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging-z.thelaker.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=10276"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging-z.thelaker.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=10276"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}