DID YOU KNOW that after a major disaster like an earthquake:
• Communities may be on their own for days or weeks
• Coordination of volunteers, offered resources, services and information WILL BE COMMUNITY-LED until help arrives
• Damaged waterways, roads, bridges and tunnels could delay outside assistance
* Telecommunications, internet, power, water, gas, food and other essentials will likely be limited or completely unavailable
• 25 sites throughout Vancouver are designated by signage as Disaster Support Hubs
(DSHs) by the City: places for people to reunite, and for volunteers to coordinate and disperse
resident and business offered resources, services and information until help arrives
• DSHs in the majority of Vancouver communities could be JUST SIGNAGE unless local
residents and businesses step up NOW and get prepared!
Disasters don’t plan. But we can!
A small group of DSH project volunteers studied global best practices relevant to DSHs and adapted material from the DSH Tool-kit produced by the City. These efforts were also bolstered by excellent input from the volunteer DSH Coordinator of Dunbar’s DSH – the ONLY location out of 25 to actually have anything close to a functional DSH today.
The Kerrisdale DSH volunteers, which included ham radio operators, designed and ran three functional DSH exercises to learn what activating and maintaining an effective DSH after a real disaster could mean and require. What a wake-up call it has been! Getting an actual working DSH requires A LOT of pre-planning, community engagement, learning, experimenting, practice, and hard work. And who knows how much time we have to do so! But we have made a solid start.
The NSG funds were used to purchase some very minimal supplies to put towards a mobile DSH (we call it Hub-In-A-Tub) which we hope will become part of a future more permanent DSH in Kerrisdale. The last NSG funded exercise, which occurred on September 23rd, was enthusiastically attended by almost 40 people from throughout the Westside and beyond. It is our hope that because of this project, we have succeeded in inspiring people, organizations and businesses throughout the City to do what they need to to help their communities be disaster ready! We are happy to answer any questions and share the learnings.
Share post:
