IRTC Emergency Management: Manitoba Snowstorm 2019

Preparedness Matters!Manitoba Snow Storm 2019

Karl Zadnik, CEO, Interlake Reserves Tribal Council

Interlake Reserves Tribal Council - A consortium of Six Interlake Communities

Presentation Outline

4 Introduction4Context4Snowstorm & Power Outage4Evacuation, Response & Return

Home4Challenges & Future Preparedness

Snow Storm & Power Outage

• On Friday October 11, 2019, Southern Manitoba experienced a serious snow + ice storm.

• Hydro powerlines, roads, and infrastructure were severely affected

• Six of our member communities (Peguis, Pinaymootang, Lake Manitoba, Dauphin River, Kinonjeoshteghon, and Little Saskatchewan First Nations)

State of Emergency Declared – October 12th, 2019

State of Emergency

- Over 6000 people evacuated

- All communities were united

- IRTC’s emergency management program

- Mock exercises and preparedness have been conducted – in the past three years – in all our communities

State of Emergency

- The reality of going through such an experience is deeply challenging

- Our approach was guided by the 4 pillars of emergency management: prevention & mitigation;preparedness;response;and recovery

- However, systemic racism and inadequate policies posed serious challenges

during this process.

Challenges & Response

- Federal Government policies are outdated

- Our staff of 35 responded in a timely fashion – professionally and with empathy

- We developed a system immediately for restoration and logistics

Challenges & Response

- We created an organisational chart (divided into 4 departments), spreadsheet, and two working shifts for staff

- Departments included: operations, planning, logistics, finance administration

- Emergency lasted 30 days

- Hotel bookings, meals, basic necessities, gas purchases, and more

- IRTC out of pocket costs was close to $5million dollars

Challenges & Response

- The experience provided our communities the opportunity to show our unitedness and strengths

- At the moment, we are still awaiting reimbursement and infrastructure upgrade in our communities

- Each community out of pocket costs is in the $millions

- The need to be recognised as equal partners with other municipalities

Makeshift command centre

Future Preparedness

- For further capacity building, emergency management plan has to be developed for each community

- Forged partnership with Calian 1.5 years ago

- Develop an After Action Report

- Assist other communities in Emergency planning and training

- Special thanks to all our staff, AFN, and all community leadership:

Chief Cornell McleanChief Garnet WoodhouseChief Glenn HudsonChief John StaggChief Hector ShortingChief Dave Traverse

Miigwetch

Questions