Bring your pets, please!
Cliff Doherty, Shuswap Emergency Program co-ordinator, has arranged a mock evacuation exercise at the Silver Creek Community Hall Saturday, June 27 and he needs participants to take their pets for an hour or so between the hours of 11 a.m. and 1 p.m..
"We're practising a reception centre with pets and part of it is trying to streamline the process," he says, noting pets are not allowed in a reception centre unless they are service dogs.
Rather than making evacuees with pets wait longer to be served, as they arrive at the reception centre they will be directed to take their pets to a CDART (Canadian Disaster Animal Response Team) station on-site, go into the centre to pick up hotel accommodation vouchers, meal tickets, and whatever else they need, without losing their place in line.
Once they have what they need, evacuees would retrieve their pet and continue on their way.
"On the rare occasion someone is going somewhere without their pet, CDART has a process to take care of the pets in the long term," he says. "If people come with their pets (Saturday), they will have their mileage paid and we'll feed them. You're not gonna be out of pocket."
If you wish to help out, call Cliff Doherty at 250-833-6556 or email at cdoherty@csrd.bc.ca. Or just show up.