In recent years much has been made of the importance of emergency preparedness.
The City of Yorkton has worked on having a coordinated response plan in place should a widespread emergency hit, in part in response to two extreme rain situations in the community in recent years.
And there have been workshops held, although sparsely attended, with the purpose of helping residents better understand what they require to be as prepared as possible for an emergency situation.
In terms of resident buy-in to the need for such preparedness has been difficult to create, even with the flood situations which hit many homes and businesses in the two aforementioned rain events.
But the threat of emergency situations is real.
That was brought into clearer focus this weekend when crude oil spilled into the North Saskatchewan River.
Immediate efforts to contain the spill failed, and the oil headed down river toward North Battleford and Prince Albert, a situation which threatened the water sources of both communities.
For North Battleford, which went through a water issue back in 2001 when 700 people became ill after drinking tap water contaminated with a parasite, the new threat had to send a shudder through residents.
The City of North Battleford had to shut down its main water treatment plant because of the threat, but the City has a secondary water treatment facility to offset some of the seriousness of the issue.
Prince Albert was also working on an alternate water sourcing effort as the oil slick headed down river.
We would like to think such things will not happen here, but there are things which could create emergency situations.
One only need to consider two rail lines passing through the heart of the community carrying all manner of materials and realize a major derailment could cause major issues. A rather minor derailment near the Cargill elevator east of town a number of years ago could have been on Broadway Street. While that derailment was quickly contained, it does again show the threat level.
While we tend to look to government to step in in times of emergency to deal with threats to public safety, as individuals we should be aware of what we should do in case of an emergency.
So with the oil spill focusing our attention it is a good time to check out sites such as www.getprepared.gc.ca so that we as residents are ready should a major emergency occur locally.
