In the Municipality’s June 17, 2013 newsletter, Mayor Bruce Decoux assured us in his column, the Mayor’s Corner:
“Like many of us I too have often worried when the rivers rose, the snow piled a little too deep, the power went out or I heard sirens in the distance. Having seen your people at work (he is referring to the Emergency Preparedness Team) I will worry a little less. I hope you will too.”
That isn’t quite the way it worked out. Those of us who live along the creeks and rivers going through the Crowsnest Pass have good reason to worry. And, as events unfolded, were justified in our doubts about the community’s preparedness.
Obviously, no one could have predicted the devastation that tore apart our province. But when we are assured by our far-seeing Mayor that the Emergency Preparedness Team was “in constant communication with Edmonton who monitor our rainfall and river heights by the minute,” we cannot be faulted for having high expectations. Sometimes that is more damaging than having no expectations at all.
If our “team was ready,” what went wrong? Surely, after two fierce rainstorms on the afternoon and early evening of Wednesday, July 17, someone on the “team,” including the community’s leader, the Mayor, should have wondered if the Crowsnest Pass water-ways would be overloaded. That evening, as we stood with our neighbours watching the ever-rising waters, many in the crowd said that surely the Municipality would be patrolling through the evening and over night. That did not happen.
A local businessman called 911 at four o’clock in the morning when he drove through downtown Blairmore and saw that the creek was flooding the railroad tracks at the east end of town. No one was there. And no one came.
A neighbour told us he called RCMP Dispatch and the Municipality after-hours emergency number at 5:30 a.m. when his street began to flood. The RCMP told him that they weren’t aware of any flooding. The Municipality emergency number went through to a telephone service. Some time later a sleepy individual called back to question the neighbour on exactly what he’d seen, not believing that the situation was so serious.
A member of the Municipality’s senior administration was called at 7:50 a.m. This person had heard nothing of the flooding and did not know what the evacuation procedures were in the community’s emergency plan.
Evidence of leadership is not boasting that it exists. Leadership is only evident in action, and never more so than in an emergency.
Thankfully, Mother Nature did not overtax the high expectations we had of our “preparedness.” But it has left those of us who live here, pay taxes, and raise our children in the Crowsnest Pass, anxious about the gap that exists between what is written in newsletters, and what will happen the next time a crisis occurs in our community.
If the Mayor takes the responsibility for assuring us that we have nothing to worry about, then he must also take responsibility for our sleepless nights. Going through the motions of leadership is not enough. It’s what is done that counts.
