The Regional District of Bulkley-Nechako (RDBN) will be submitting an application for the 2020 UBCM CEPF Evacuation Route Planning Grant (ERPG) application and the District of Houston has agreed to partner with RDBN on this.
In a letter dated Oct. 1 to the District of Houston, RDBN said that “letter was to gauge your community’s interest in partnering with the RDBN for a Regional Evacuation Route Planning project.”
The RDBN has extended similar opportunities for partnership to other municipalities as well and according to Deborah Jones-Middleton, the director of protective services for the regional district, the Village of Burns Lake has provided a letter of interest in participating in the process. The Village of Granisle also, in a September council meeting passed the motion “resolve to permit Regional District of Bulkley-Nechako (RDBN) permission to manage the Evacuation Route Planning application process on our behalf” and would be partnering with the regional district as well.
The regional district would be putting in an application on behalf of the municipalities that partner with it and if the application is approved, the funding will cover 100 per cent of the project costs up to $25, 000 and the costs associated with the project would be strictly allocated for planning and not for any construction work.
This project is expected to focus on providing member municipalities with an evacuation route plan that segments the community into logical zones and identifies the density and demographics of the zone, gives an estimated time to evacuate the zone using multiple modes of transportation and the road capacity, provides information on community volume, identifies choke points, and estimates evacuation times during large scale emergencies. It will also help propose routes through the zone for effective use of resources.
Priyanka Ketkar
Multimedia journalist
@PriyankaKetkar
priyanka.ketkar@ldnews.net
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