With historic wildfires, ice storms and heat waves — not to mention a global pandemic — all happening over the past 18 months, one might think Canby’s leadership has had plenty of recent experience managing disasters.
But that wasn’t enough for the Canby Fire District, the Canby Police Department, Canby School District and city government, whose leaders gathered Tuesday morning to game out a tabletop emergency management exercise simulated an unexpected weather-related disaster event.
Fire Chief Jim Davis designed the drill to simulate a winter storm moving into the Canby area hours before it was predicted. The goal was networking to ensure the city has the proper protocols and procedures in place for emergencies of any kind and ensuring the community’s leaders are all on the same page.
City of Canby on Twitter: “Emergency preparedness meeting this morning at the Canby Police Department with #CanbyPD #CanbyFire #CanbySchools and #CityofCanby pic.twitter.com/LQNJ5MYcWA / Twitter”
Emergency preparedness meeting this morning at the Canby Police Department with #CanbyPD #CanbyFire #CanbySchools and #CityofCanby pic.twitter.com/LQNJ5MYcWA
Principals and staff representing every school in the district worked with representatives from Canby Fire to review current response policies and what they would do to respond to the storm.
City Administrator Scott Archer, Police Chief Jorge Tro and other city and fire district staff reviewed what they would do to activate the city’s Emergency Operations Center.
“We all learned a lot about what resources are available and how we can all take lessons learned back to our agencies and make improvements,” Davis told The Canby Current afterward. “We want to ensure that our community knows we are constantly looking for opportunities to enhance our service delivery and capabilities.”
Davis said this tabletop drill is the first of many quarterly drills the district plans to hold.
