AIBC: Responding to Disasters
January 12, 2016
by Robyn Fenton and Marguerite Laquinte Francis
(Images: Clockwise L to R: A damaged building requiring assessment during “Operation Windshield” simulation exercise coordinated by North Shore Emergency Management; damage assessors working in the “emergency operations centre”. Photos: Mike Wakefield)
Flash floods, earthquakes and wildfires have caused significant property damage and displaced many communities in Alberta and British Columbia in recent years. Did you know that in the immediate aftermath of natural disasters, individuals with design, construction and facility management expertise can be of great assistance to local authorities? In 2012, when Hurricane Sandy swept the East Coast, 80,000 affected buildings were assessed for safety and damage by first responders, municipal staff and trained volunteers within the first 30 days. In 2013, over 17,000 homes and businesses were damaged by the Southern Alberta floods. In August 2015, after the Metro Vancouver windstorms, the need for damage assessors once again far exceeded expectations.
On November 16, 2015, members of the AIBC’s Post-Disaster Response Committee participated in “Operation Windshield”, a full scale earthquake exercise coordinated by North Shore Emergency Management. The onsite training was a simulation of the response and coordination efforts that would be triggered by a credible 7.3 shallow earthquake in the central Georgia Strait. It included the full activation of the North Shore Emergency Operations Centre and the deployment of responders from the Districts of West Vancouver, North Vancouver, the City of North Vancouver, neighbouring municipalities, air and marine response and many other stakeholder agencies. For the design professionals who participated, it validated the importance of our contribution as advisors to municipalities and as members of rapid damage assessment teams.
In Canada, the responsibility for disaster response first lies at the municipal level. Should the event overwhelm their resources they would request help from the provincial government such as the Alberta Emergency Management Agency and Emergency Management BC. A fundamental and common function of disaster response is to evaluate the state of the built environment. This activity is broadly referred to as Damage Assessment (DA), and more specifically: rapid safety assessments and detailed damage assessments. These reviews which allow people to return to their homes and get businesses back up and running as soon as possible are central to reducing the demand for the limited emergency resources and allowing everyday activities to resume so that a community can recover more quickly. Although some international precedents exist, such as those of the Applied Technology Council www.atcouncil.org, there is no single Canadian standard. In BC, each jurisdiction establishes its own guidelines for DA leading to a patchwork of response protocols across the province.
Disaster response is commonly broken into three stages; within each, we find that design and construction professionals have a key role to play.
Emergency First Response (typically occurring within the first 7 days): Work during this stage includes the provision of emergency shelter, medical services, food, social and psychological support. Authorities and their staff will perform preliminary ‘windshield’ safety assessment to quickly get an understanding of the scale and scope of the damage. Specialty consultants including engineers and architects would likely be called upon to provide assessments of critical buildings and infrastructure.
Relief (within the first 70 days): The relief stage can begin immediately in certain parts of the affected area however it generally refers to the period of time following the initial impact of the event, when clean up begins. Rapid safety assessments of housing stock and smaller structures are performed in under an hour to triage buildings that are largely unaffected and suitable for occupancy from those which pose a risk to health, life-safety or are structurally unstable.
Individuals with varying levels of training and expertise in facility management, design and the construction industry are a valuable pool of resources to complement an assessment team given that the number of buildings to assess in any given community is far greater than the number of municipal staff available.
The relief stage also includes more detailed assessments of damage to infrastructure, more complex building types and historic properties. Generally this in depth analysis is led by structural engineers, geoscientists and senior architects who might also be supported by others in the industry.
Recovery (within the first 700 days and beyond): The recovery stage is that of rebuilding. It involves the planning and conceptualizing of a long term vision which will enhance the physical fabric and resilience of a community. Architects, engineers and other construction professionals have a more obvious role to play throughout this stage with the hope that by the end of this approximately two- year period, residents will have positively adjusted to the new reality of their post-disaster community.
For the last two years, the AIBC’s Post-Disaster Response Committee has been working with agencies from all three levels of government, post-secondary institutions and other professional associations to develop an interconnected system for damage assessment and volunteer deployment. Within this programme, our committee sees a formal role for the AIBC to train and certify our members on both rapid safety assessments and detailed damage assessments. The objective is to create a province-wide roster of trained DA volunteers who could be called upon to assist with smaller, localized disasters or those of greater impact. Our hope is that the agreements and strategies that are developed will be adopted as standard guidelines for communities across the province and that the communication structures created will aid in establishing a national network of trained volunteers able to support and provide assistance between provinces, territories and internationally.
The AIBC committee meets monthly. To participate in their work or to add your name to the list of volunteers for RDA, contact the committee through the AIBC’s main office reception@aibc.ca.
Robyn Fenton Architect AIBC is the founder of ReForma Architecture, a small scale firm working on residential and commercial projects on Bowen Island, BC. She is a volunteer on the AIBC Post-Disaster Response Committee as well as a board member and facilitator with the Vancouver Design Nerds Society.
Marguerite Laquinte Francis Architect AIBC is the Principal of MLF Event Architecture which specializes in temporary construction and site planning for major sporting events including the 2010 Winter Olympics, Marathons and the 2015 FIFA Women’s World Cup. Marguerite also studies emergency management at the Justice Institute of BC and chairs the AIBC’s Post-Disaster Response Committee.
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