F-1 boats thrill spectators at regatta, driver rescued
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Tuesday, July 21, 2015
» Tsunami preparedness
HIGHWAY 4
Driver saved from lake ERIC PLUMMER ALBERNI VALLEY TIMES
Port Alberni Mayor Mike Ruttan said the city will ensure it does what it can to provide resources for the earthquake and tsunami drill. “We will also be supplying a lot of the personnel that will be employed,” he said, adding that this could include actors for the simulation. “If there’s such things as overtime that’s necessary in order to conduct the exercise we would have to somehow be compensated for extra costs involved. “We want to do our part, for sure, but if there are extra costs I am pleased that the province has recognized that they had a role to play to make it happen in our community.”
Boaters and swimmers saved the life of a Nanaimo woman Saturday after she drove her car into Cameron Lake, says RCMP based in Parksville. The 61-year-old was driving from Port Alberni on Highway 4 at approximately 5:40 p.m. when she veered across the oncoming lane and into the mountain lake, said Corp. Jesse Foreman of the Oceanside RCMP. She was taken to Nanaimo Regional General Hospital to recover. “People that were at the lake jumped in immediately and got the lady out, she was alone,” Foreman said. “She did end up getting some water in her lungs so she was taken to the hospital to get it all cleared up, but she’s going to be fine.” Sgt. Darrin Ramey of Central Vancouver Island Traffic Services said that although witnesses had difficulty removing the woman’s seat belt the driver was taken from the submerged car before she drowned. The incident has not been attributed to a mechanical error with the vehicle. “There are a lot of good people out there that reacted quickly and correctly to this crash into the lake,” he said. “The car was probably in eight or 10 feet of water. Boaters and swimmers were there in seconds and were able to extricate her from what was going to be a deadly situation.” Cars do not commonly drive into Cameron Lake, said Ramey. Vehicles collisions happen more frequently on the winding stretch of Highway 4. “There’s probably more collisions in the stretch that’s near a lake,” added Ramey. “My experience would be that it’s just people that are looking at the lake instead of looking at the road. Driving is pretty much the most dangerous thing you’re going to do and most people take it for granted.”
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Eric.Plummer@avtimes.net
This up-ended car photographed in front of Port Auto Sales was among the extensive devastation seen throughout Port Alberni from a tsunami that hit the community in 1964. Due to the community’s vulnerability the province is holding an earthquake preparedness exercise next year. [PHOTO BY A. WAVERYN AND M. STEFANI]
Large-scale simulation planned
Province announces a $1-million earthquake exercise to be held in 2016 ERIC PLUMMER ALBERNI VALLEY TIMES
P
ort Alberni has been put to the forefront of the province’s earthquake preparations with a large-scale response exercise planed for next summer, an event set to engage emergency personnel from multiple local, regional and provincial departments. The $1-million earthquake exercise was announced by the B.C. Ministry of Justice on Monday, scheduled to take place June 7–10, 2016 in Port Alberni. The city’s fire chief, Tim Pley, expects that will involve hundreds of people responding to the mock situation. The likely result of an earthquake and tsunami will be enact-
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ed – such as a collapsed building — but emergency responders won’t know what the incident is beforehand, Pley said. “It will be a surprise,” he said. “They might gives us fires, they might give us flooding, they might give us people trapped, and so we will be responding to the inputs that come.” Once the tsunami sirens sound the Alberni-Clayoquot Regional District’s Emergency Operations Centre will be activated, alerting the services of the city and other resources, even Vancouver’s Heavy Urban Search and Rescue (HUSAR) team, to locate victims and perform medical and structural assessments. “I would estimate in the neighbourhood of 200 people in the community, some responding
“I would estimate somewhere in the neighbourhood of 200 people in the community, some responding inside the exercise, some of them managing the exercise and some of them observing. ” Tim Pley, Port Alberni fire chief
inside the exercise, some of them managing the exercise and some of them observing and evaluating the exercise,” Pley said.
Mars bomber drops on fires near Nelson
Legendary absinthe drink makes a comeback
After almost two years of inaction the Hawaii Mars was dispatched Saturday to assist supression efforts on wildfires in British Columbia’s Interior. »Alberni Region, 3
The green-coloured spirit, also known as “the green fairy’ or “la fee verte” was once a taboo drink and thought to contain hallucinogens that could drive you insane. » Taste, 10
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