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Be Ready: This local emergency guide could potentially save your life

Invaluable information to prepare for fire, flood, earthquake, tsunami, extreme weather and more

There’s a one-in-three chance that a massively destructive earthquake will strike the Capital Region within the next 50 years.

Then there’s the ever-present risk of tsunami, fire, flood, extreme weather and other emergencies.

In the event of a major disaster, will you be able to look after yourself and your loved ones? The reality is that in a significant critical situation or natural disaster, our first responders, emergency officials and community agencies will be overwhelmed.

Will you be ready?

Probably not, if you’re like the majority of British Columbians, most of whom don’t even have a complete emergency plan, or haven’t assembled emergency kits or stockpiled enough food and water for their family as well as pets.

With this in mind, Black Press Media, Victoria News and Monday Magazine have published a complete emergency preparedness guide, in plain language, to give people, businesses and community organizations the information they need to be ready.

With the help of sponsors the Regional Emergency Management Partnership, the Victoria Foundation and Knappett Projects, we created the Be Ready Guide to prepare your family, home and workplace, plus know who to call and how to help.

“Our Be Ready Guide presents the facts in layman’s terms of what residents can expect in a natural disaster in this region and how to prepare, ” says Penny Sakamoto, Black Press Group Publisher. “It shares valuable information for every resident in the region.”

How do you make an emergency plan? How do you build an emergency kit? Is your home adequately insured? How do you prepare your home? What happens if you’re driving or in a high-rise, or inside of a store when an earthquake hits? How about tsunami or severe weather?

Our Be Ready Guide answers all of these questions and more, and includes a 2019 resource with invaluable contacts should a disaster strike.

Remember, individuals must be prepared to look after themselves, their families, their neighbours and homes for at least seven days after an emergency.

And because emergencies don’t always happen when we’re at home, we must also take precautions for our work, vehicle or other places we spend considerable time.

It’s also important to understand what happens after an earthquake, so the guide includes maps of tsunami hazard lines.

It’s available in limited numbers available at fire halls and our six community newspaper offices in the region. And it will always be available on our e-editions.

Pick up your Be Ready Guide at fire halls, our six community newspaper offices or find it online at vicnews.com/e-editions.

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