The Town of Sundre is no stranger to bouncing back from disasters.
Past inundations and extreme weather events such as devastating hailstorms are simply part of the local history.
But once flood waters recede or the storm clouds part following an emergency evacuation, residents cannot necessarily just come back home at their leisure, said Jim Hall, deputy director of emergency management.
"There's a thing called infrastructure and business continuity, which is really important to the province and the town," he told the Round Up.
Citing the Fort McMurray wildfire as an example, Hall said officials in that situation wanted to ensure that basic services such as water, wastewater and gas were operational before residents were allowed back into their homes.
"All of that major infrastructure has to be fixed first."
As important as basic infrastructure is to any municipality, also crucial is to restore local commerce as soon as possible by getting businesses back on their feet and returning to normal, he said.
To that end, local business owners are welcome and even encouraged to contact Jonathan Allan, Sundre's economic development officer, to learn more about preparedness plans. Alberta Emergency Management Preparedness also has information for individuals and business owners, said Hall.
Following the fallout of the devastating 2013 floods, the provincial government has since ramped up the amount of resources and training opportunities made available to help municipalities not only prepare for but also recover from disasters, he said.
"The government is really trying to prepare Joe resident and Joe business and municipalities and counties to be more ready."
Although Alberta is, in his opinion, far ahead of the rest of the country in terms of emergency planning and preparedness, Hall said society at the same time cannot continue to just wait for the government to come and carry people out of their homes during emergencies, and that residents should always be prepared to act.
"In any given year we can have any number of events, it's kind of hard to predict," said Kevin Heerema, director of emergency planning.
"Looking at snowpack and water levels right now, the risk is there for flooding. But the risk will be there for flooding at any given time. In 2013, that was just a big rainstorm that happened all in one place ó you can't predict that. So we got to prepare for it every year, really."
