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Abstract & Bio

Disaster Resiliency: Beyond Emergency Management

Mike Andrews, Deputy Director North Shore Emergency Management

North Shore Emergency Management has embarked on a strategy of disaster resilience that has seen them advance many of the concepts addressed in the BC Earthquake Immediate Response Plan and a few others. The speaker introduces new disciplines and related challenges associated with managing a disaster which go beyond established emergency management capacity in BC. Learn about the supply, transportation and distribution continuum and community points of distribution (CPODs), multi-modal and intermodal strategies and transportation staging areas (TSA) and Disaster Support Hubs where convergent volunteer intake and other activities engage citizens to reduce the burden on the impact community.

Mike Andrews has been engaged in the evolution of disaster resilience at the local, regional, and provincial levels and has helped to pilot and advance many of the concepts addressed in the BC Earthquake Immediate Response Plan and a few others. The speaker introduces new disciplines and related challenges associated with managing a disaster which go beyond established emergency management capacity in BC. Learn about the supply, transportation and distribution continuum and community points of distribution (CPODs), multi-modal and intermodal strategies and transportation staging areas (TSA) and Disaster Support Hubs where convergent volunteer intake and other activities engage citizens to reduce the burden on the impact community.

Mike joined the tri-municipal North Shore Emergency Management (NSEM) as an Emergency Planning Officer in 2012 after serving over 7 years with Emergency Management BC as a Regional Manager in the Southwest Region. He is currently the Deputy Director on the North Shore and has portfolios in Training, Exercises and Operational Readiness.

During his tenure with EMBC, he served in an array of leadership capacities, including Director of Provincial Regional Emergency Operations Centres (PREOCs) in all six regions of BC. His emergency management experience ranges from floods and fires to hazardous materials incidents and environmental spills and from search & rescue to public safety planning for the 2010 Olympic Games. Mike is a Certified Emergency Manager with IAEM Canada who also has a consulting business and he teaches most of the Emergency Management curriculum for the Justice Institute of BC. Mike is currently the Chair of the Regional Emergency Planning Committee (REPC – Greater Vancouver) and he is a Director on the Board of the BC Association of Emergency Managers. Mike is an innovator and has been instrumental in establishing and furthering projects including post-disaster emergency transportation and supply, critical infrastructure assurance and emergency radio communications. In his current capacity at NSEM, Mike is again innovating by working with stakeholders on the development of software and smartphone apps for post-disaster damage assessment and evacuation notification and to automate and simplify situational awareness through a computer and smart device-based common operating picture.

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