When worlds collapse because of emergency or disaster, a caring and trained contingent of volunteers is in place to provide immediate assistance.
Donna Rekve, Powell River Emergency Support Services (ESS) director, was recently recognized for 25 years of service to the organization, which is a lifeline for helping people in the early first hours after disaster strikes.
“My passion for ESS began on April 16, 1989,” she said. “I don’t even remember how I came to join the team, I just remember falling in love with what we could do to assist our community in the event of an emergency or disaster.”
Ryan Thoms, manager of emergency services for Powell River Regional Emergency Program, said residents don’t always understand what ESS is or does until they’ve had the misfortune of a home fire or a flood.
“Then, they very quickly understand what ESS does,” he said.
Thoms said ESS is volunteer-driven. Without the volunteers there would be insufficient governmental resources to care for evacuees. Local governments, under the Emergency Program Act, have a responsibility to look after people who have been impacted by disasters, so ESS fills a vital role.
Thoms said a single house fire qualifies under the emergency and disaster definition. He said Rekve and the cadre of ESS volunteers look after several families or individuals each year who have lost their accommodations either temporarily or long term.
He added that the ESS volunteers have a huge impact in people’s lives in times of crisis and for Rekve to have volunteered for 25 years is “massive.”
When Rekve came aboard 25 years ago, ESS met in the basement of city hall. At that time, the organization concentrated on large events such as forest fires and earthquakes.
The ESS team now consists of 45 immediate team members. They also have other volunteers listed who are willing to come to the aid of ESS if needed.
Rekve said it has always been stated that people need to be personally responsible for 72 hours when undergoing emergency or disaster.
“We now say possibly a week or longer,” she said.
Disaster is unpredictable but there are steps people can take to improve their response to dire situations. The local ESS office is prepared to provide assistance.
“If anyone wants more information on what we do or how to prepare kits, our office is located in the Spruce Room of the Powell River Recreation Complex,” Rekve said. “We are not always open but we try to be there most mornings.
“I am always willing to go to organizations no matter how large or small and give a presentation. The passion is still there and my goal is for everyone in our community to be prepared for any emergency or disaster.”
Thoms said, regardless of the time of day an incident occurs, ESS has to be able to put a roof over people’s heads until they can get back on their feet. ESS has responded to fires in Powell River that have had significant impact in the lives of a number of people, such as the Villa Anna apartment fire, where there were more than 60 evacuees out of house and home from June to November 2012.
Thoms said people are tremendously stressed in the aftermath of incidents such as this.
“It’s an amazingly complex thing because people have suddenly lost that stability,” he said. “The goal is to support these people until they can use other means to get back to some new normal.
“Without ESS there wouldn’t be anybody. What ESS does during that minimum 72 hours of helping is make sure the dots are connected. We lead people to places where they can get help. We obviously can’t give everything back but we can’t have them on the street.”
Rekve said the basic essentials—food, clothing, lodging and medications—are covered in an emergency.
Some great leadership has inspired Rekve’s transition through ESS. “Susan Jersak was one of them,” Rekve said. “She stepped down in 2001 as director. Gloria Seeley then became director from 2001 to 2007. Next was Monika Lumley from 2008 to 2010.”
For more information on ESS, Rekve can be reached by cell at 604.483.8247 or call the office at 604.485.8919.
