Lineups and waiting times should be significantly shorter if another wave of wildfire evacuees show up in Prince George this summer thanks to a new digital registration system the city is in the process of adopting.
During sessions at CN Centre on Wednesday and Thursday, roughly 250 city staff and volunteers were trained to use the system which needs about 20 minutes to register an evacuee - a quarter of the time it took under paper-based system used over the last two summers.
"It's a game changer, it really is a step in the right direction," city emergency programs manager Adam Davey said.
Emergency Management BC developed the system which is also being piloted in Kamloops, the Central Okanagan and T'Kemloops First Nation. Prince George, which welcomed 14,000 evacuees over the last two summers, is the first community to test the system at a scale large enough to resemble a major evacuation.
City emergency support service director Brad Beckett said the real advantage will come when registrations are renewed and additional vouchers are provided for accommodation and food because all the information will be immediately accessible.
In the years to come, Beckett said there is a chance evacuees will also be able to register themselves online via their mobile devices.
If, for some reason, the internet goes down, the paper-based system will remain in place as a backup. About 400 staff were on hand to register evacuees last year, according to Davey.
Evacuees are asked to provide their names and addresses, whether they have insurance, if they need food, lodging and clothing and whether they have pets.
"We have a category called incidentals, so do you have your meds with you, your glasses, your false teeth - all of that kind of stuff," Beckett said. "Just trying to figure out what they need and figure out whether this program has the ability to provide some of those services for you."
Even if an evacuee doesn't need help, Beckett said registration is still a good way to keep in touch with authorities.
"A lot of people register and never come for services," he said. "You can register and drive on your merry way and take your family to safety, wherever that may be."
