Each municipality in Metro Vancouver has their own Emergency Plan. All of the municipalities however, share Emergency Communications and a regional Disaster Response Route plan.

The E-Comm facility was created in 1994 to facilitate communications between all emergency response personnel. The facility is located at 3301 E Pender Street in downtown Vancouver.

E-Comm manages emergency response communications for all of southwestern British Columbia. The state of the art facility can withstand an earthquake greater than 7 on the Richter scale.

For more information, please see: http://www.ecomm.bc.ca

E- Comm also engages in public awareness campaigns, such as their campaign to reduce accidental 911 calls.

Disaster response routes are provincial and municipally designated roads that can facilitate fast and efficient movement of supplies and people in the event of an emergency, such as an earthquake.

The Disaster Response Routes were implemented by the Joint Emergency Liaison Committee (JELC). JELC was created to assist Lower Mainland municipal governments cooperate in emergencies that cross jurisdictional boundaries.

Disaster Response Routes are only used in an emergency, and only for as long as necessary. Planners are working on a multi-modal route including air and marine transport. The public is asked to avoid these roads in the event of an emergency, such as an earthquake, and to please remember that these routes are not an escape route.

For more information on Metro Vancouver Disaster Response Routes, click here.