The Toronto G20 Summit provided a crystal clear lesson in the value of emergency planning and having a “72-hour kit” ready at home, work, or your car.
For two days, much of the downtown core of Toronto was under a form of roving seige, where protestors and police would clash, then disappear, and clash again somewhere else.
Much of the pre-summit focus was on protecting the world leaders in attendance, and ensuring the security fences surrounding the meeting location was not breached. But, outside of the “wire” it was every person, and every business, for themselves.
The well-known downtown mall, the Eaton Centre, was locked down Saturday afternoon. All TTC subways south of the Bloor-Danforth line were stopped by 2 p.m. The PATH network was completely closed, isolating the various office and commercial buildings of the financial district, while police cruisers burned in intersections and groups of black-clad anarchists merrily roved around looking for the next easy hit.
On the grand scale of disaster planning, the G20 protest violence and mayhem did rank quite low. Water supplies remained untouched, the fires were relatively small and limited to a few abandoned police cars. Electricity kept going, as did telephone and cellular networks.
But many businesses that were open were suddenly forced to lock themselves down when groups of thugs roamed too near. Queen west restaurants were busily serving meals to patrons when the action rolled past their windows, smashing up bank ATMs and vandalising coffee shops along the way.
Several condos located close to the security fencing were well within an area sterilized by police from protestors. Those residents that had not left town were few, and they essentially had to stay put in their buildings while the police went about clearing the streets of thugs and mischief-makers.
For those businesses and residents in and near the scenes of police and protestor clashes, burning cars, and window-smashing, a stocked 72-hour kit could have provided security and assurances during the unfortunate blightedness.
The safest solution would have been to shelter-in-place. This means communicating with loved ones to advise them of your whereabouts and intentions, and ensuring you have the ability to survive for the period of shelter without reliance on city services – who were busy dealing with roaming bands of thugs and various burning cars. Telephone and wireless services were relatively unaffected, and Internet access is usually available somewhere in the downtown core. Satellite phones are still relatively expensive, but can be an option to have in place for emergencies, particularly for businesses anticipating going into a lockdown ahead of events like the G20 summit.
A phone list – paper and ink, as anything electronic cannot be relied upon in an emegency - is also a mandatory part of a communication contingency.
Food and water are rarely in short supply in the heart of a major city – but just in case, it always helps to have some in a 72-hour kit no matter where you are. However, just as important can be extra prescription and over the counter medications. Ducking out to a drug store this weekend could have landed a person detained by riot police, if one were to be caught in the wrong place at the wrong time.
Likewise, a first aid kit is essential. Ambulance services in some areas of the Toronto core were non-existent during the peak periods of protestor and police showdowns. Street closures caused by large crowds made some roads impassable, and in any event, ambulance services will not place their members in jeopardy by having them drive into a riot.
A kit containing an inexpensive digital camera would be useful in documenting any damage done to one’s home or business, and may even assist authorities in identifying potential culprits at a later date. Basic tools and materials can be used to patch up broken windows or doors, and make other minor repairs should an errant brick make its way through a ground-floor facade.
If the kit is at a downtown workplace, a supply of sleeping kit would be handy, if you or your employees expect to have to bed down for a night or two. Reasonably priced sleeping bags are available at sporting goods stores, and army surplus stores sell cheap wool blankets that suit the task.
A radio – for public news and announcements – and even a pre-programmed radio scanner, are also handy information tools. Scanning media, police, and fire frequencies allows you to gauge the proximity of any threats or incidents you need to be concerned about. Manjor announcements and emergency directions will be made over mainstream media, such as radio or television.
It is not even a bad idea to have a supply of N95 and functional gas masks, in case police tear gas or pepper spray is deployed on your cafe patio, or near your building’s fresh air intake.
There is no one “72-hour kit” solution. And having anything set aside for emergencies is better than having nothing set aside. While it can be hard to judge ahead of time whether your home or business will be in a potential risk area, particularly with fluid protest actions such as this past weekends’, the value of having performed some emergency planning ahead of time cannot be overstated.
When the rioters come past your door, it is already too late to start your emergency planning.
