When disaster strikes, after the immediate response to save lives, communities can be left wondering how to begin rebuilding and moving forward. Prevention efforts are essential to minimize risks and damage in the first place. After the cleanup, local governments can be ready to respond quickly to natural disasters and the lingering challenges long after if they’re prepared with the right processes and tools to quickly get back to work.
In recent weeks, a series of fires broke out around Los Angeles that killed 28 people and damaged or destroyed thousands of houses and other buildings.
For now, the focus is on saving lives and getting the fires under control. In the near future, local governments will deal with the aftermath. What officials do now to help their communities and agencies move forward after destruction of this scale can have consequences that will be felt for years to come.
Fires have, unfortunately, caused widespread destruction and loss of life in areas across North America in recent years. On June 30, 2021, the Village of Lytton in British Columbia was devastated by a fire that killed two people, burned down about 90% of the village, and damaged more than 40 homes in the Lytton First Nation community.
Officials quickly jumped into action, issuing a State of Local Emergency declaration that remained in effect for almost two years to kickstart safety and restoration efforts. However, their work was complicated by several factors, including delays caused by contamination concerns and the archaeological significance of the village.
During this unprecedented era of the community’s history, transformation and innovation were vital in moving forward. The village embraced modern tools as part of its effort, including adopting Cloudpermit’s online community development software to improve and speed up its rebuilding process.
This change helped Lytton accept applications, process payments, and issue permits quicker by doing everything online.
It also enabled remote work flexibility, including the ability for Lytton’s Manager of Building & Permits/Building Official – Plan Reviewer, Lynn Berlin, to remotely accept applications and issue permits from hundreds of miles away.
The building inspector, too, benefited from the ability to prepare for inspections despite living outside the village.
Beyond the new remote work capabilities and improved efficiency of the permitting process overall, Lytton’s displaced residents also benefited from being able to start and finish applications from anywhere and receiving automatic notifications about status changes along the way.
When an EF-2 tornado damaged the Township of Uxbridge, Ontario, in 2022, Director of Development Services Kyle Rainbow said “time was of the essence” to respond. With people waiting outside wondering if they could return to their homes, local officials needed to move quickly.
The benefits of an online platform for community development like Cloudpermit were clear, with multiple township officials able to work in the system simultaneously as they created inspections for properties, entered information about damage, and worked together with other communities.
Support from others during this disaster recovery was simplified because of the ability to quickly add new users into the system. Cloudpermit offers unlimited user licenses, making it possible to enter as many people as necessary into the system without additional costs.
We did not need to ask for new licenses or wait around for payment to add new users to our system,” Rainbow said. “Instead, we quickly created accounts for everyone who was helping so they could easily add their notes to the team effort.”
Additionally, all information collected was centralized and available to all authorized users, which helped officials quickly access property information, notes, and photos as needed.
About 65 orders to repair properties or prohibit occupancy were needed in the township, and Cloudpermit’s forms and templates helped officials quickly issue these orders to residents.
At the same time, residents were informed by automatic email updates, extending some peace of mind and certainty during an uncertain time.
Working together with other nearby communities can be beneficial in many circumstances, but the need for cooperation and the power of shared services is elevated in times of crisis, like a natural disaster.
Sharing services across borders can cut costs, improve the delivery of services, and make things much more efficient. In challenging situations, whether responding to a tornado, fire, hurricane, flood, or some other disaster, this effort can also be a lifeline for strained government staff and citizens who need help and information as soon as possible.
Online community development platforms can make shared services easier to implement, especially when a quick response is urgent after a crisis.
Still, even sharing information within the same community can be a challenge if processes are stuck in traditional or outdated working methods. Consider the advantages of an online platform used by building departments for plans, drawings, and schematics that can be accessed by fire and police departments on their way to an emergency.
There are many differences in the value of traditional vs. online solutions for disaster relief and emergency response, and modern tools can make it possible to get much-needed information much faster.
In normal times, sharing services with nearby communities and centralizing data can greatly benefit how local governments get their day-to-day work done. However, these advantages of modern software for governments become critically important when disaster strikes.