News Article

“What can I do to make my world better for your kids, my kids, my family, your family, and to ensure at your deepest and darkest moment that there is a shining light at the other end?”

 
That’s the question Darren Butt asked himself on September 11, 2001 after the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Centre in New York City. Darren was on his way to British Columbia on board one of the last airplanes to land at Pearson International Airport in Toronto. That day changed his life and the course of his career from communications to the emergency management field.
 
Darren feels disaster and emergency managers “walk into places where angels fear to tread because we have no other choice.”
 
The opportunity to develop a program from the ground up, which utilizes his extensive knowledge and experience brought him to Stephenville as the instructor of a new one-year post-diploma Emergency Management program at the Bay St. George campus of College of the North Atlantic (CNA). He will pass along his extensive knowledge of emergency management techniques through cutting-edge technology in a world-class facility.
 
“I’ve seen emergency operation centres from coast to coast to coast, all over this planet and I am just completely blown away by the resources, the capabilities, and the infrastructure of Stephenville.”
 
He says the area provides a significant number of stakeholders including a first-rate fire department, police organization, health authority, port system, airport and emergency operation centre that the college will be able to link to.
 
Darren says he couldn’t have found a better location with a better setup than what is available at CNA, adding there will be great demand for graduates of this program.
 
“We’re seeing more and more people actually drawing the recognition that they need to have dedicated professionals ensuring our province and our nation is better prepared for a future disaster or emergency event – everything from earthquakes, to mudslides, to urban interface wildfires, to biological events, to oil and gas emergencies, you name it.”
 
The program is open to students who have a certificate, diploma or degree from a recognized institution.
 
“If disaster and emergency management appeals to you in terms of knowing how you can make a difference within peoples’ lives, that you wish to engage in the protection of not only your community, but your region, your province, and your country as well, and you’re ready to make that difference, then this is the program for you.”
 
There are two qualities an emergency management specialist needs – to be proactive and be adaptive.
 
“A disaster and emergency management practitioner should have no issues dealing with an evacuation of 40 people or the evacuation of 4,000. They should have no issue dealing with a crisis that would see a community cut off as opposed to a region being cut off because they just scalar in nature and of course the instruments, the theories, the concepts are exactly the same – we will ensure our candidates have these types of global skill.”
 
The program will also offer the opportunity for collaboration with other college programs, including GIS Application Specialist which will allow participants to use emergency simulation software in combination with GIS software to create any disaster scenario imaginable.
 
“The capabilities of that program linked into the Emergency Management program allow us to model any area of Newfoundland and Labrador and create our own natural hazard environment. If we need to know what effect a 170 kph wind from the northeast will have on Carbonear, combining that with rapid storm surging and current architecture and flooding zones, we would actually see what would happen to that town should such an event occur.”
 
Essentially the program will be able to simulate any disaster or emergency anywhere in the world.
 
“If we wanted to replay 9/11 we could do that again. The (software) allows us to go back and be proactive and say, ‘Okay, this is what we need to do,’ so that if an event actually occurs, we will have based everything on a worst case scenario – that’s what our science is based on.”
 
Someone with a background in emergency management asks questions. They ask themselves the “what ifs” of any given situation.
 
“We have a predefined definition of emergency management within Atlantic Canada. When I pick up the phone and call 9-1-1, the operator says ‘police, fire, or ambulance’. It’s the hallmark; it’s a very traditional way of thinking. When the firefighters come they put the wet stuff on the hot stuff, you know they go back to their home, emergency over. However, what happens to that family that is now homeless? What happens now if that family has children that are now homeless? What if the fire spread and the entire community is ablaze? Now what would happen if there was a power plant involved in that same community that also caught fire?” he says.
 
“Emergency and disaster management truly is the benchmark of creating a comprehensive response to an event because the fire may indeed be out, but the emergency is continuing. Everybody may be evacuated, but the disaster is still on and we still need to be able to provide resources and assistance for those in greatest need.”
 
He says his position allows him the opportunity to come in on a ground floor of the new Emergency Management program and develop it according to his experiences. His extensive knowledge of government needs will directly tie into classroom experience for students.
 
“Governments, be it municipal, provincial, national or international, do not simply want  a professional who simply comes out and talks only  theory, they want to have trained and dedicated professionals, versed in the science of disaster and emergency management who can readily jump into business continuity, hazard and risk vulnerability analysis, surge capacities, protection from chemical and biological events, and then, of course, environmental capabilities, but also safety,” he continues.
 
“This is the recipe that industry has. My colleagues and I have asked ourselves if we could create one program that met the current and future needs of disaster and emergency management, then what would it look like. I have had that conversation many a time, now I have the opportunity to do it. So look out Newfoundland and Labrador, here it comes!”
 
Darren says current job projections for disaster and emergency management specialists within Canada are extremely high in many fields, especially within Newfoundland and Labrador. The program has seats available for 16 candidates. Visit www.cna.nl.ca for more information.
 
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Media Contact:
Glenda McCarthy
Public Relations Assistant
College of the North Atlantic
(709) 643-6408
glenda.mccarthy@cna.nl.ca