COVID-19: Reserves Call-Up

As the Russians are fond of saying: “Man plans, God laughs.”

Right about the time that I was laying out my plans for upcoming blog posts, some people further up the Canadian Forces’ food chain were making some decisions. Shortly after that, I got the word that I was up for a position in what they’re calling DRCs (Disaster Response Companies).

Right now I’m sitting in a weather haven tent in CFB Borden (just north west of Toronto) waiting to see if we’re going to roll out to help with…well anything really. The whole idea behind the DRCs is that the COVID-19 pandemic could weaken local infrastructure, making it harder for people to respond to a disaster than is usually the case. So we’re on standby to provide extra manpower.

Right now the big concern on everyone’s radar is flooding. Over the last few years we’ve had several serious floods in different parts of the country, and some of the rural towns don’t have the redundancy to handle a flood as well as a quarantine. Later on the risk will likely be forest fires, and along the way there’s the chance we’ll have to provide a direct response to COVID-19 hotspot itself.

So a lot of things are up in the air right now.

Just to be clear, I asked to come here. As much as I don’t like the idea of a nation-wide pandemic wrecking my country and my lungs, the thought of sitting at home and watching the whole thing unfold on TV was already making me crazy. I didn’t know I’d be called up so quickly, but I knew it was at least possible when I put my name forward and I’m glad to have been picked up some quickly.

As far as the blog’s concerned, things are going to get tricky. Right now, we’re in the “hurry up and wait” phase, so I’m actually getting a decent bit of down time. Writing on my phone isn’t too bad in and of itself, but adding the links and pictures that I usually want for a post could be a challenge. So please understand there’s going to be a drop of in quality as I go through a learning curve. If we roll out in response to an actual emergency, then all bets are off. But in the meantime, I’m going to try and make the best of it and see how much I can do under these conditions.

Where ever you are, take care of yourselves. One way or another, we’re all in this together.