The Regional District of East Kootenay has won an award for its community engagement during the June 2013 floods.
On Thursday, September 19, the Regional District of East Kootenay (RDEK) was announced as a winner in the UBCM Community Excellence Awards.
The RDEK won in the Best Practices, Civic Engagement category for "Regional Snapshot", the emergency communication that staff performed during the June 2013 floods.
Award applications were received from communities throughout the province for several innovative and outstanding ideas that will now serve as examples to other local governments around the world.
Members of the UBCM Executive board were joined by experts to evaluate submissions based on how well they demonstrated "excellence" based on their relative size or resources available.
The Regional District of East Kootenay sprung to action June 20 when heavy rainfall caused creeks, rivers and lakes all over the region to rise at alarming rates.
By June 25, a state of emergency was declared in all four subregions of the East Kootenay, an unprecedented response by the emergency program.
Back in July, the RDEK board agreed to nominate the emergency program's response to the flood event for the award.