Four years out from the flood, the Town of High River is moving past emergency readiness.

It's looking more at disaster risk reduction.

The Director of Emergency Management, Carly Benson says it'll place more emphasis on prevention and how to reduce risk rather that what has been the focus for the last four years, being ready to respond and recover when a disaster strikes.

"We've hit the four year mark, so it's a good time to take stock of how far we've come, where are we excelling and where do we need to spend a bit more energy for the next four years, especially in regards to training, but all across our programs as a whole," Benson says.

She says one of the things they learned in 2013 was treating the social response of disasters as separate from the physical response is a short sighted and incomplete way of approaching repine.

"As soon as we try to separate the people factor from what's happening on the ground, we end up with miscommunication, we end up with increased stress for people, so what we've really focused on over the past couple of years in particular is integrating our social industries into our response so that the people factors are considered right alongside the physical infrastructure and impact on property," she says. "What contributes to stress is uncertainty so it's really providing that link to our response so that people are getting as much information as we can possibly provide, as early as we can provide it."

Every four years the Town holds a full scale mock disaster exercise and the next one comes up at Highwood High School September 28 with a full assessment on September 29.

Benson says it'll give officials a chance to see how far they've come and where they need to focus training for the next four years.