Second in a Series-Disaster Preparedness

Posted by Gary O'Rielly 
on Aug 25, 2013
 
Are you prepared for a disaster? What would you do?  Do you have a plan?  What are the essentials?  Mark Murphy and Scott Honaker from the Snohomish County Department of Emergency Management talked to the Club on August 23rd. Basic preparedness was the start of the program followed by a detail view of Basic Preparedness for you and your family and workplace preparedness. An essential ingredient is Communications Preparedness starting with a Contact list for the wallet, backpack for you, your spouse and kids. Develop a communications plan for "when all else fails". Included in the Communications Plan is your emergency contact list, a meeting place, who picks up whom and call procedures.
 

The importance of communications during a disaster has to be the use of a calming effect. Look what happened during the recent Skagit River Bridge collapse. Keep old cellphones charged because you can still make a 911 call.

Both Mike and Scott brought a sense of the importance of being prepared. Always have a backpack full of the essentials in your car, home and office. Keep a smaller pack that you can easily transfer for all of your activities. Hazards are all around our area. Earthquakes cause liquefaction of "solid" earth and tsunamis, floods, severe weather, extended power outages, landslides, volcanoes, pandemics and hazardous materials are all part of the need for emergency planning. A Glacier Peak volcanic eruption would be much larger than Mt. St. Helen's.

It is important to know your dependencies, level of preparedness, understanding the risk, have the skills, have the will and have a plan. More can be learned from the tour of the Snohomish County Department Emergency Management facility on Tuesday evening at 7pm. 

Another highly informative program that everyone should hear.