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Severe weather or an earthquake WILL create these Vashon conditions: The power out for days or longer Homes damaged, some roads closed Phones not working well or at all Vashon Island Fire & Rescue overwhelmed Ferries stop serving Vashon – docks may be damaged or the boats needed elsewhere Gas, supplies and groceries not arriving from the mainland Families separated – some folks stranded off-island; many folks can’t get to work Learn the ropes to be resilient – not to mention well-fed! Four hours packed with resources, advice & island...

The...

Best practice: get informed about local hazards, and how to mitigate them for your home and neighborhood.

Best practice: celebrate milestones together, and reward outstanding accomplishments!

You only have seconds. Do you know exactly what to do the moment the ground starts shaking? If it involves a doorway, a triangle, or running – these are not quake-safe actions. Register now at www.ShakeOut.org/washington/register to learn more and practice updated quake safety. Be a part of Washington’s ShakeOut drill.

You are invited to join thousands of people who will Drop, Cover, and Hold On on October 18th at 10:18 a.m. in the 2012 Great Washington ShakeOut!

More than 12.5 million people were registered...

 

Nearly a hundred islanders took part in the regional Evergreen Quake on June 5th & 6th at the Vashon Emergency Operations Center.

It was fairly historic for a number of reasons:

- Initial test of Operation Lifeline (King County’s redirecting their passenger ferry or hiring a barge – to support emergency needs on Vashon) - The Planning Section has adopted the standard ICS Planning Clock - and had the 1st real run-though of this during a major exercise - The Public Information Team...

As mentioned at last night’s annual meeting, preparedness efforts on Vashon made strong strides over the past year. These successes are only partially due to VashonBePrepared’s efforts, and mainly by our various partners, including some independent accomplishments by others in our community. Here’s the listing presented:

Business Neighborhood Emergency Response Organization created, numerous meetings led by Vashon Chamber of Commerce Enhanced relations with King County Office of Emergency Management: Operation Lifeline - Plan & contract for hiring a barge or dedicated ferry to shuttle supplies if normal ferry operations are down MOU with Vashon Island School District to serve as a Disaster Campus MOU with Camp Burton to house disaster workers from off island Vashon integration w/ county computer alerting/management systems Enhanced integration of CERT & MRC & EOC Team with VIFR ops Disaster Emergency Response Trailer...

A new board was seated last night at VashonBePrepared’s Annual Meeting.

As set out in our bylaws, we have two classes of directors – ex-officio directors as set out by our bylaws – primarily the chief representatives of our partners – and those elected by the membership at our annual meeting: our at-large directors.

VashonBePrepared 2012 Board of Directors John Cornelison (past Prez) Donna Donnelly (at-large) Synthia Downs (at-large) Jill Janow (EOC Team) Tim Johnson (at-large) Hank Lipe (VIFR) Daniel Luechtefeld (ARES) John “Oz” Osborne (at-large) Scott Rice (CERT) Debi Richards (NERO) Catherine Rogers (VEPC) Bob Smueles (at-large) Ed Steyh (EOC Team) Rex Stratton (VIEMA) Rick Wallace (EOC Team)

The new board then unanimously elected the following directors to the Executive Committee, that subset of the board that meets monthly and tends to the daily business of our corporation:

VashonBePrepared...

Today’s Vashon Beachcomber had a bunch of great quotes that Susan Riemer got from next week’s expert speakers. She especially covered the little reported tsunami risk that could damage our ferry docks, certain waterfront locations (those perpendicular to the surge), and perhaps the isthmus between Vashon and Maury Islands. Some information on this can also be found on our tsunami page.

Read her Beachcomber article here:...

The March 28th edition of the Vashon Loop put notice of our Annual Meeting in the lead position at the top of page 1! Given the interest I’m hearing about, I think we may have a very full house, as we only have room for some 300 people in the Chautauqua Multipurpose Room on April 18th.

www.vashonloop.com/article/experts-talk-vashon%E2%80%99s-earthquake-and-tsunami-risks

VashonBePrepared is celebrating our 5th anniversary by sponsoring two of the state's foremost experts on Vashon's unique earthquake and tsunami risks. Recent scientific reports, a number based on lessons from Japan's devastating Tōhoku...

VashonBePrepared uses Constant Contact to manage several confidential email lists. These currently have many hundreds of users on them. The lists are free, and a great way to get the latest, authoritative information during an emergency.

VashonBePrepared Emergency Alerts One list is for anyone who would like to receive emergency alerts by email. This is a great way to receive authoritative information directly from Vashon Island Fire & Rescue (VIFR) and/or VashonBePrepared during critical events affecting Vashon and Maury Island residents and businesses.

Periodic VashonBePrepared Newsletter I’m not sure that we have sent out very many of these in recent years but it is likely that we will start sending out seasonal newsletters to those who sign up for this list.

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Not too surprisingly, disaster preparedness is not at the forefront of most Americans priority – but many don’t even have any plans. The original research was done by the Persuadable Research Corporation with reports of the survey released by PRWeb and the Homeland Security News Wire.

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Got a business on Vashon? Here’s what you need to know to avoid disruption after a fire, a storm, a pandemic, or an earthquake. It is courtesy of the Washington State’s Emergency Management Division’s Business Preparedness Website, that includes a ton of additional resources to help your business survive!

Step 1: Develop a Business Continuity Plan to ensure core functions and key personnel are identified and to ensure normal operations are resumed as quickly as possible.

Step 2: Promote...

Hazus is a nationally applicable standardized methodology that contains models for estimating potential losses from earthquakes, floods, and hurricanes. Hazus uses Geographic Information Systems (GIS) technology to estimate physical, economic, and social impacts of disasters.

HAZUS-MH is software developed by FEMA that analyzes risk from natural hazards in communities. Although Hazus-MH itself is free, it requires the users to have ArcGIS with ArcView license level.

Existing HAZUS-MH runs for Vashon (i.e. those for our 2005 Earthquake Study,...

Over the last year Debi Richards, the Vashon Chamber of Commerce’s Executive Director has been thinking about how to encourage businesses to get better...

The residents of Vashon and all the volunteers and organizations under the VashonBePrepared banner were honored Friday, September 30th by King County Executive Dow Constantine and King County Councilmember Joe McDermott - the final day of National Preparedness Month. As described by the actual 2011 King County Executive Award for Community Preparedness, and by the official King County press release, the award was to the entire community and emphasized the many contributors to Vashon’s preparedness. The Carnation-Duvall Citizen Corps Council was likewise lauded with a similar award.

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On September 30th, King County Executive Dow Constantine presented the citizens of Vashon and the organizations that comprise VashonBePrepared with his 2011 Award for Community Preparedness as noted in the King County press release and my comments on...

Sept. 30, 2011

Two King County organizations honored...

VashonBePrepared is delighted to partner with the Vashon Island School District (VISD). We added them about a month ago to our list of key partners (see list with their logos on our home page), in recognition of their vital role in the island’s disaster preparedness and response roles.

In reality, the VISD have long been an informal partner, through their participation...

At their 2010 Awards Ceremony yesterday at Camp Burton, the Vashon Island Fire & Rescue’s 2010 Commissioners Award was bestowed upon VashonBePrepared. Fire Commissioners Rex Stratton, Gayle Summers, Ron Turner, David Hoffmann and Neal Phillip presented the award to General Joseph Ulatoski, Catherine and Michael Cochrane, Richard Wallace and myself on VashonBePrepared’s behalf. The award was clearly in recognition of all the volunteers...

A host of sister neighborhood preparedness groups in Seattle exist, all working under the City of Seattle OEM:     West Seattle Be Prepared (that apparently partially chose their name based on VashonBePrepared!)     Magnolia | Queen Anne | Interbay     Capital Hill Preparedness people          See Seattle Community Network for additional resources and organizations

    See http://www.facebook.com/goSCALLOPS for a regional sustainability group

This...

April is Disaster Preparedness Month. VashonBePrepared, in conjunction with the King County Office of Emergency Management (OEM) urges citizens to take simple steps to prepare for earthquakes, floods, man-made disasters and other emergencies.

“We can’t stop disasters from happening, but we can prepare to survive them,” says OEM Director Hillman Mitchell. “Now is a perfect time to think about what you would do if a large disaster were to strike our region."

Disaster planning consists of three simple steps: 1. Make a Plan Every family should have a plan for how they will communicate during an emergency and where they will meet if separated.

Establish an out-of-area contact. This should be someone out-of-state that each family member can contact to communicate their well-being.

Texting will often work, even if phone calls can’t go through.

If cell towers are down, landline calls may work.

Long-distance calls...

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Yes, 2012! More is to come, and you can consult Chief Lipe or Exercise Czar Rick Wallace for all the details, but for now please just add the following dates to next year’s calendar:

2012 Exercise Series Functional Exercise: June 5-6 Logistics Drill: June 12-14 Recovery TTX: August 15 & 22 Overview Evergreen Quake is a series of three exercises that is intended to test the ability of local, state, federal and tribal governments, as well as select private sector entities located within the eight-county...

www.safecomprogram.gov/NR/rdonlyres/132003E7-6C43-4E15-97D6-A2A4E5A2704F/0/GrantProgramsforSAFECOMWebsite.pdf has a huge list of grant programs – many of which we are eligible to apply for. Indeed if you see a critical need (and can properly justify it!) for funds for a key program, I suspect we can likely find funds for it…

This overview was mentioned in today’s release of the Fiscal Year 2011 SAFECOM Guidance on Emergency Communications Grants (www.safecomprogram.gov) for use...

The Nominations Committee has started considering nominations for the VashonBePrepared Board of Directors upcoming election. If you are interested in serving as an At-Large candidate, please contact anyone on the nominations committee: May Gerstle, Jan Milligan, and John Cornelison. Presidents of our member organizations () will also be asked to serve as ex officio representatives – or appoint a representative.