Best practice: keep useful and comfy items in your car, to navigate seasonal surprises

Best practice: communicate periodically via social media or whatever medium suits your group.

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!

Seattle to host Nov. 18th Twitter event to take questions about landslides

Did you know that most landslides occur between the months of October and April? And that 86 percent of landslides are caused to some extent by human activity? Landslide season is upon us and the City of Seattle is urging residents to take preventive measures to protect themselves and their property from possible landslides.

Heavy rains are likely this year for the Pacific Northwest. As the rainfall continues to increase throughout...

The American Red Cross has released a slew of apps for the Android and Apple marketplace.

One of their latest - Monster Guard: Prepare for Emergencies - is oriented at 7-11 year olds...

Best practice: laminated map of your NERO, plus colored stickers to designate the status of each household.

Best practice: after an incident, use maps and forms to assess your neighborhood, then call 9-1-1 to report up.

Best practice: have older buildings reviewed by a contractor to make sure they have had seismic (earthquake) retrofits.

Most folks believe the National Weather Service just reports on the weather – but I remain skeptical. I actually think they know how to control it – when it fits their key goals.

As conclusive proof, realize that the NWS proclaimed this week as “Winter Weather Awareness Week”. As a direct result – not coincidentally as many naively assume – the nation is going to be plunged...

The Vashon Beachcomber, publisher of last winter’s “Vashon Winter Ready 2013 Handbook” has kindly allowed VashonBePrepared to make the handbook available online. As we gear up for our annual winter storm season, you can review this great overview of winter preparedness on our Severe Storm page. Kudos also to VIFR, Voice of Vashon, Puget Sound Energy, and VashonBePrepared for their contributions to the handbook.

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Over 25 ham radio operators showed up for the local amateur radio club’s bimonthly meeting tonight at Vashon’s Emergency Operations Center.

John Galus, past president of the club demonstrated the newly upgraded Local Area Communication Caches (LACCs) for the Dockton and Burton radio stations. (The north end and Tahlequah and 5th Station 55 caches have yet to receive the latest updates, but received upgrades in the form of hand-me-downs from the other caches.)

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Best practice: combine Neighborhood Emergency Response Organizations with Block Watch.

Best practice: meet at least annually with your neighbors, to refresh information and include new residents.

Best practice: invite experts who can help you organize, provide useful tools, and support your efforts.