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...

Be prepared to help your community.... get CERT Trained. Learn how to prepare and care for yourself, your family, your animals, and help out your community in times of power outages, emergencies or disasters. Community Emergency Response Team training starts March 16th. The free training will be held March 16th to May 4th (Fridays 6:00PM - 10:00PM) at Vashon Island Fire and Rescue’s Training Center. To register or for more information, please contact certvashon@yahoo.com or 463-4558 or contact your nearest CERT member!

This handy list (and mini-reviews) of iPhone apps for ham radio enthusiasts is courtesy of Keith Francisco – or more likely from http://www.k0nr.com/wordpress/2011/04/the-incomplete-list-of-ham-radio-iphone-apps/ – in either case, thanks!

CallBook (Author: Dog Park Software, Cost: $1.99) Simple ham radio callbook lookup that accesses the WM7D database (or QRZ and Ham Call databases if you are a subscriber).

Maidenhead Converter (Author: Donald Hays, Cost: Free)...

Vashon Maury Island Radio Club announces an Amateur Radio (Ham) License testing session will be held on Vashon Island around the middle of March. Test costs about $14. Take advantage of these Technician, General, and Extra levels tests given on island.

Training for the exams will not be provided this time, so you’d have to study the ARRL manuals yourselves or go off island for training. Exact date, and location TBA. Please contact Sharon at kharazi@aol.com if you want to take any level test. Details on the Vashon-Maury Island Radio Club can be found at: www.w7vmi.org/

Japan’s...

Reducing the Risks of Nonstructural Earthquake Damage—A Practical Guide, Fourth Edition (FEMA E-74) Course Description Nonstructural components of buildings include all elements that are not part of the structural system; that is, the architectural, mechanical, electrical, and plumbing systems, as well as furniture, fixtures, equipment, and other contents. During the recent earthquakes in Chile, New Zealand, Japan, Virginia and other earlier earthquakes in California, Washington, and other parts of the U.S., nonstructural failures have accounted for the majority of damage and injuries. In many cases, businesses, schools, hospitals, and other organizations had to spend excessive time and dollars for clean up and repair due to nonstructural failures; therefore impeding continued operations...

ALL ISLAND FORUM

listening, learning and working together for our community

Welcome Vashon is holding an All Island Forum later this month’s whose purpose is to provide a collaborative, participatory and effective forum for community dialogue & action. It seeks clarity on issues, consensus on decisions, and community participation on solutions.

All Island Forum invites ALL ISLANDERS to an interactive forum to explore VASHON: What really matters to you? Join friends and neighbors to share ideas about the character and future of Vashon. For each of us, what are the essential characteristics of a Vashon worth working for?

We are asking for wide reaching community participation as we as we hone our skills at listening and expressing our opinions, and begin to build a process through which we can make more nuanced and consensual decisions about matters that effect our islands as a whole. Get to know your neighbors better, gain more appreciation for others’ views, and learn more...

A...

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Now Available for Android Users

In an ongoing effort to save lives, About The Kids Foundation today announces the free release of the ICE Standard App for Google Android users. Currently rated “The #1 Most Downloaded Emergency Contact Information App” for Apple iPhone, the ICE Standard App protects users during an emergency by featuring critical information as a screensaver.

In the event of an emergency, the ICE Standard App is designed to save lives by providing first time responders with immediate access to critical information about a patient. To help responders quickly identify a person’s condition, the App uses a tricolor system: Green (Good to Go), Yellow (Caution: Medications), and Red (Stop: Special Medical Condition or Life Threatening Allergies).

In addition,...

Due to the high demand, a SECOND series of Food Storage for Emergencies workshops will be held on three Monday evenings, 7-9 pm! See details below. Please pre-register and pass the word!

Vashon’s Food Security Working Group will be hosting a series of workshops to help families learn to stock their pantries for all sorts of emergencies­-from earthquakes to power outages to job layoffs. Three Food Storage for Emergencies workshops will take place every other Monday, beginning February 6, 7:00...

…sometime in the next 500 years, according to a great blog a couple weeks back by the PSSN’s John Vidale, a regular contributor to their “Seismo Blog” How likely is it to go? Well you’ll have to read his blog that breaks down some of the inputs to evaluating the actual risk factor – which I think he never actually stated…

There’s a whole list of interrelated blogs on this topic which I saw after reading Ben Jervey’s nice post on the subject – which is a commentary of the NY Times post...

Cascadia Subduction Zone Example: the 1700 earthquake that caused shaking and a tsunami that inundated the Oregon coast and reached as far as Japan.

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Two new articles from the Homeland Security Newswire and the Yakima Herald discuss new fault lines (maybe better described as...

Doomsday clock moves closer to midnight Numerous articles (including USA Today’s) note that scientists have moved the hands of the doomsday clock toward midnight – as a visible metaphor for our lessened security due to our fuelish ways.  It is notoriously hard to change our social (i.e., automotive) ways, but the consequences of our not taking a long term view are increasingly resulting in massive storm and economic damage today to societies across the globe.

Disaster risks are judged by multiplying the estimated...

According to the inspector general (IG) of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), state and local fusion centers and emergency operations centers could improve the response of their jurisdictions to terrorism and natural disasters if they talked to each other more often. Many fusion centers and EOCs surveyed do not exchange information.

While Washington State’s fusion center’s near-daily briefing tends toward being a fear based police blotter, extracting news...

VashonBePrepared has been working with the Debi Richards and the Vashon Chamber of Commerce and a large number of local businesses this fall to promote business disaster preparedness. A useful new national program has just been announced that promises to provide some great guidance for all of us. The big aim:

Identify your risk Make a mitigation project plan Implement techniques for ensuring and enhancing business resilience What a great new goal for Vashon businesses in 2012!

The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA)...

The new Vashon Island Fire & Rescue (VIFR) district cook book, “What’s Cookin’ at VIFR” is now here! Find a wide variety of savory and sweet treats inside with names such as Hanks’s Homemade Salsa, Duey’s Margarita, Milt’s Rib Roast for 1,000, and the infamous “Mom’s Hamburger and Biscuit Thing”! There are sections on appetizers, soups & salads, main dishes, breads and rolls, desserts, cookies and candy, and ‘this & that’.

The...

The fall 2011 CERT Newsletter is out and contains a nice overview of CERT activities happening around the country. These serve as a good introduction to the wide range of purposes CERT volunteers are capable of. There is an emphasis in this newsletter of college campus CERTs - including an impressive photo of the Pasadena Community College (PCC) CERT trailer.

Check...

A car accident snapped off the power pole at Dockton and Pt. Robinson roads last night about 6 PM. Unfortunately the accident curiously snapped the pole up about 20 feet high and took out the island’s primary electrical power feed. While most of island only experienced a 10 second outage, about 500 PSE customers had a couple hour service interruption. 1200 Maury Island people didn’t have power (and Comcast service) fully restored until about 3:30 PM today.

During the event Rick Frye wrote the following note to the Vashon-Maury Island Radio Club’s email group, which I thought a great reflection on the event:

And while I don’t know anything about the particulars in this case, I do know that sometimes – especially when a pole breaks – a lower voltage line can come into contact with a higher voltage line and this will cause the lower voltage line to become hyper-energized leading to problems along that line that might wipe out a...

CBS notes that this year’s 12 disasters costing over 1 billion dollars each surpasses the number seen during all the 1980’s – even with inflation adjustments. In associated reports they note that the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s...

Here’s a reminder to attend the December 1st Community Dinner at the Vashon High School Common Room, from 5:30 to 7:30 PM.

This month’s theme will be energy conservation, emergency preparedness and how to access and use the wonderful resources on this island to help in the event of an emergency. PSE will be handing out Take Winter by Storm ice scrapers, CFL bulbs, and low...

There were serious issues that presented the first nationwide emergency alert from working uniformly across the county. Some folks reported 30 seconds of dead air, others garbled audio. Some folks instead heard Lady Gaga’s ‘Paparazzi’! It is good we had this test as it points out that there is lots of work to be done – likely in various state’s infrastructures.

More at:

...

CBS recently listed a number of sobering facts about earthquake insurance that anyone from a scesmicly active area - like those of us from the Salish Sea would do well to be familiar with. Most know it isn’t included in standard homeowner’s policies, but even with it beware of the large number of restrictions in comparison to fire or other policies.

The topics covered are:

Deductibles Personal possessions Exclusions Loss of use Uncovered losses don't count toward the deductible Cost of coverage Who suffers catastrophic claims Mitigating risks Read the article at www.cbsnews.com/8301-505144_162-57319955/earthquake-insurance-8-things-you-need-to-know/

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Get Ready: Set Your Clocks, Check Your Stocks is the name of a new biannual campaign to encourage checking on your emergency preparedness kit of food, water, first-aid supplies, medications and food for pets. Do it when you set your clock forward or backward an hour. American Public Health Association is leading (or at least championing) this effort, as noted in this article: http://www.upi.com/Health_News/2011/11/07/Twice-a-year-Check-emergency-stockpile/UPI-85881320643709 The campaign web site has a number...

The Fire District is sponsoring the community dinner at Vashon High School tonight. The school district puts on these dinners once a month to raise funds for the school’s lunch program.  A suggested donation is $10 per person, but come by, enjoy a dinner and support this wonderful program. 

November 3rd Community Dinner

Vashon High School Commons

5:30-7:00 pm

$10 Suggested Donation

Topics

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Join FEMA Tuesday, November 8th to learn how the recently released National Disaster Recovery Framework (NDRF) provides a more inclusive, collaborative and comprehensive approach to addressing disaster recovery issues and challenges. The NDRF defines how we will work together as a nation to best meet the disaster recovery needs of individuals, families, communities, and states.  The NDRF is based on the principle...

Puyallup’s Emergency Management Department is hosting a free Emergency Preparedness Fair this Saturday at their fairgrounds. Learn to build an emergency kit, learn about their CERT, ARES & related citizen corps programs, fire safety and much more.

www.cityofpuyallup.org/emergency-management/emergency-preparedness-fair/

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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,...

NOAA had already posted news that we were likely to have a wetter than average winter in the northwest. Now they’re also saying there is over a 33% chance it may be colder than average, according to their latest long range forecast...

In addition to helping maintain Vashon CERT’s generators at the local fire stations each month, Vashon’s Dennis Schroeder has been a volunteer at the Real Change newspaper for the past five years, as well as serving on its Board of Directors for a two-year term. For those who may  not know, Real Change is the street newspaper that is sold in Seattle and the surrounding areas by homeless and low-income people.

The mission statement...

It is not too surprising that it would happen somewhere in California in any given day, but yesterday’s 2011 Great California ShakeOut earthquake drill was punctuated with a few minor quakes yesterday around the Berkeley area. No injuries and only minor damage was reported.

Some 1.3 million...

It appears that the ICS Task Books that help evaluators judge ICS performance (2007 versions are online at http://training.fema.gov/EMIWeb/IS/ICSResource/PositionChecklists.htm) have been newly revised in April 2011, and are now published as a draft docket...

Thanks to King County’s Dave Nichols for spotting this infographic by the Digital Surgeons depicting where FEMA’s funds have gone this...

KING 5 News reported today a swarm of earthquakes in recent weeks around Mount Rainier: nothing especially exciting, but an alert that it IS an active volcano!

Read the full story here. For the latest view of regional quakes, always visit www.pnsn.org/req2/.

If you appreciated my 14 March post that mentioned the ABC site showing before & after images of some tsunami scenes, you’ll likely also appreciate this somewhat similar set of photos from the Sacramento Bee that show 3 sequential images shot from the same perspective – of maybe a dozen different scenes. Thanks to Cathy Rogers & Jill Watson for alerting us to these.

...

Prepare. Plan. Stay Informed.

 

The first ever nationwide test of the Emergency Alert System will occur on Nov 9 at 2 pm ET and last for about 3 minutes, according to Damon Penn, of National...

A posting to the northwest DStar email list reports that a new Amateur Radio organization is being formed in Tukwila that will help to foster volunteerism, offer radio and emergency management training and build a sense of community.

The purpose of the club is to:

Volunteer radio skills, equipment and experience to the Tukwila Office of Emergency Management to provide volunteer resources, that in turn will work with the Tukwila Fire and Police in a civilian capacity Train those interested in becoming licensed radio operators and help them achieve their radio licensing goals Build a sense of Community by hosting monthly club meetings to introduce club members to new technology, best practices, equipment discussions and anything...

Do you want to see your name in print? 

Give Linda, Susan or Barbara your recipe(s) before the 21st  and your name and recipe(s) will be included in the  VIFR Cookbook.

Hope to have available for the holidays, if not VIFR will make up gift certificates.   If interested in purchasing a cookbook let us know and we can get an idea of how many to order.

To those that have already submitted recipes – Thank you!

Barbara, Linda and Susan

See my earlier post (at http://vashoneoc.org/Blogs/VashonPreparedness/tabid/164/EntryId/105/Submit-a-Recipe-to-Support-Vashon-Explorers.aspx) for a copy of the entry...

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...

On Saturday October 22, starting at 9:00am and running till 12:00 noon, VashonBePrepared is holding an introduction to all the various partners in the local disaster preparedness effort and how they serve when activated for an emergency. A number of the groups will be there at main fire station (either the Emergency Operations Center or Penny Farcy, depending on number of participants) so you can get more specifics on the organizations’ goals and style.

Expanding from the previous EOC 101 courses, there still will be a good introduction to the basics of our EOC operations.

Jan Milligan, VashonBePrepared’s Volunteer Coordinator is organizing the effort and would appreciate knowing who is coming to plan for space and refreshments!...

The following is from FEMA:

The Department of Homeland Security recently announced the release of the country's first-ever National Preparedness Goal. The goal is the first deliverable required under Presidential Policy Directive (PPD) 8: National Preparedness, which was released in April 2011. The goal sets the vision for nationwide preparedness and identifies the core capabilities and targets necessary to achieve preparedness across five mission areas laid out under PPD 8: prevention, protection, mitigation,...

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.

...

According to 1st Alert, 79% of families have a fire escape plan, but 51% have never practiced it, and 29% have only done so once.

The National Fire Protection Association recommends practicing your emergency escape routes twice annually. Other fire safety organizations promote monthly drills – as a way to bolster reaction times during a real emergency.

This likely should also hold for other preparedness plans for Vashon families – and businesses.

A Red Cross recent survey...

Seattle Chapter, American Red Cross, is Sponsoring an Amateur Radio General Class Licensing Course

The course meets on Monday nights starting October 24, 2011 at 6:30 PM and continues through November 21, 2011.

Class hours are generally from 6:30 PM to 9:30 PM.

The course is at the Seattle Red Cross, 1900 25th Ave., South, Seattle, WA 98144, room 130 (lower level).

The course is built to give you confidence in passing the licensing test and knowledge and...

While last winter didn’t seem that cold (skiing was NOT as epic as I had hoped or the dramatic forecasts had predicted), it did have lots of rain and this year is likely to be colder and wetter than average also. According to the national Climate Prediction Center’s announcement yesterday, it looks like a wetter, but not necessarily colder winter...

Thanks to Steve Allen for installing a new automatically activated alert system this afternoon at the North End Fire Station. The system has been improved gradually overtime and no longer relies on monthly volunteers swapping out manually charged batteries for instance. The new system is actually located inside the fire station and so has a trickle charger that will keep the batteries topped off.

...

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...

After years of championing the cause, Atmospheric Scientist Cliff Mass, should certainly be happy as Washington’s first coastal Doppler radar site opened yesterday. The new site at Langley Hill is already operational and photos can be viewed on this site.

Congratulations to all for their help in getting this huge project finished! This should help improve the accuracy of longer range weather forecasting in the Puget Sound dramatically.