VashonBePrepared Partners

Partners in Community Preparedness with:

King County

Vashon Island Fire & Rescue (VIFR)

Vashon Island School District (VISD)

Emergency Operations Center (EOC) Team

Marine Emergency Response Team (MERT)

Medical Reserve Corps (MRC, a CitizenCorps Affiliate)

Vashon-Maury Island Radio Club (VMIRC, an ARES Affiliate)

Community Emergency Response Team (CERT, a CitizenCorps Affiliate)

Neighborhood Emergency Response Organizations (NERO, a CitizenCorps Affiliate)

Vashon Island Emergency Management Area (VIEMA)

Voice of Vashon (VoV 1650 AM, TV channel 21)


In addition to these formal and regular partners, VashonBePrepared more informally works with a wide variety of other island and county entities such as the Vashon Chamber of Commerce, KC Transportation Department, WA State Ferries, KC Water Taxi District, the Vashon Airport, True Value, Thriftway, Island Lumber, Williams Heating, and any number of other firms and organizations.

Who Are All These Groups?!

Because disasters touch everyone and prevention is more effective than recovery, it follows that many organizations include disaster support in their mission. Bringing these various groups to a very large round table is the reason for VashonBePrepared.

VashonBeprepared provides a mechanism where all interested parties can collaborate, and where common objectives, such as public education, fundraising, and motivating our community to prepare can be done most equitably and efficiently.

Our core partners have disaster preparedness, mitigation, operations, or recovery as part of their core missions. Others partners are simply motivated given Vashon's special spirit and our unique vulnerabilities.

A useful consideration is to consider those organizations in volved in preparations, when they are generally operating autonomously, versus those active during an actual disaster - where the typical behavior is a formal chain of command.

Looking at this chain of command, the rules are well spelled out, typically in formal legislation. President | FEMA | WA State Governor | WA EMD | (King County Executive?) | King County OEM | VIEMA | VIFR Fire Chief | Incident Commander.

Many of our groups are national partners of the Citizen Corps, though we've certainly morphed some of the groups according to our local interest and sensibilities.

The VashonBePrepared coalition adheres to the principles of the National Response Framework and the National Incident Management System (NIMS), including Incident Command System. Handy overview PDF's on the National Response Framework and their Local Government Partner Guide and a Partner Guide for Private Sector are quite useful to understand the big picture.

VashonBePrepared's Informal Associations



Vashon Island Fire and Rescue  

Vashon/Maury Island Fire Department

 
click here  



Vashon Maury Island Community Council  

The Vashon Maury Island Community Council is a forum where people of Vashon and Maury Islands get together to discuss community concerns.

 
click here  



Vashon Chamber of Commerce  

The purpose of the Vashon Chamber of Commerce shall be to promote programs of a civic, social and cultural nature, which are designed to increase the functional and aesthetic values of the community and the general welfare and prosperity of Vashon-Maury Island.

 
click here  



Voice of Vashon  

Voice of Vashon is our community radio station. Broadcasting on the internet most of the time, VoV will swith to a live radio broadcast in times of emergency.

 
click here  



Vashon Beachcomber  

Vashon's weekly newspaper.

 
Click here to visit the site  



Vashon Pages and News  

Vashon Pages and Vashon News provide links, information and news items of interest to Islanders.

 
Click for Vashon Pages  
Click for Vashon News  



Washington State Emergency Resources  

A site for lists of state and other government emergency services

 
click here  



King County Emergency Management  

King County's comprehensive Emergency Mangement Site

 
click here  



FEMA Washington State Resources  

FEMA, the Federal Emergency Management Agency, maintains a page of resource contacts for Washington State, as well as a number of other useful links.

 
click here  



American Red Cross  

The American Red Cross provides emergency aid all over the world, including, if necessary, here on Vashon and Maury Islands.

 
click here  



U.S. Geological Survey  

Welcome to the USGS ý Your source for science you can use As an unbiased science organization, the USGS is dedicated to the timely, relevant, and impartial study of the landscape, our natural resources, and the natural hazards that threaten us.

 
click here  



Earth and Space Sciences at the University of Washington  

UW's site for Geophysical studies, including the study of Earthquakes.

 
click here