Emergency Management Starts with You

Emergency Management Starts with You Published on Wed, June 16, 2010 by Robert Spinks, Sequim (WA) Police Chief http://www.sequimgazette.com/spinks Every week we see natural and manmade disasters occurring around the world. Many readers will remember the Cold War years of practicing Duck-an-Cover when we all hid under our school desks to the threat of a nuclear attack or practiced earthquake drills.

The days when Civil Defense Shelters dotted almost every city and were stocked with government provided emergency rations, sanitary kits, first aid supplies and Geiger counters have long since passed.

Emergency management today requires individual preparedness.

There are no stockpiles of government provided food, medical supplies, gasoline or anything else waiting for us on the Olympic Peninsula when a disaster does strike.

As we have seen several times over recent years, the federal response to a disaster that many people believe will be swift, takes days if not weeks to ramp up. That leaves local citizens and already stretched thin emergency responders holding the bag in the short-term.

Recently, Sheriff Bill Benedict of Clallam County took over the operation of the County’s Emergency Management Program.

He and other emergency responders felt that this would make the program more effective and integrated with other critical programs such as Search and Rescue, not to mention the natural tie-in with law enforcement that has to occur in any major disaster.

Clallam County Undersheriff Ron Peregine heads up the day-to-day oversight of the County’s Emergency Management Program (www.clallam.net/emergencymgmt/index.asp).

Peregine is one of the first to tell you to stock away more than just the standard 3-days of food, water, candles, and a radio with fresh batteries, and medicine that is recommended nationally as a bare minimum.

Why stock up with supplies for more than 3-days?

In a significant earthquake, volcano eruption or tsunami, the major population centers will receive the first attention for help, not the sparsely populated rural fringe of the Olympic Peninsula. It is well known to local emergency responders that a week or more may pass

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before assistance starts to trickle into the Olympic Peninsula.

I have often been told that the Olympic Peninsula has roughly 3 days of food and gasoline on hand at any time in our stores. All of those resources have to be trucked across the Hood Canal Bridge daily. If the bridge is out, then those trucks would have to lumber up Hwy 101. If the weather is bad or the road is blocked, then those supplies won’t be coming. Air or sea resupply in a major disaster is not feasible on any large scale.

A recent visit to the Federal Emergency Management Administration (FEMA) website (www.fema.gov) showed current disaster operations being conducted in over 33 states!

Not an unusual week in the life of our own country.

Local Resources Exist!

Local resources are available if we all take advantage of planning and preparing today for our own safety.

Map Your Neighborhood is a 90 minute class organizing neighbors to respond in the first hour of a disaster. Courses are taught in your neighborhood with the trainer and materials supplied by the County Emergency Management Office. Since this program was launched in Clallam County in June of 2007, more than 700 citizens have been trained. To learn more about these classes contact the Clallam County Emergency Management Program at 360- 417.2525 or visit their website: http://www.clallam.net/emergencymgmt/html/ map_your_neighborhood.htm.

The American Red Cross of the Olympic Peninsula has offices located in Carlsborg.

The Chapter provides traditional training in First Aid and CPR as well as other emergency skills. Disaster preparedness materials can be downloaded directly from their website at: www.peninsularedcross.org.

Program. This group of volunteers meets on the first Tuesday of every month at 7pm in the County Emergency Operations Center (EOC) located in the basement of the Clallam County Court House. To learn more about how you can participate, the CCARES web site is: http://www.olyham.com/html/ccares.html#CCA RES Information and news are the first critical needs that fail in any significant disaster.

When a community is uninformed during a major event, the 9-1-1 phone lines are quickly overstressed slowing emergency operations.

Two years ago Sequim had no local community radio station that could immediately alert citizens and provide in community news. Today, Sequim is home to its own non-profit community radio station.

KSQM 91.5 FM broadcasts around the clock throughout the Sequim-Dungeness Valley.

During any emergency KSQM has a critical partnership with police, fire and medical first responders, as well with the Clallam County Emergency Management Department.

Jeff Bankston, News Director for KSQM equates the non-profit station to being a local lightening rod or a hub for information sharing with the community during an unusual occurrence or disaster.

“KSQM staffs the radio station with volunteers who are immediately available to the community,” according to Bankston, “over 50 volunteers can be called upon in emergencies from the minor to a major disaster with the station equipped with emergency power to operate for days.”

To learn more about KSQM visit their web site at www.ksqmfm.com.

The Clallam County Amateur Radio Emergency Service (CCARES) is the umbrella group that links amateur radio operators with the County’s Emergency Management Page 2 of 2