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2011

Events

NOTE This page is in reverse chronological order (blog format!)…newest items are at the top. Older items, especially those near the end of the page, may be obsolete.

August – December 2011

See our blog for information about our activities that occurred after July 2011. [If time permits, we will go back and tag items so that they can be searched for by year…but until then, you’ll need to scroll through the site.]

 

July 2011

  • Get a grant for emergency preparedness: The City of Seattle recently announced that the next cycle of Small and Simple grants will focus on emergency preparedness! We’ve posted the details on our ‘blog.
  • West Seattle Summer Fest: We had an informational table on Saturday, July 9th. We also attended the “What If?” Expo that same day. We’ve posted a couple of photos taken that day. Thanks to those of you who stopped by and talked with us!

June 2011

  • City of Seattle Emergency Preparedness Initiative: This kicked off on June 13th with a City Council briefing by Barb Graff, Director of the Seattle Office of Emergency Management. We’ve posted details including video of the briefing on our blog.
  • Outreach events: The summer festival season has officially kicked off. This month, we’ll have a booth at the Morgan Junction Community Festival on June 25th and at the Mayor’s SW Town Hall event on June 23rd. Visit our blog for details about other events we’ll be attending!
  • Updated Hub Map! We’re in the process of updating all of our maps on this site to include two new hubs, one in Delridge and one in High Point. Meanwhile, until we roll them out, here’s a printable flyer with the new map and the hub      addresses.

May 2011

  • Free SNAP training in West Seattle: The next SNAP emergency preparedness training in West Seattle will be June 7th, 6:30 – 7:45 PM, at the High Point Library. You can find additional details, as well as other classes and event information at http://www.seattle.gov/emergency/events/. Everyone is welcome!
  • Outreach events: We have a busy weekend! Today, Saturday, May 21st, we’ll be at the WestWood Village Street Fair. On Sunday, the 22nd, we’ll be at the Alki Summer Streets festival. We have a great assortment of preparedness materials and information – including fun stuff such as coloring book pages for kids and emergency whistles (until supplies run out). We’re happy to answer any questions you have about the Emergency Communication Hubs or getting prepared. We’ll be there from 11 AM to 5 PM, both days. Hope you’ll stop by!
  • Training & Education series: Stay tuned for details about the next event in this series, coming up in June! Our most recent Training & Eructation series event was on Monday, May 16th, 6-8 PM, at the West Seattle Senior Center. We screened the documentary film, “Cascadia: the Hidden Fire“; discussion followed with special guests Chris Jonientz-Trisler (who is featured in the film) and Mark Howard from the Seattle Office of Emergency Management. Thanks to those of you who attended and participated!
  • Communications Drill coverage: We’ve posted photos and have linked to West Seattle Blog’s coverage of the May 7th citywide communications drill/field exercise. This drill marked the debut of a new emergency communications hub in the North Delridge neighborhood!
  • New Hub! The North Delridge hub is so new, it isn’t even on our maps yet! We’ll be adding it soon though; meanwhile, make a note that it is located at the Delridge P-Patch – the street address is 5078 25th Ave SW. An additional new hub is not far behind; stay tuned!
  • Check our April notes below for info about two other May events: SNAP training on May 5th and our field exercise on May 7th!

April 2011

  • Our group will be participating in a field exercise on May 7th; it’s an opportunity to test our radio communications      with members of the Seattle Office of Emergency Management and Seattle ACS. Here’s a description of the drill; our last such exercise was on February 12th.
  • We’ve added an Earthquake Preparedness page to our blog. It includes both old and new resources; our purpose is to centralize and highlight this information.
  • Since it’s emergency preparedness month, we’ve posed a few preparedness-related questions. Do you know the answers?
  • Mark your calendars for the next event in our Training & Education series; it will be on May 16th —  details to be announced shortly!
  • We’ve learned of another West Seattle SNAP training at 6:30 PM on Thursday, May 5th. It will be at Delridge’s Youngstown Cultural Arts Center/Cooper Artist Housing, 4408 Delridge Way SW. JoAnn Jordan of Seattle’s Office of Emergency Management will give the presentation. For more info, contact Scott Squire at 206.935.4802.
  • Keep      checking our new ‘blog and our West Seattle Be Prepared Facebook group page for the latest in ongoing West Seattle emergency preparedness info, announcements and events!
  • Multiple      emergency preparedness events are scheduled for April 20th. At 9:45 AM, there is a state-wide Drop, Cover and Hold drill. Be sure to practice this – even after April 20th – until it becomes second nature; you will want to be able to do it effectively and quickly during a real earthquake.  Mid-day at the Central Library, you can attend a SNAP Training session that is focused on how to respond if you are downtown during an earthquake. Lastly, there is a special event at the Seattle Office of Emergency Management; the powerful documentary film, “A Village Called Versailles” will be shown.      Details are in this April 2011 Monthly Connection newsletter.
  • If you missed the training session on April 18th, you can find video coverage from the West Seattle Blog, as well as an article by the West Seattle Herald.
  • Great preparedness training opportunity on Monday, April 18th! West Seattle Be Prepared and the West Seattle Blockwatch Captains’ Network are co-sponsoring SNAP neighborhood emergency preparedness training with Office of Emergency Management trainer, Debbie Goetz.
  • Info from the April 9th Community Preparedness Summit is now posted, as well as coverage of the April 7th Red Cross presentations. As well, we continue to link to the West Seattle Blog’s Earthquake Preparedness Series that is running this month.
  • The Office of Emergency Managements April 2011 Monthly Connection newsletter is now published. Don’t miss it! It      includes preparedness tips, upcoming events, and first-person insights from Japan.
  • Mark your calendars for another event! On April 16-17th, South Seattle Community College will host the 2011 Amateur Radio Communications Academy; this is annual training for new and experienced amateur radio operators. For more information or to register, go to: http://www.commacademy.org/. Visit our Other Communication Sources page for more about HAM radio groups and activities.
  • April is a big month for preparedness training and events. We’ve just updated our new ‘blog with detailed information about the training sessions we have scheduled; these include the Red Cross training on April 7th, the Community Preparedness Summit on April 9th, and SNAP neighborhood preparedness training on April 18th.
  • West Seattle Blog has kicked off an Earthquake Preparedness Series that will run nightly throughout this month. We are      linking all of their reports from our Facebook page.

March 2011

  • As we wrap up the month of March, and look ahead to Emergency Preparedness Month, we have a new item to tell you about. We’ve just rolled out a new Events Calendar on our ‘blog – check it out and let us know what you think! It’s a      work-in-progress that we envision will be useful, especially during the busier months. Individual items are not yet hot-linked, but we hope to have that functionality in the near future.
  • There are several new and interesting postings on our West Seattle Be Prepared Facebook page. Of particular interest is an      article about the role that amateur radio operators played post-earthquake      communications in Haiti from Emergency Management magazine.
  • Speaking of training…on April 18th,      West Seattle Be Prepared is combining efforts with the West Seattle Blockwatch Captains’      Network on a West Seattle      preparedness training session. Debbie Goetz from the Office of Emergency      Management will be the trainer. It will be held from 6 to 7:30 PM at the      SW Police Precinct (2300 SW Webster St., next to the Home Depot store).      We’ll post more details shortly; meanwhile, save the date!
  • Registration is open for the Office of Emergency      Management’s spring classes! You’ll find their event calendar here, as well as on our Training & Education page. We especially recommend the Disaster First Aid      (offered on 4/9/11) and the Search & Rescue (on 4/2/11) training! The      Earthquake Retrofit course (on 4/16/11) is also extremely informative.
  • More news! We’ve created a new West      Seattle Be Prepared ‘blog and have set up a Twitter account. You can find      the ‘blog at http://westseattlebeprepared.wordpress.com and you can tweet us @wsbeprepared. Our display name on Twitter is      “westseattlebprepared”, missing an “e” because of      character limitations. We plan to better integrate our ‘blog, Twitter      account and our Facebook page with this website very soon!
  • Here’s the official announcement flyer and a few more details about our      upcoming Education & Training Series. It kicks off on April 7th with a      presentation and free training by members of the Red Cross.
  • Did you miss the presentation that      Cindi Barker from West Seattle Be Prepared and Debbie Goetz from the      Office of Emergency Management gave on March 14th to the North Delridge      Neighborhood Council? If so, or if you wished for a Replay button, here’s West Seattle Blog’s video of the      presentation.
  • Our preparedness counterparts in the Wallingford neighborhood have invited us      (and YOU) to a Potluck Breakfast on Saturday, March 19th. It is from 9 AM      to noon at the Wallingford Community Senior Center. Debbie Goetz from the      Office of Emergency Management will be the guest speaker. Additional      details are on our West Seattle Be Prepared Facebook page.
  • A reminder that the CERT training we      mentioned earlier this month starts tomorrow, March 17th! Registration      links are included below.
  • We’ve continued to add some of the more      noteworthy links of the disaster in Japan to our West Seattle Be Prepared Facebook page. We      especially found this interactive before/after satellite imagery to be informative and chilling. This local round-up of disaster-related      information and resources from      KING5 is also very useful; in the interest of full disclosure, it includes  a link to the interview, “Staying Connected When an Earthquake Hits” they recently did with our group.
  • Mark your calendars! Our educational series launches on Thursday, April 7th. As well, on Saturday, April 9th, we will be participating in another preparedness Summit (similar to the ones held last November and last April). More details to come about both events; meanwhile, save the dates as we hope to see you there!
  • The March 2011 Monthly Connection, SNAP spring OEM newsletter has now been published. You’ll find it included on our Training & Education page, as well as on this page. Note that spring classes are starting very soon!
  • Although we don’t cover breaking news realtime, we want to acknowledge the huge earthquake and tsunami in Japan tonight (March 11th); we added links to some of the early media coverage and streaming video on our West Seattle Be Prepared Facebook page.
  • Want to learn more about West Seattle emergency preparedness? Come to the Delridge Branch Library on March 14th at 6:30 PM! Cindi Barker from our group, West Seattle Be Prepared and Debbie Goetz from the Office of Emergency Management will be guest speakers at the North Delridge Neighborhood Council meeting.
  • The switch to Daylight Saving Time on Sunday, March 13th is a good time to make sure you are prepared for emergencies! Put fresh batteries in your smoke alarms, Carbon Monoxide detectors and flashlights. Replace the water and perishable items in your emergency kits. The Resources section of our site includes some great information about what to include in your kits!
  • Several members of our group attended the Emergency Management magazine’s “All Hazards/All Stakeholders Summit” at Olive 8 on March 3rd. Some of the slide presentations are now posted; it was a very informative and well-organized event.
  • Interested in CERT training? Spring 2011 classes start on March 17th; registration details are linked from our West Seattle Be Prepared Facebook page and on our Training & Education page.
  • We are planning a spring-summer educational      series! Stay tuned for more details. If you have suggestions for topics or      presenters, we’d love to hear from you.

February 2011

  • The story about our group on KING 5, Nisqually: 10 Years Later,  “Staying Connected When an Earthquake Hits” has now been posted!
  • Monday, February 28th marks the 10-year anniversary of the Nisqually earthquake. Watch for our group on the KING5 TV local news that day! Reporter Meg Coyle recently interviewed us.
  • The drill on February 12th went well. We’ll try to post some photos and details in the coming weeks.
  • Our group, West Seattle Be Prepared, will participate in an Emergency Communication Hubs drill on February 12th. We are one of several neighborhoods involved. The purpose is to practice radio communications with the Office of Emergency Management, identify improvements to our process and to test capacity. If you are interested in being involved in future drills, please get in touch!
  • The Seattle Office of Emergency Management has just released its February edition of the SNAP Monthly Connection      newsletter. It includes lots of useful information! Note that you’ll find a permanent link to all of the Office of Emergency Management newsletters at the top of our Training & Education page.
  • The Office of Emergency Management’s 2011 Events Calendar (also linked from our Training & Education page) has      been updated with the schedule of SNAP classes. Looks like there are two sessions in West Seattle, June 7th and November 3rd. Note that they will provide additional sessions as needed for groups of 20 or more.

 

January 2011

  • Added a new page for 2011 Events & Activities. So far, it’s pretty sparse; we hope to add more events to it soon!
  • A new link to a video game for kids, “The Day the Earth Shook”, has been added to our site! You’ll find it on the page of Individual Household Resources, along with other great resources for kids.  Thanks to Dave from our Highland Park Hub for sending it our way!
  • We’ve also linked in the January 2011 and December 2010 editions of the SNAP Monthly Connection newsletter; you’ll find it on our Training & Education page.
  • Happy New Year! We have some interesting and  exciting things planned for this year, including a speaker/lecture series. More details to come later…