What's New - West Seattle Be Prepared

September 2010

Mark your calendars for our group's next outreach event! We'll be at Alki Family Fun Days on Sunday, September 12th, 2010 - Noon to 7:30 PM at the Statue of Liberty Plaza on Alki Beach. Stop by our table to say hi and to pick up free maps of the emergency communication hubs and other useful materials.

August 2010

Interested in role-playing the part of a disaster victim? If so, the NW Citizen Corp Expo on Saturday, August 28th, can use you! Here is a flyer with more details. It's a great way to have fun, as well as help disaster responders practice their skills.
We enjoyed talking with some of you at the SW Precinct Picnic on August 21st; thanks for dropping by! We had a great time at the booth we shared with the West Seattle Blockwatch Captains' Network. It was great to see the SPD officers from the SW precinct and so many other West Seattle community groups. You'll find event coverage on the West Seattle Blog.
If you missed seeing us at our recent summer outreach events, you can pick up free Emergency Communication Hubs postcards at either of the Neighborhood Service Centers. These include a map of the hub locations; keep a copy in your emergency kit, on your frig or in your vehicles!
The Office of Emergency Management will be announcing their SNAP Skills Training fall 2010 schedule of classes the week of August 23rd. We've linked their flyer to our West Seattle Be Prepared Facebook page. If you aren't a Facebook member, here's a link to it that doesn't require Facebook membership. We've also posted the July-August SNAP newsletter on our Training & Education page; it includes a list of fall events.
Night Out against Crime was on August 3rd! Hope you had an opportunity to talk to your neighbors about preparedness at the neighborhood level. See our Neighborhood Planning page for more info about ways that neighborhoods can help each other get prepared!

June - July 2010

We had a great time at the West Seattle Summer Festival July 9th-11th! Thanks to those of you who stopped by our table to say hi.
Interested in local ham radio? We've added a new link to the West Seattle Amateur Radio Club from our Other Communication Sources page in our Resources section.
We enjoyed meeting some of you at the Junction Health Fair on June 13th! Here's West Seattle Blog's coverage of the event, including a picture of our booth.
Thanks to those of you who stopped to see us at the Morgan Junction Community Festival (MoCA) on June 12th. West Seattle Blog's coverage of the festival includes a photo our booth.
We had a great time at the reFRESH Festival on June 5th; we were glad that a lot of people stopped by our table! Check out the extensive coverage and photos of the event.
KUOW radio recently broadcast a special series about earthquakes,"On Shaky Ground"; it is now linked from their website. We've also posted a link on our Facebook group page.
Our West Seattle group provided an update to the Seattle City Council "Regional Development & Sustainability Committee" on June 4th. Ours is one of three neighborhoods leading the way on establishing emergency communication hubs. We've linked to video of the presentation; click the 6th link, "Emergency Management"; the session regarding the emergency communication hubs is approximately 30 minutes long.
Our Facebook group, West Seattle Be Prepared, now has 285+ members. We hope you will join, if you haven't already! We frequently post new articles, announcements and other information there.

May 2010

We've added some upcoming events to our calendar! We'll have a booth at the upcoming reFRESH Festival (combining Sustainable West Seattle and Delridge Day) on June 5th. We'll also be at the 5th Annual Morgan Junction Festival on June 12th (downloadable poster here) and we plan to attend the Junction Health Fair on June 13th.
We've posted a few photos taken during the citywide emergency communications "Rattle in Seattle" drill on May 22nd; they are our West Seattle Be Prepared Facebook group page. Those of us from the West Seattle Emergency Communication Hubs participated in the drill from our Alaska Junction Hub at Ercolini Park (hub #3). The drill included HAM radio operators, staff from area hospitals and the Office of Emergency Management, and volunteers from other neighborhood hubs. From our location, we could hear particpants from Magnolia and Queen Anne. West Seattle Blog has coverage of our participation as well as the official news release describing the event.
We've linked to the May 2010 edition of SNAP's "Monthly Connection" newsletter; it includes details about a citywide drill on May 22.
We noticed that on May 22 there is also an 'Earthquake Retrofitting for Contractors' class in Shoreline (seldom offered); you'll find a link to it from our Training & Education page.

April 2010 – Disaster Preparedness Month!

Lots of interesting things have been happening this month! West Seattle Blog has been running a nightly series on emergency preparedness. We are linking to these from our Facebook group page, and you can also find them all archived here!
We've added new links throughout our site, especially on our Official Planning Resources, Training & Education, and the Additional Information pages. We recently learned of several great resources, including the Red Cross' Safe and Well database. We also found and some fun and challenging emergency preparedness quizzes!
On April 24, several members of our group participated in a training exercise with ACS ham operators and Office of Emergency Management (OEM) staff. This exercise is in preparation for the citywide drill on May 22 mentioned above.
Posted a new activity report for our group; you'll find it on the 2010 Events & Activities page.
We helped plan and attended the citywide Community Preparedness Summit on April 17th.
On April 13th, we gave a presentation to the Admiral Neighborhood Association.
On April 14th, we attended a Parks Department meeting and updated them about our efforts.
Members of our team attended the 12th Annual Communications Academy on April 10-11th.
We have several new members coming on board this month. Stay tuned for more details.
We created signs (see below) for the emergency communication hubs! Look for these at upcoming events that we attend. You will also see these in the event of a disaster; keep in mind that it could be necessary to relocate a hub due to unforeseen circumstances, so recognizing our signs could be important.

Note that items from ths page eventually get removed from here and archived in our Learn More section; there you'll find more information about our previous activities and other West Seattle-specific events and news.