Get prepared: Neighborhood

How ready is your neighborhood? Terra

This gives champions and interested readers and chance to test how ready they and the folks around them are. 

Terra note: I have two ideas for this section. One is a series of questions to get householders and neighbors thinking about all they don’t know they don’t know. I also have an assessment adapted from Camano Island where someone gives themselves points for how much they have done to get prepared. 150 possible points. Less than is a uh-oh, better get started; 100+ is congratulations. The assessment is a word document we could attach.

Here are some questions to start the discussion with neighbors. They are intended to help you, your friends and neighbors think about how prepared you are for the unimaginable.

• What disasters do you imagine our island might encounter? 

• If our ferries were halted, the bridge down and some roads impassable, how long could your family survive without outside emergency help and supplies?

• If you had family/friends visiting, could you care for them as well?

• How extensively could your home be damaged?  

• How many could be injured?

• If there were massive power outages and cell towers went down how would your ability to take care of yourself and your family be impacted? How would you let people outside the disaster area know you were ok?

• If you were stranded off island, who would ensure the well-being of your children, an elder who depends upon you, your pets, your farm animals?

• In another pandemic (like the Corona virus in 2020) do you have enough supplies on hand to limit your exposure to others?

• When is it best to shelter in place and when do you evacuate? Where would you evacuate to? The roads can’t hold 10,000 cars

• Do you and your family members know where to meet if you are separated at the time of a disaster?

• How do your answers change when you think about the collective capacity of your entire neighborhood to survive a disaster together?

• What is your neighborhood plan for discovering who is ok, who needs help?

• What are your neighborhood resources - who has what skills, equipment, and tools? Who can attend the injured?

• Which of your neighbors might need assistance with supplies or with meals during extended periods of isolation?

• Where is a safe place within the neighborhood to take injured or vulnerable individuals until outside help can arrive?

 If you are like most of us, you probably discovered you are really not very prepared. Don’t despair. We know how to proceed. Look at the resources page for ideas what provision you need and ideas how to store them. Start a neighborhood campaign because getting prepared in community increases your resilience. Become a neighborhood champion. And join South Whidbey Prepares. When even just half of our 15,000 residents are prepared, we can weather any disaster. Terra note: I think this closing paragraph is full of hyper-links to other places on our site