Register no later than April 17 for the April 19th first Emergency Preparedness conference at South Whidbey High School from 9 AM to 4 PM. Visit this South Whidbey Fire and EMS webpage to sign up.
Terra Anderson, project manager for the South Whidbey Resilience and Emergency Preparedness Conference, said as of April 4, 300 residents have already registered. The conference promotes getting to know neighbors, assessing our skills, and learning how to help one another in an emergency. She’s noticed unprecedented interest from the community for this event.
“This thing is coming together, and…the time is right,” Terra said. There is a groundswell of interest I’ve never experienced in my time here. We have 300 people registered. Two hundred are coming because a friend told them. When friends tell friends, that tells me that it matters to the residents.”
One of the conference’s guest speakers, Scott James—scheduled to speak in the morning—has earned national renown as a game changing social entrepreneur. His 2017 book “Prepared Neighborhoods: Creating Resilience One Street at a Time,” was a wake up call for communities. His nonprofit, according to his website, “Bainbridge Prepares, was recently awarded the Volunteer Organization of the Year by the International Association of Emergency Managers and cited as an ideal model to be replicated. FEMA brought James to their national training symposium to present his book.”
The City of Bainbridge’s webpage “Prepare in a Year 2025” suggests a monthly plan to get our households ready for an earthquake or other natural disaster. For instance, in January it is recommended storing a gallon of water a day per person/pet for a month’s supply, know where our water turn-off valve off is located, and have at the ready water treatment tools and supplies such as portable water filters, and adding 6-8 drops of plain household bleach to a gallon of water for purification.
Fired up by James’ talk last year South Whidbey Fire/EMS Chief Nick Walsh and the district’s commissioners planned a public open house to empower and ignite the community into taking action. The emphasis is on creating neighborhood teams to support fire responders, EMTs, Red Cross and Island County emergency personnel whose resources could be stretched in a major incident.
Eric Brooks, deputy director of Island County’s Department of Emergency Management, is a scheduled speaker addressing the county’s coordination of various agencies in event of power outages, floods, fires or earthquakes, as well as his vision for implementing formation of teams and cross-county learning and response. Visit DEM’s webpage which contains a link, “Map Your Neighborhood,” an award-winning FEMA-endorsed tool to help prepare for disasters. The program is active in 22 states.
“The Map Your Neighborhood program guides you and your neighbors through simple steps to help enhance your preparedness for an emergency. These steps will help you to quickly and safely take actions that can minimize damage and protect lives. It is designed to improve disaster readiness at the neighborhood level and teaches neighbors to rely on each other during the hours or days before fire, medical, police or utility responders arrive,” the website notes.
In addition to talks by Scott James, Nick Walsh and emergency response volunteer amateur radio operators, Red Cross, Whidbey Environmental Action Network, Whidbey Climate Action, and other partners will set up information booths. Author Christina Baldwin—nationally recognized as a pioneer teacher and author in journal writing and memoir—will talk about “social relationships of neighborhood resilience.”
Afterwards, the public is invited to “Energize the Hall,” a Fundraiser and Celebration at the Clinton Community Hall.
For more information, contact South Whidbey Fire/EMS at this webpage.