Dana Armstrong
On the news, we’re used to seeing the U.S. emergency agency FEMA on site in a disaster, stacking sandbags and handing out food and water to affected folks. But what if those resources are unavailable—or if, as might happen during our long-expected “big one”—our neighborhood is inaccessible?
Madison Street is the easiest way in and out of our neighborhood, but when it’s blocked, as you might have noticed during some of our icier days, our neighborhood basically shuts down. During an earthquake, emergency responders are unlikely to reach us right away.
We Madison Park Hub volunteers always assume the worst: that during a significant event, help from the government (even local government) is not coming quickly. Shortly after a disaster, if regular communications are disabled, we’ll set up our Hub — a community meeting place at the Madison Park tennis courts — to help our neighbors share skills and resources until help comes.
But where will the Hub’s skills and resources come from? They’ll need to come from us!
As highly interdependent people in a small but dense community, we should think about ways we can “prepare to prepare” before, during, and after a disaster. This article contains a few tips and suggestions, but I encourage you to think of other ways you might be able to help others before the “real” help arrives.
Before a Disaster: prepare yourself, your home, and your family
The Seattle Office of Emergency Management (OEM) website includes essential easy-to-digest information for preparing for a disaster and is well worth a visit: www.seattle.gov/emergency-management/prepare
Assembling an emergency kit — or at minimum storing some safe, drinkable water—is one of the easiest things you can do to prepare for the worst situations, and put yourself in a better position to help others. Per OEM’s “Prepare Yourself” page, a home preparedness kit should include items in these five basic categories:
• Water
• Food
• Light Source
• Warm & Dry Clothes
• First Aid Kit
The OEM’s website also includes tips on how to shut off gas, water, and electricity (if needed), how to earthquake-proof your home, and much more. Be sure to check out its handy “Disaster Plan Template,” which you can print and fill out with key phone numbers, medical information, and other key details, like the locations of your closest fire station and police station—ideally to keep in your emergency kit for all of your family members to access.
Finally, note that Washington state has its own version of FEMA: our state’s Emergency Management Division, which is military-run, based in Tacoma, and designed to coordinate state emergency response with other agencies. You’ll find several useful preparedness resources, including videos, on its web page: mil.wa.gov/preparedness
During a Disaster: help others
Serious earthquakes cause serious injuries, and responders might not be able to get to you to help. Consider learning vital life-saving skills to help yourself, your family, and your neighbors.
Stop the Bleed
Someone who is severely bleeding can bleed to death “in as little as five minutes,” per the Stop the Bleed organization (part of the American College of Surgeons), which provides free one-hour classes on bleeding control. Stop the Bleed classes are available throughout the city, with several offered not far from Madison Park in the next few months (March 13 at Montlake Community Center; April 12 at Garfield Community Center; May 13 at Miller Community Center); visit the OEM event calendar page to sign up: seattle.gov/emergency-management/about-us/event-calendar
Stop the Bleed also has a short online training, if you have just thirty minutes to spare: www.stopthebleed.org/training/online-course/
First Aid and CPR
The American Red Cross offers inexpensive first aid and CPR classes both online and in-person. This year, I’m planning to take the Red Cross’ “Until Help Arrives” online class as well as its CPR class series (the first class is online, and then I’ll likely follow up with an in-person training to practice on their famous “dummies”). The Red Cross also offers more extensive first aid classes, including first aid for young children and pets. Visit www.redcross.org/local/washington/take-a-class to see what local and online classes are available.
After an Emergency: Find resources
FEMA is tasked with helping people recover from disasters. But what similar resources do we have locally? I wanted to share a less-well-known one: Washington 211
Washington 211 is a free service that helps state residents connect with local services, including “utility assistance, food, housing, health, child care, after school programs, elder care, crisis intervention and more.” To access it, call 211 on your phone or text 211WAOD to 898211.
But did you know WA 211 is also “a reliable resource during times of crisis or disaster”? According to the WA 211 website (wa211.org), it provides an easy-to-remember number to contact for “disaster-related resources, rumor control, and public health advisories.”
Specifically, per the website, WA 211 helps provide:
• Non-Emergency Information: Provides updates on disaster status, evacuation routes, road closures, and shelter locations.
• Community Coordination: Manages community donations and offers information on area reoccupations.
• Alleviating 911 Overload: Reduces the load on 911 systems by handling non-emergency calls, which can surge above the typical 15-20% of all calls during disasters.
• Disaster Recovery: Offers information and referrals to long-term assistance organizations and FEMA assistance.
• Washington Emergency Management Plan: Acts as a central contact point for emergency responders, volunteers, and donors during wildfires, landslides, severe weather, public health advisories, and man-made catastrophes.
After an emergency, you can also visit Seattle.gov for the latest news and resources (I recommend you sign up for Alert Seattle text alerts, found at the bottom of the main page).
Naturally, after an emergency where communications are affected, I encourage you to visit your neighborhood Hub near the Madison Park tennis courts to get or give help. Visit our web page at bit.ly/mphubsite for our latest news (and some useful resources).
As always, this column is part of Madison Park Emergency Hub’s outreach effort. We’re an all-volunteer org focused on neighbors helping each other after a disaster. We always need volunteers and ideas for new ways to prepare, and there are many roles to choose from. If you’d like to get involved with neighbors who want to help neighbors, it’s a light lift AND a lot of fun. Contact us at madparkhub@gmail.com with questions or to get on our mailing list. (And if you don’t want to type in all these links, please mail us for a link-filled PDF of this article!).