Please register and participate in The Great Oregon Shake Out, October 20th, at 10:20am.

There is a wealth of information contained in this website, which shows how to prepare your family, friends, neighbors, and co-workers, to better prepare for, and survive an earthquake.

Click the link above, or go to: www.shakeout.org/oregon

This is an excellent source of information published by the American Red Cross – Cascades Region.  Download this guide using the link below.

The following is the introduction from this guide:

red-cross-prepare-resourse-guide

DOWNLOAD THESE FREE RED CROSS APPS!

The American Red Cross has a series of free mobile apps.  These apps are available for both iPhone and Android users and contain a wealth of information about what to do before, during, and after a disaster.  All the apps contain an “I’m safe” feature, and locations to the nearest shelter or hospital.

These easy-to-use and informative apps can be life savers in times of emergency.  Download them and review the tools and information ahead of emergencies, so you will know where to find the information you need.

You can find and install these in the App Store on your phone.

Here is a list of the individual apps available:

The 3rd in our series of community education classes was held on September 13th at Hope Fellowship Church.  The focus was on local Wildfires, prevention and preparedness.

Guest speaker Stephan Myers from TVF&R talked about their 2 year contract to cover servicing Newberg & surrounding area.  This allows all our residence of South Parrett Mountain to be covered by Tualatin Valley Fire & Rescue.

Lt. Nick Zarfas of Wilsonville fire station #52, covered several topics including the importance in having metal reflective address signs so that the fire & police can find your home when a 911 call is dispatched.  Information on how to order signs has been placed on our “Resource” page on our website.  For those that have entry gates, it was strongly suggested to put a Knox box by your gate which the fire department has a master key to gain access.  This allows them to open your gate without damage to your property.  Every second counts whether it’s a medical emergency or a fire, gates without this access & lack of visible address will slow down response time.  Call TVF&R to discuss your current security gate arrangements at 503-649-8577.

Further discussions and hand-outs were presented by TVF&R to cover important steps you can make to help protect your property from fires & create a defensible space.

Greg Heath, owner of Universal Fire Equipment in Tualatin, provided an overview on home fire extinguishers and how to use them by remembering PASS (Pull the pin, Aim, Squeeze, Sweep).  Businesses need to have their extinguishers inspected yearly.  There are no rules for residential equipment.  His company sells a wide variety of extinguishers for both commercial & residential use, services and inspects equipment and is a source to recycle old or used tanks.   If your fire extinguisher is 1984 or older, it is considered obsolete, and should be considered for replacement.  Universal Fire Extinguisher can recycle your old unit for a nominal fee.  You will find their contact information on our “Resource” page on our website.

Kevin Zak was our final guest speaker, a volunteer on the disaster team of the American Red Cross Cascade Region.  He brought several hand-outs including Prepare! A Resource Guide.  Kevin gave an overview of the many different type of disasters that could effect our area and said that house fires were the number one occurrence with 2 calls per week where the Red Cross is called upon to help families out in Oregon/SW Washington.  Kevin stressed making your home plan, create your emergency supply kit, get your whole family involved and be prepared for specific disasters.

The American Red Cross Cascade Region is offering a free smoke alarm installation to everyone.  Call them at 503-528-5783 to schedule.  They also are offering 10% off emergency preparedness items and first aid kits by going to www.redcrossstore.org and using coupon code: ORHY010617

Apps: TVF&R suggested a free app called Pulse. If you are current in CPR training, you can register & be notified of a 911 call within a 1/4 mile of you.  You may be the closest person to provide CPR assistance while first responders are on their way to the scene.

American Red Cross has several useful apps you can download, for more information:
http://www.redcross.org/get-help/prepare-for-emergencies/mobile-apps

New 911 texting service.  Call first, but you can now text if you need to.  Great option if you have limited cell coverage or are hearing or speech impaired.

Thank you to all the volunteers and guest speakers who help bring this informative evenings to our community.

Linda Edwards
LHNA’s South Parrett Mountains Emergency Plan
www.spm-ep.org

REFLECTIVE METAL ADDRESS SIGNS – These signs help first responders locate properties in the event of an emergency.

We would like to encourage everyone that does not have some sort of an easy to read address sign on the main road, to follow the information below, and consider ordering one.

“The Tualatin Valley Firefighter’s Union has been providing residential address signs to citizens in our response area for the past several years.  These signs help first responders locate properties in the event of an emergency.  Our signs are custom made with your address number and come with a supporting post and all necessary installation hardware.  We will build and deliver your sign to the nearest fire station.  The crews on duty will contact you via telephone and you can pick them up at the station or they can occasionally deliver if time allows.  Customer pick up at the station is preferred, as crews have unpredictable schedules with emergency response, etc.  The homeowner will be responsible for final construction and actually pounding the support post into the ground, a very simple process.  Please be sure and call for utility locates if you are unsure of what is under the ground in your sign installation area.  If you would like a custom made address sign or would just like to find out more about this successful program, please contact Brad Stewart by e-mail at bradley.stewart@tvfr.com.  or by phone @ 503.697.9418.  Please provide Brad with your name, address, and phone number and he will get back to you as soon as possible.  The current cost for one of our address signs is $21 for a single sided sign or $27 for a double sided sign.  The signs are intended to be set up as a vertical post installation and we can include directional arrows if needed.”

“The State and Federal Government are not prepared for a major catastrophic emergency in the Northwest.  We will likely never be prepared, thus YOU and your Community must prepare yourselves.” – State Senator Brian Boquist

The excerpt above, and the following open letter, were sent in a recent email from Oregon Senator Brian Boquist.  Mr. Boquist is the Chairman of the Veterans & Emergency Preparedness Committees in the Oregon State Senate.

Mr. Boquist’s remarks and observations serve to underscore the importance of individuals preparing for disasters, with the knowledge that assistance from outside emergency service providers could be days or weeks away after a disaster, and the power grid could be down for weeks, or even months.

Legislative Update – Emergency Preparedness

Folks,

Annual sessions has meant quarterly Legislative Days. The law says after tomorrow, State Legislators cannot update or contact citizens via email directly from their offices until after the General Election. It is called a blackout period.

Given my September legislative days are dedicated to hearings on the State’s level of emergency preparedness, I am reaching out to all the citizens in our outreach data base to update you now given the variety or recent disasters, and our nation’s lack of preparation.

Why you might ask? Simple. The State and Federal Government are not prepared for a major catastrophic emergency in the Northwest. We will likely never be prepared thus YOU and your Community must prepare yourselves. Whether is a Cascadia earthquake, tsunami, volcano, pandemic, terrorist attack, or grid overload does not matter. In almost every single potential event, the power grid is down for weeks if not months. Besides power outage it means communications is out, your cell phone goes dead the first day, potable water stops flowing, sewage is no longer pumped, there is no power to pump fuel into any vehicles, there are no grocery stores, bridge failures in many events will ‘island’ several million Oregonians for multiple weeks if not months. Prepare for at least a month.

FYI, we have conducted drills again this past June along with increased planning. This update is a result of those drills as key ‘state and federal’ emergency management officials were clear that life and death for many Oregonians may well rest upon individual and local non-government community preparation. If you want a very good read on the possible scenarios look no further than Ted Koppel’s recent book “Lights Out: A Cyberattack, A Nation Unprepared, Surviving the Aftermath.” The book and free summaries are available online.

How do you prepare? Many people say they cannot afford to prepare for an emergency. Many people look at Red Cross and other lists then revert back to the thought ‘it is too expensive for me to be prepared.” That is the purpose of this email newsletter. If you want a detailed perfect plan you can Google the “Red Cross” or “FEMA” or a dozen webpages offering expensive solutions. Below I will outline some economic imperfect solutions you should consider since the ‘government’ will not be coming to rescue you at the beginning of any major catastrophic event.

Most of you have a large quantity of items already. Think about it. The minimum is you will need to stay dry & warm, drink water, eat food, defecate, and stay sanitary to avoid disease. Yes, there are other items like a flashlight, radio, good book, etc but chances are these already exist in your house, apartment or car.

Stay dry and warm. Even in an earthquake, portions of your residence many still be waterproof. You may already have a camping tent. If you have a tent then you likely have a sleeping bag. If not, you have bedding and blankets already. An extra blanket is $12.29 from Walmart online today. Remember you have extra cloths and blankets that can be used both for warmth, and sanitation. If you decide to leave your damaged home make sure you take items to stay warm and dry. Also remember, the neighboring down may be worse off than your’s.

Drink water. Medical professionals claim you need 9 to 15 cups of water per day. There are 16 cups in a gallon. Most people drink nowhere near even nine cups per day. On $5 Friday at Safeway it is .89 cents per gallon of bottled water. In most of the above emergencies you may have running water for a few minutes or hours or better. THINK WATER immediately after the first trauma. Fill the bathtub. Fill empty containers. Fill extra bottles, buckets or cooking pans immediately if you do not have a cache of water. It rains in Oregon. Put out a $2.97 Homer bucket from Home Depot Homer in the rain worse comes to worse.

Eat food. The biggest excuse for not preparing I hear is ‘I cannot afford any extra food.” Usually, the person telling me this excuse is standing next to their SUV with their $199, $299 or $399 iPhone in their hand. Sometimes with manicured nails or wearing a $300 hunting jacket. Many preppers buy expensive long term storage items. Oddly, some people will starve to death, in a couple weeks simply because they do not like the taste of the food. Yes, you should rotate food if at all possible. I think some of you may detest places like the Dollar Tree, Family Dollar, Dollar General, Waremart etc while many of you are regular shoppers. My walk through Dollar Tree last week was enlightening. Even on SSI there are food items that can be bought, eaten and rotated very inexpensively. Likewise, I saw 25 lbs of rice at places like Costco, Walmart, United Grocers, and Waremart for around $15.00 in the past two weeks. Add 24 bouillon cubes I saw online for $1.58 gives you a start since both items have long shelf lives. At this time a year, United Grocers (Cash & Carry) has 50 lbs of potatoes for less than ten bucks. Likewise, 50 lbs of onions is less than ten bucks too. I list onions as the British Navy, and modern Third World armies, have stayed in the field living on onions due to it’s characteristics. All for ten bucks. Chances are you already have salt and pepper in your cupboard. Worse case, a 24 pack of Cup’O’Noddles is $8.29 at Costco, or $9.95 online, plus Walmart etc. Western Family has case sales every fall. Many canned goods can be eaten straight from the can like pre-cooked corn, beans, ravioli, etc. Yes, buy healthy if you can according to doctors, but do not starve to death if you have to buy what you will eat and can afford to store.

Food & water heating. Yes, was not on the list above. Yes, you should boil unpure water if possible. Yes, at least some hot food is the best plan for a month menu. Again, cost is always raised. Amazon lists a one burner propane stove for $17.88 from Coleman. Target is $16.99. Webstaurant Store is $10.99. Fuel canisters average $3.47 for a canister or two for $6.24. Your existing pots and pans will work just fine. Walmart, Target (whom I dislike) or any sporting goods store has these items. Your BBQ might be the answer too. Also, you already have at least a few pots and pans already along with silverware most likley. If ‘expense’ is the problem buy one item a month until prepared. Again, plan for a month.

Defecate and stay sanitary. Few talk about this issue oddly. In a Cascadia event this failure will likely lead to disease and death much larger than initial casualties. In non-modern Armies, this was the leading case of death. Over 400,000 deaths in the Civil War were disease related. Tens of millions died in World War II of disease. Think about it, there will be no running water, no flush toilets, no bathing water, and how will you stay clean. You may have toilet paper but where are you going to defecate. If the sewer is still connected it may be the bucket of rain water if you have enough. Or you may need to dig a hole in the ground away from your water source then designate it the place everyone in the family uses to defecate. Use a bucket worse case. If not, disease is likely to start, which, quickly leads to deaths later. Clorox Handi Whips are $2.29 online at Jet.com. Staples has a four packs of wipes for $6.00. Likewise, a bar of soap with a wet towel can be used. Bleach is a must have on my list. Buck a gallon at Dollar Tree. Bleach can be a miracle drug in stopping disease in a disaster. In the Army, we said “if you take care of your feet, your feet will take care of you.” In a long term power outage, you will need to stay clean by washing even if by wet cloth. You will need to change clothes. In the old days, people used the same set of work clothes for many days then changed to cleaner non-work clothes at the end of the day. You at least will need to be prepared to wash under garments such as socks by hand. Let me remind you most the world population is still washing clothes by hand. Note I did not talk about brushing teeth and other routine items since you will have plenty of time to dig through the potential rubble to find the tube of Crest along with your tooth brush.

Get away bags. Emergency management professionals all recommend having a small bag in your car or office for an emergency. This bag is not a ‘live all save all’ bag in any manner. It is meant as a bag to get you ‘home’ or to safety. The place you go will depend upon where you are at the time of the event but you likely will be walking so you are not going very far fast. And most roads will be closed in any major catastrophic natural disaster. My wife has a ten dollar backpack in her car. It is simple. Walking shoes, jacket, sweat pants in case she was wearing a dress, large water bottle, flashlight, and a few walking items. She keeps a few snack bars and extra water in the car too. Her plan is simple. Call home before the cell tower batteries or generators die. Leave a message or tell whomever where she is at, and she is walking home. The reasoning is simple too. Likely she would be in Salem if a Cascadia earthquake happened. It is a 100 miles to anyplace in Eastern Oregon, which will be overwhelmed with starving refugees after the four day walk, but it is 22 miles home to a month supply of everything. If it is a power grid failure as outlined in Ted Koppels’ book, it would be 500 to 800 miles to anything called civilization.

Safety and security. After nearly four decades as a Special Forces Officer, my experience tells me it is going to be very uncivilized in a long term catastrophic event to say the least. If this issue is concerning, my recommendation is to find a combat veteran you might know to discuss this topic with you at length. With no due disrespect, law enforcement is not the right place to seek answers as they will be overwhelmed. Therefore, suggest to reach out to one of Oregon’s 325,000 veterans for suggestions on how to prepare for safety and security in a catastrophic event.

My Legislative Update is not meant to alarm you, or provide anything but suggestions on how you prepare for an emergency. It is meant for you to act. In June 2016, a half dozen Legislators attended the most recent national drill for catastrophic events for which Oregon participated. Three of the most senior emergency response officials from Oregon and the United States Government agreed on one thing very loud and clear; individuals will be on their own for a very long time, and survival of many will depend purely on local communities working together.

Nobody should expect someone to arrive on their door step after a catastrophic natural disaster or grid failure saying ‘I am here to help you, I am from the government.” You need to be prepared to take care of yourself, your family and hopefully your neighbors for the first few weeks or months.

Sincerely,

Brian J. Boquist
State Senator

Chairman
Veterans & Emergency Preparedness
Oregon State Senate

References:

https://www.amazon.com/Lights-Out-Cyberattack-Unprepared-Surviving/dp/055341996X

http://www.redcross.org/get-help/prepare-for-emergencies/be-red-cross-ready

http://www.fema.gov/plan-prepare

https://www.oregon.gov/OMD/OEM/Pages/plans_train/CSZ.aspx

https://www.oregon.gov/OMD/OEM/public_information/OEM%20Cascadia%20Playbook%20Overview.pdf

Can’t call 911?  Now you can send a text

Wilsonville joins other Portland metro-area agencies in rolling out a new text-to-911 service

The ubiquity of 911 is one of the most important features of the emergency response system in the United States.  Any person can dial 911 on any phone and immediately connect to the closest emergency dispatchers, no matter where they are.

But sometimes calling 911 isn’t an option in an emergency, and that’s why the Clackamas County Department of Communications (which serves Wilsonville) is joining seven other emergency departments to implement text-to-911 service.  The service is intended to serve anyone in a situation where a voice call might not be possible, such as a deaf person without access to a TTY device, a domestic violence victim or a person with a weak cell phone connection.

Installation and training took place in the first half of 2016 and a public education campaign will continue through the end of the year.  The system is already up and running; officials expect to start receiving more emergency texts once the public outreach ramps up.

The system uses Web-based software from TeleCommunications Systems Inc. that looks a bit like an instant messaging chat on dispatchers’ computer screens.  Emergency staff are alerted when new messages come in, and the texts are automatically sorted into conversation threads.  Dispatchers can type responses or quickly select from a list of phrases, such as ‘Please tell me your name and location.’

The software is paid for by Oregon’s 911 tax, and the consortium also received a grant to fund the public education efforts.  All the agencies in the consortium had to be ready to go before the system could be publicly rolled out.

The wide footprint is necessary in case the texts go to the wrong service.  Voice calls to 911 are routed to the nearest dispatch center based on the caller’s location, but the accuracy of the location provided by a text can vary substantially based on the provider and cell tower, so dispatchers need to be able to quickly forward conversations to nearby jurisdictions.

The limited accuracy also means it’s critical for users to tell dispatchers their location when communicating by text. Dispatchers will automatically see a map of the user’s approximate position, but since the text locations are imprecise, the map isn’t always reliable.

The Federal Communications Commission requires all cell phone carriers to route 911 texts to the nearest emergency service and to immediately send a “bounce-back” message if the text can’t be delivered, informing the sender that they must call 911 instead.  In other words, every 911 text will receive some sort of reply, so senders don’t have to worry about whether they’re inside the service area or whether their message was received.

Members of the consortium and the FCC stress that text-to-911 is not intended to replace voice calls and should only be used if necessary.  Texts have a limited number of characters, offer less-precise locations and take longer to navigate through the system, says Taylor. But for people who can’t call emergency services, the system provides a critical alternative.

Contact Anthony Macuk at 503-636-1281 ext. 108 or amacuk@lakeoswegoreview.

Here’s a little homework assignment….

If you have attended any of our previous sessions  (June 20th, July 20th, August 9th, or August 23rd) we want to thank you for joining us and participating, but we need your help in getting the word out to even more folks, so we have a little homework assignment for you.  Please identify 3-to-5 families (neighbors, friends, extended family) for you to speak with about SPM-EP.  Share your perspective, and encourage them to get involved, send them to our WebSite,
FaceBook, etc.  We are standing by should you or they have any questions.  Make it clear to each of them, that as a group of pure volunteers, we cannot stockpile or provide sufficient food & water (for people & animals) in the event of an extended disaster.  Also, keep in mind that these are the very people who will come looking to you and others to take care of them if they are ill-prepared.  The more of us who prepare in advance, the better off we all will be.

SPM-EP’s second community education class was held on Tuesday August 23rd and drew an enthusiastic crowd from our neighborhood, as we dove into the nitty gritty of what is in a Home Emergency Kit including food and water supplies.

Neighbor Stan Halle provided an overview on our emergency plan that is being built for our South Parrett Mountain community.  The message was to get involved by creating your home emergency plan and kits, and get
your children & family involved in the process.  Get trained in first aid/CPR, CERT, search & rescue, ham radio and other areas of interest to you; all good skills to have in the event of a disaster.  Stan stressed that everyone needs to do their part being prepared in their own homes with an emergency plan and kits that include food and water for 2 weeks to 30-days for you, your family, and your animals.

This program is about neighbors helping neighbors.  Get to know
your neighbors, share information on our plan and encourage them to attend training classes.  Let’s build this plan together to save lives and property in the event of a disaster.

Neighbor Linda Edwards discussed importance on filling out the resource questionnaire which is now available on our website, www.SPM-EP.org, to complete and submit on-line.  We need to know the people this plan serves and the resources, including skills and equipment available throughout our area.  Information is confidential and only will be used in the event of an emergency.

Guest speaker Kent Stuart, a survival skills instructor who is retired
from the police force and is on a search and rescue team provided great information of items for your emergency kits with a large display of products.  He brought several water filtration devices, demonstrated simple plastic wind & rain protective shields and discussed how and where to store your kits.  Kent offered a lot of great information from his experiences and background in survival, search & rescue.

The evening was ended with a special guest speaker, Jeni Billups
with Oregon Freeze Dried (Mountain House) freeze dried foods. She shared with us options for foods that can go into your kits.  These included cans to packages to freeze dried and the pros and cons to consider for each.  She explained the science behind freeze drying and when

rehydrated with hot water, it taste just like it did when first made.  They provided  provided samples of 3 of their Mountain House products including lasagna with meat sauce, and everyone was impressed by how good it tasted.  A generous discount was offered for attendees on a one time purchase.  With a shelf life of 30 years, an easy affordable solution was offered
for much of your food needs in your emergency kit.

3 neighbors, Wade Parkin, Stan Halle and Sharon Halle, all CERT trained, displayed their emergency kits for all to view.

Linda Edwards announced that we are building a relationship with Prepare Smart, an on-line company in Kent, WA who supplies items for emergency supplies.  Two examples of kits they offer were displayed that you can purchase through them.  They sell individual items as well as starter kits which you can customize for your needs. www.preparesmart.com.

The next class will be on Tuesday 9/13, 7-9pm.
Subject: Local Wildfires and services of Tualatin Valley Fire & Rescue (TVF&R) and The American Red Cross.
Register on-line: www.SPM-EP.org

We hope to see you then!