Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: Emergency preparedness

[BILL WOOLVERTON (bwoolver]

Not entirely free from either hurricanes (OK Freda was a typhoon and it was 
extra-tropical when it hit the Pacific Northwest and BC) or tornadoes actually.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Columbus_Day_Storm_of_1962

http://www.opb.org/news/article/oregon-tornados-rare-dangerous/

Bill Woolverton
Pacific Gardens Cohousing
Nanaimo, BC.


----- Original Message -----
From: "Lynn Nadeau / Maraiah" <welcome [at] olympus.net>
To: cohousing-l [at] cohousing.org
Sent: Tuesday, October 30, 2012 11:59:34 AM
Subject: [C-L]_ Emergency preparedness


Here in the Pacific Northwest we are blessedly free from hurricanes  
and tornadoes. We do need to be prepared for earthquake, tsunami, and  
the occasional winter storm (which we are not well equipped for, as  
they are infrequent).

I am the "neighborhood rep" for our cohousing community, in the local  
regional emergency preparedness network. We have a stash of tools,  
radio, first aid supplies, and  a few tents and a cookstove. We figure  
our one-story rastra-block common house is fairly likely to stay up in  
a quake, and will de facto become a magnet for the wider neighborhood.  
With that in mind, we also have a stash of wind-up flashlights,  
clipboards, markers, and such so we can dispatch folks to go check on  
neighbors. We have not stockpiled food other than the considerable  
amount normally in our common house and our homes. Ditto on water.
We have a well we use for our gardens, with an auxiliary hand pump,  
and that water may be available to us in an emergency. We have a Big  
Berkey gravity-feed filter to make drinking water.

We had each household diagram and describe where their home's  
emergency shut-off switches are for gas, water, electric. (Our houses  
are all different.)
We then had groups of neighbors -- 3-4 houses -- physically go look at  
where these were in that group of homes, and another group look for  
the common house shut offs. The papers are in a binder at the Common  
House. We need to do this again, as it's been some years and not  
everyone knows anymore.

Another binder in the common house is emergency contact info. Bluntly,  
if everyone in your household is dead or can't communicate, who do we  
call? Family, friends, medical info.

In another arena, we are now discussing investing in an AED, heart- 
starting machine, to have at the common house in the event that  
someone there or nearby has a sudden cardiac arrest. We have a number  
of public events there.

And finally, there is the long term potential crisis of post-petroleum/ 
economic disaster. A good reference book, with practical info, is When  
There is no Doctor. (Not to be confused with WHERE There is no Doctor,  
an entirely different book, aimed at 3rd World type villages.) The  
"When...." book is about skills to develop to help get through austere  
times or worse. It emphasizes skills, vs stuff. Like get physically  
fit, learn first aid, etc. A very good book.

Presently, our Emergency Preparedness committee has dwindled to just  
me. Maybe this will be a time people will get motivated again?

Maraiah Lynn Nadeau
RoseWind Cohousing, Port Townsend WA
www.rosewind.org
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