INSIDE

PREP works to handle disasters

By Annette Hamm

Tidal waves with tidal surges, earthquakes, severe weather, heavy snowfalls, freezing or torrential rains, high winds, natural disasters of many descriptions – Point Roberts sits surrounded by water on three sides with Canada on the fourth, isolated from the mainland United States and most of the professional emergency response teams.

Our closest professionals are good but few in number and consist of the fire chief and his volunteer fire department, two local sheriff’s deputies, and the Coast Guard. Their duties and responsibilities in the event of a disaster will be defined and limited by their job descriptions and their numbers.

In conversation with Bill Skinner, the Point Roberts fire chief, he indicated that the department’s primary responsibility in the event of a natural disaster would be responding to typical life-threatening medical situations, gas and propane line breaks, search and rescue in the event of collapsed buildings and fire and rescue; they would have to triage their medical responses and could not respond to non-emergency calls. He added that the fire department would of course work with the community, and that the fire hall would be available as a command center. In the matter of preparedness, he was clear and unequivocal on the matter of personal responsibility: every individual or family unit needs to become knowledgeable about emergency preparedness, that each person has a responsibility to know what they can do/are responsible for individually, what supplies they need and what to do to help set up their neighborhood’s response.

The bottom line? It’s up to us, neighbor to neighbor. Local response to any emergency situation will initially require neighbor to help neighbor.
So are the people of Point Roberts prepared? Not yet, but there is a movement afoot. The Point Roberts Emergency Preparedness Committee (PREP) formed by concerned citizens working in concert with local officials, Whatcom County officials, the Red Cross, other agencies and nearby small communities, is in the process of developing a neighbor to neighbor community plan to deal with all types of emergency situations. Snow storms, icy roads, flooding and power outages this winter have pointedly shown the need for an organized community response plan to all kinds of situations.

What is PREP Doing?

First on the PREP agenda is to find out where every resident, young and old, is living on the Point, what animals they have, what equipment they have that might be useful, what medical situations might develop and where necessary medical information can be found in the event of a disaster, what help they might need and what help they can give.

A PREP telephone sub-committee has been struck, headed by Virginia Lester, to kick start the process of gaining access to this information. Members of the community may already have been called, and if not, should expect a call from a volunteer committee member. A five minute question and answer period over the phone may be a lifesaving step for elderly, chronically ill, temporarily or permanently disabled citizens. PREP committee members ask that everyone take the time to respond to the questionnaire when a PREP phone volunteer calls and to make the effort to return calls if they are missed.

Non-emergency – non-911 – phone numbers: During natural disasters or severe weather, events may happen for which people require assistance; these may not be 911 calls, but may be real situations needing an organized response. PREP will soon be providing the community with a list of non-emergency - non-911 - phone numbers for these situations.

Marketplace Demo: A table with examples of emergency kits and supplies will be set up in the near future at the International Marketplace to demonstrate what people need to be collecting for their own personal safety.

Committees and sub-committees have been created to work on every aspect of emergency response, from communication and refuge to human and animal rescue.

A PREP website will be up and running in the near future with information and updates on plans, meetings, training courses and subcommittee activities.