Year in Review: Point Roberts Emergency Preparedness

2023 was a busy and productive year for Point Roberts Emergency Preparedness (PREP), a local non-profit organization dedicated to the safety and well-being of our community.

We accomplished many goals and made significant progress in our mission of educating and preparing our residents for emergencies and disasters.

Some of the highlights of our year include:

• Conducting an emergency response training and drill with PREP and CERT in April, led by fire chief Christopher Carleton.

• Performing a wildfire assessment of several Point Roberts homes and providing an educational presentation to our volunteers, with the help of Amanda Knauf.

• Organizing another Dart Fly-in with Airlift NW in July, landing two float planes and delivering about 400 pounds of food to the PR Food Bank. This event was headed by Ross Bradie with the participation of about 30 volunteers from PREP and the Point Roberts fire department.

• Reopening the lines of communication with Bellingham CERT to arrange future training for CERT, starting next year, thanks to Virginia Lester.

• Hosting successful fundraisers, such as the Chili Cookoff, Comedy Night, and the July 4th Pancake Breakfast, with the support of our amazing volunteers and donors.

• Forming a subcommittee to discuss and improve communications on the Point, led by Mark Robbins.

• Resolving the issue with the repeater at Point Roberts water tower, with funding from PREP and hard work from Oswald Kienapfel, replacing the old repeater with a brand new one.

• Developing a new web page, hoping to launch it early next year.

• Updating the emergency shelter handbook, thanks to Sara Oggel.

• Working on completing the tower project with fantastic help from Anthony Steffani. Concrete is now in, and tower is ready to be erected at the firehall.

As we look forward to 2024, we hope to see you at our next meeting, and we thank you for your continued support and involvement. Together, we can make Point Roberts a safer and stronger community.