Anniversaries are important because they cause us to pause and reflect on what happened back when. Earthquake anniversary dates can help us recall the damage – both structural and human – that occur in communities that shake, rattle, and roll. It was about this time, 104 years ago, that a major quake caused severe damage to Santa Rosa and San Francisco.
(Today’s blog was started about 5:00 a.m. and will be posted close to 5:13 a.m. Stay tuned as we continue to complete it’s composition.)
Ever since Hurricane Katrina, local citizen volunteers have bonded together in an effort to Be Ready and Be Prepared to cope with a major quake along our local Rodgers Creek Fault. One of the messages that caught Eagle-Eyes attention four years ago was … the greatest cause of stress among citizens during a disaster was lack of communications.
“The Trio” (Me, Myself, and I) took this thought seriously and began to brainstorm how best for citizens to communicate with official emergency response and disaster management personnel WHEN such an event happens. Me discovered that for years there have been several Emergency Preparedness programs created to train citizens how to form neighborhood teams that would self-activate when a disaster occurs. Myself discussed how some of these Neighborhood Emergency Response Teams could use walkie-talkie radios to communicate with one another as they check their neighborhood for bodily injuries and structural damage. I discovered that if a neighborhood also had a FCC licensed amateur radio operator (also called a Ham), that person could transmit “emergency and priority” messages to the professional Emergency Management team members in the local EOC Emergency Operation Center.)
Hammerhead thought that The Trio had discovered the major elements of a local neighborhood emergency radio network. All that was needed to make it work was to find a sufficient number of citizen volunteers willing to “step up to the plate” and make it operational. (BTW, on most Wednesday nights at 1900 Hours (7:00 p.m. PDT), a local Petaluma NERT Net practices sending and receiving sample emergency/disaster messages.
This blog is the 50th to be posted under the category title … Emergency Preparedness. How many reminders do the citizens of a community need to Be Ready? Perhaps The Trio will want to switch their focus over to other topics or issues that relate to Our River Town’s Past, Present, and Future. (Or, at least until another disaster anniversary dates appears on our calendar 😉
P.S. Eagle-Eyes spotted in today’s Press Democrat, another headline, Heeding lessons of 1906. Take the time to check out James Dalessandro’s “Close to Home” column on page B7. Hammerhead thought his secondary headline on page B10, After-the-fact model doesn’t work, really hit the nail on the head. Stay tuned!