Today’s blog (We Are Not Alone … EP-wise) was originally posted over five years ago on 9-7-2006. One of its major points was that, “government can’t do it all” in the event of a major disaster. The sixth anniversary of this blog will be in September. What ideas or suggestions do the citizens of Petaluma have so that the level of neighborhood readiness and preparedness that we had a few years ago may be restored. Please post your thoughts in the box for comments, below.

Part II – We Are Not Alone … EP-wise (9-7-2006)

Yesterday, I had the opportunity to brief the Petaluma 7-11 Lions Club about our local neighborhood approach for being ready for the next “big one.” At the Petaluma Valley Rotary Club last month, our Certified CERT Instructor, Bill Paxton, described the “Community Emergency Response Team” training opportunities that have been underway in Petaluma since last April, when the 100th Anniversary of the 1906 S.F. Earthquake was commemorated. That centennial event created both a newspaper and a TV media-blitz.

With 9-11 and Hurricane Katrina anniversaries, this month, the question “Are You Prepared?” is being broadcast far and wide, once again. For example:

*The 8-27-06 Press Democrat Editorial titled, Katrina Test- It will take another disaster to know if we learned the lesson. “In our private lives, we must make our own preparations, understanding that in the event of a major disaster, even the most efficient of public agencies may not be able to provide help for several days.”

*This was not the first PD Editorial to stress being prepared. On 2-2-06, the headline read: “Katrina response study suggests that government can’t do it all.”

*SF Gate.com (9-1-06) posted this message: After the 1989 Loma Prieta quake, a grassroots movement started to train volunteers to fill the gaps in city emergency services during the first 72 hours after a disaster … but I’ve been surprised that no one’s given much attention to NERT (Neighborhood Emergency Response Team) training.”

Well now, if my memory serves me correctly, it was Hurricane Katrina that motivated this blogger to investigate and explore how citizen volunteers might step up to the plate and help each other get ready. That was about this time … last year … 2005. One year later, approximately 30 citizens have completed a CERT training course and several NERTs are in the early stages of organization.

Today’s new blogosphere theme – Emergency Preparedness – has been created to keep you, our viewers, informed about how well prepared we “really” are in order to cope with an extreme disaster and how neighbors can help their fellow neighbors in such circumstances for an extended period of time. After all, that’s what building “a sense of community” is all about … isn’t it? Stay tuned.

Note: It is now, almost another three years later. Where shall we, as a community, go
from here? Your thoughts and comments, please.

To date, this “wanna be” reporter has posted 88 blogs under the Emergency Preparedness heading and 42 under Then & Now. (These earlier blogs are available in the Archives Box, on the right, or via the Search Box above.) The Then & Now (#9 Blog) – Let’s Move Forward, was posted on April 16, 2006, and has been posted, again, below for readers today. (Six years later.)

In addition, Emergency Preparedness (#1 Blog) – We Are Not Alone … EP-wise, originally published on September 7, 2006 (approximately five months after T&N #9), will be posted tomorrow as Part II. Readers are encouraged to read both of them, and then return to this site on Thursday (4/19) for a follow-up message.

Part I – Let’s Move Forward (4-19-06)

Enough is enough! After four hours of viewing various TV documentaries about the “Great San Francisco Earthquake of 1906″ (Ch. 3,4,7,62), I now know more about what happened back then, than when I lived in S.F. My major concern is about now – 2006. The message is clear. According to earthquake scientists, there will be another major quake within the next 30 years. Most likely, the Rogers Creek fault; which is right in “our back yard.” What shall we do when the next one strikes? What emergency plans are in place, now?

As I was quoted in the Argus-Courier article of April 12, “Government can’t do it all. We need to be prepared to take care of ourselves in an emergency.” Readers of my blog know, by now, that in Petaluma we have launched a citizens’ initiative using various acronyms:CERT, NERT, and ALERT. What do these letters stand for?

CERT = Community Emergency Response Team. The CERT concept was developed and implemented by the City of Los Angeles Fire Department (LAFD) in 1985. That training program proved to be so beneficial that the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) felt that CERT training programs should be made available to communities all across the country. In 2003, the Citizens Corps program was established and CERT was one of the first programs offered so that community volunteers, through education and training, could become better prepared to handle all kinds of disasters and thereby help their communities become safer and healthier places in which to live. CERT training covers basic skills that are important to know in an emergency when emergency services are not available.

NERT = Neighborhood Emergency Team. The NERT concept was created by the San Francisco Fire Department (SFFD). The NERT mission statement reads: “Beginning with ourselves, we will be prepared and work as an individual or together as emergency response teams to assist our families and neighbors in time of disaster and to be prepared to make decisions that do – The Most Good For The Most People.” The Petaluma NERT model is build upon existing Neighborhood Watch groups that choose to add CERT and basic first aid training, an electronic conference board or Neighborhood Network, a licensed amateur radio operator, and a NERT leader/coordinator. When these five components are brought together, we then have a Petaluma “star” neighborhood.

ALERT = Alliance of Local Emergency Response Teams. The ultimate goal of our local efforts will be the formation of “Petaluma ALERT,” an alliance of NERT and CERT volunteers so that sharing of information and coordination of events can take place. The hope is that –when – the next major disaster happens, Petalumans will be better prepared.
Stay tuned for public announcements about CERT, NERT, & ALERT news. Continue to read the Argus-Courier, watch PCA, and return to this blog.
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Stay tuned for Part II tomorrow.

Many Californians might say, “So what? Earthquakes happen around the world every day!” True; but it seems that some are getting closer to Petaluma and Sonoma County and are happening on a fault that seismologists have predicted will have a major quake (6.0 mag. or larger) within the next 30 years. These “warnings” aren’t reported to scare you, but to “remind” you to Be Ready and to Be Prepared to cope with a major earthquake for 72 hours or longer. It’s not a question of IF such a quake will impact Petaluma, but WHEN?

It is just a coincidence, but this blogger started to post comments related to earthquakes and emergency preparedness six years ago, in March of 2006. During the five month period, March 21 through August 30, 2006, 15 disaster readiness blogs were published under various categories such as: Our Cyberplace, Then & Now, Our Petaluma, and Bill’s Blog. Then, on September 7, 2006, a new category was established and another 88 blogs have been posted on Petaluma 360 under the heading Emergency Preparedness. (They are all available for viewing, in the archives box to the right.)

The 106th anniversary of the famous 1906 San Francisco Earthquake is next month, April 18th. Stay tuned!

This is EP blog #88 and is directed toward the most important players in any community’s efforts to Be Ready and to Be Prepared for a major disaster ….YOU and your neighbors. Copy and paste the links posted below, in order to see what emergency supplies every family should have in their home or cars in order to be able to sustain themselves and their family for 72 hours or longer.

http://www.optimumpreparedness.com/checklists.html http://www.fema.gov/pdf/library/fdsk.pdf
Share this information with your neighbors.

#1- Not all disasters come with warnings. Regardless of the type of disaster (flood, tornado, hurricane, earthquake), we need to be ready.

#2- We can’t underestimate the importance of the entire team. All of the response and recovery efforts from federal, state, and local groups (private sector, nonprofits, faith-based community, volunteer groups and the public) make a remarkable difference.

#3- We must be prepared for worst-case scenarios. For example, Japan’s tragic earthquake and the resulting tsunami and power plant meltdown was a real wake-up call.

At the local community level, volunteer groups like Community Emergency Response Teams (CERT), Neighborhood Emergency Response Teams (NERT), Community Emergency Radio Teams (CERN), and Neighborhood HamWatch (NHW) can make a significant difference.

In Petaluma, the key emergency readiness question is, Do you live in a STAR neighborhood? (STAR = Safe, Trained, Alert, Ready)
Stay tuned for additional blogs that will announce local community “disaster preparedness and recovery” educational and training opportunities throughout 2012.

This question is being used as the title to this blog because Adam Crowe used it a few days in connection with his “Disaster 2.0″ blog – “Why it Matters in Emergency Preparedness.” He reports that, “according to a recent study by the University of Massachusetts at Dartmouth, Center for Marketing Research, that “corporate blogging has fallen over the last year with a general trending away from more mature tools (ex: blogs, message boards, online videos, and podcasting); and ends by asking, “So what does this mean for emergency management …?”
He admits that Emergency Management does not have a huge investment in marketing, but he does believe that many practitioners blog in order to “share unique (and hopefully interesting) perspectives on activities and trends in the field.” Some of these types of blogs are designed to “seek discourse and engagement one a one-to-one or one-to-community basis. This type of engagement is at the crux of emergency management and response. We have to to engage sometimes one to one with disaster survivors or one-to-many during community recovery. We have to be honest and true whenever possible.”

Since Adam Crowe is such a strong believer in blogging being “one of the best tools emergency managers have to be genuine and honest,” this community blogger will revive his own blogs devoted to this cause in hope that some of our local County and Municipal Emergency Preparedness managers will read them and consider them as “food for thought” that might motivate them to consider changes that will increase the effectiveness of their community’s Emergency Management plan.

Stay tuned as we search for other bloggers who are sharing their Emergency Preparedness thoughts online. We’re all in this together, and need all the help we can get.

BAEER = Bay Area Environmental Education Resources. The purpose of the annual Fair has always been to provide a networking event that promotes environmental education and the various program resources available to teachers, as well as the general public.

The reason why I’m reporting on the BAEER Fair in this blog is due to the fact that “yours truly” played a role helping the Fair get established as an annual event in its early years. Following a U.S. Forest Service EE Conference in Squaw Valley during the summer of 1976, a few participants from the Bay Area agreed that it might be a good idea to put on an EE show in the Bay Area. Consequently, Dr. Esther Railton, EE professor at Hayward State University arranged for a fair to be hosted on her campus.

The initial BAEER Fair , March 5, 1977, attracted 425 people, plus another 150 people who conducted 65 workshops and staffed 70 exhibit booths. Due to this success, it was decided to continue the event and move it around the Bay Area to various locations. Subsequently, it was held at Merritt College in Oakland, Santa Clara Fair Grounds, and Treasure Island (three years), before becoming institutionalized as a mid-winter event in Marin County, where it has been held at the Marin Center for 27 years.

The Fair is basically a volunteer operations. The planning committee thought it best to work cooperatively with an established EE group rather than form its own non-profit organization. For many years, this support came from the Environmental Forum, an EE networking organization initiated by Bill Hammerman, a professor at San Francisco State University. As time went on, other organizations helped the cause. A permanent coordinator (Ken Hanley) was hired in 1985 to manage and coordinate the volunteers still needed to sponsor future fairs. Among the those original volunteers and people I enjoyed mingling with once again this year were: Linda De Lucchi and Larry Malone, Juliana Ver Steeg, Don Bielefield, Bob Flasher, and Esthter Railton.

Maybe I’ll see some of our Petaluma readers at next year’s BAEER Fair. Here’s a copy of this year’s program: What is the BAEER Fair?

Last Saturday, I drove down to the Marin Civic Center in San Rafael to attend the annual BAEER Fair and see how many of the original planning committee were still active in organizing an event that had its origin 35 years ago. Currently, the BAEER Fair is a special project of the Lawrence Hall of Science, University of California, in Berkeley. But first; what is a BAEER Fair?

BAEER = Bay Area Environmental Education Resources. The purpose of the annual Fair has always been to provide a networking event that promotes environmental education and the various program resources available to teachers, as well as the general public.

The reason why I’m reporting on the BAEER Fair in this blog is due to the fact that “yours truly” played a role helping the Fair get established as an annual event in its early years. Following a U.S. Forest Service EE Conference in Squaw Valley during the summer of 1976, a few participants from the Bay Area agreed that it might be a good idea to put on an EE show in the Bay Area. Consequently, Dr. Esther Railton, EE professor at Hayward State University arranged for a fair to be hosted on her campus.

The initial BAEER Fair , March 5, 1977, attracted 425 people, plus another 150 people who conducted 65 workshops and staffed 70 exhibit booths. Due to this success, it was decided to continue the event and move it around the Bay Area to various locations. Subsequently, it was held at Merritt College in Oakland, Santa Clara Fair Grounds, and Treasure Island (three years), before becoming institutionalized as a mid-winter event in Marin County, where it has been held at the Marin Center for 27 years.

The Fair is basically a volunteer operations. The planning committee thought it best to work cooperatively with an established EE group rather than form its own non-profit organization. For many years, this support came from the Environmental Forum, an EE networking organization initiated by Bill Hammerman, a professor at San Francisco State University. As time went on, other organizations helped the cause. A permanent coordinator (Ken Hanley) was hired in 1985 to manage and coordinate the volunteers still needed to sponsor future fairs. Among the those original volunteers and people I enjoyed mingling with once again this year were: Linda De Lucchi and Larry Malone, Juliana Ver Steeg, Don Bielefield, Bob Flasher, and Esthter Railton.

Maybe I’ll see some of our Petaluma readers at next year’s BAEER Fair. Here’s a copy of this year’s program: http://baeerfair.org/docs_pdf/BAEER%20%2035%20Program.pdf

Younger readers may be interested to learn that the Osborne 1 was released in April, 1981, and was considered to be the first true portable computer. Although this was quite a giant step forward for the computer world, it had its limitations. The screen, for example, was only 5″ diagonally. The number of characters per line of text that could be displayed was limited to 52. Since it was designed to be portable, it was considered to be airline carry-on luggage, and it would fit under the passenger seat of any commercial airliner.

The original Osborne 1 cost $1,795. (today’s price would be $4,000.) and weighed 23.5 lbs. It came with a WordStar word processor, a SuperCalc spreadsheet, BASIC programming language, and a dBASE II database. There wasn’t any battery power. Wikipedia reports that, ” Despite its unattractive design and heavy weight – it resembled a cross between a World War II field radio and a shrunken instrument panel of a DC-3.” The company sold 11,000 units in the first eight months, and reached 10,000 units per month at its peak.

OK, so it doesn’t compare to today’s iPads; but it had its day and made computer history. For those readers interested in additional about he Osborne Portable Computer, check out … Adam Osborne, John Dvorak Hypergrowth: the rise and fall of Osborne Computer Corporation, Idthekkethan Pub. Co., 1984 ISBN 0918347009

Stay tuned for more “discoveries” as we dig around in the garage.

Me, however, doesn’t want to give up on the formation of a Petaluma Neighborborhood HamWatch Network. Myself has gotten weaker, physically, over the past several months, so he needs to slow down. Although I is concerned over the sale of the Argus-Courier and the Press Democrat by the NY Times, he is searching for a new community-centered project to launch that will be dependent on volunteers.

BTW, you might want to review a few blogs posted earlier in 2011. Check out the link to the right – “Archives-Select Month.”
What now … e-Newspapers! (1-7-11)
Fred Wiseman is Flying High (1-30-11)
The Seasons Are Changing (5-13-11)

Stay tuned. Do any of our readers have suggestions? Please feel free to post your comments.

I’ve found that many people who used to say, Merry Christmas now say “season’s greetings,” “happy holidays,” or have a happy ho ho ho.

Although many people still decorate their homes during the Christmas season, the decorate fences are gone. The reason could be that most people don’t have fences around their homes as they did in bygone years.

Today we have the homeless at Christmas and people are more generous toward them during the Christmas season. Of course most people become more friendly and even more generous.

You are a real old timer if you remember when Petaluma Police Chief Mike Flohr rode around in his Model T Ford and wished everyone a Merry Christmas.

Although Christmas is still big in downtown Petaluma, nothing has replaced Santa’s North Pole at the now-gone Tomasini Hardware Store on Kentucky Street.

* * * * * *

Fast forward to 2011; are these recollection by Bill out-of-date, or have they returned in one form or another? Feel free to add your thoughts and comments.