My latest blog for the Argus-Courier Petaluma360 site was posted over five months ago, on November 28, 2015. Now that my health has recovered and my energy level has improved, it is time to try and revive this blog site which was initiated over nine years ago. The various blog [...]
Although Thanksgiving has come and gone, and we all have expressed our "thanks" for various reasons: families, good health, friendly neighbors, and meaningful jobs; there is one community group of emergency preparedness volunteers that I'm thankful for - amateur radio operators who volunteer to establish an effective communications network when [...]
Ten "Lest We Forget" blogs were posted on this site (http://bill-hammerman.blogs.petalua360.com), between 6/12/14 and 6/13/15; Ed Mannion, Lyman Byce, Brainerd Jones, Samuel Cassidy, Helen Putnam, Rev. Lorenzo Waugh, John W. Cavanagh, Bill Kortum, Fred Wiseman, and Bill Soberanes. Only one of them, Lyman Byce, is portrayed by one of the [...]
How many Petalumans know that "Great ShakeOut Drills" have been held annually since 2008 in California? Participating is a great way for your family or organization to be prepared to survive and recover from quickly. Locally, the Petaluma CERT (Community Emergency Response Team) program that was initiated in Petaluma, in [...]
How many reader read the special history section in the September 24th edition of the Argus-Courier, with the above title? Since then, several letters to the editor have commented on how well written the various articles in that special section were and how much more they learned about our River [...]
On September 1st., the beginning of National Emergency Preparedness Month, the Sonoma County Radio Amateurs sponsored a panel presentation and discussion devoted to how Sonoma County will be able to communicate when a major disaster (like an earthquake) occurs and most normal communication systems are inoperable. The following amateur radio [...]
Last week, the news media ran stories related to the Napa Earthquake that struck at 3:20 a.m. on August 24, 2014. (I was downstairs reading a book when it happened.) It was a 6.0 magnitude quake that hit south Napa near the west Napa fault. Forty-one photographs of the damage [...]
For those readers who have been following this latest series of Emergency & Disaster Readiness blogs and are interested in learning more about being "Prepared and Ready" for a major natural disaster; listed below are online links to organizations at the national, state, county, and municipal levels with pertinent information. [...]
Guest Blog by Jack Withington This week I was part of the change. In what is a Petaluma first, a group of concern citizens lobbied the Petaluma Board of Education to stop the use of a suspected toxic and possibly carcinogenic waste by-product, ground up recycled rubber tire particles called [...]
Today's blog is based upon several Emergency Preparedness blogs from 2110, 2011, and 2012. Almost ten years ago, on October 12, 2006, a "Special Report" video titled, Emergency Preparedness-Can Sonoma County Communicate? was produced by the Clearstream Media Group. Panel members included the Deputy Emergency Services Coordinator for Sonoma County, [...]