Practicing for The ‘Big One’

Back in June a neighbor and I attended a Seattle Emergency Preparedness Hub event over at the Phinney Center. This was hosted as part of a city-wide disaster practice organized by the Seattle Emergency Hubs with a goal of getting volunteers together to set up their Hub and simulate helping neighbors.  The practice scenario: “the entire city was shaken by a 6.1 magnitude earthquake along the Seattle Fault Line. All power communications have been disrupted and the city is full of FIFA visitors!”. My neighbor and I walked around role-playing various community members with needs and/or services to offer, all while the greeter happily held my 9-month old in the shade 🙂 That could have been part of the simulation, right?? The volunteers then went through the motions of how they would receive, categorize, and diseminate the information to those in need.

About a year ago a group of Wallingford residents met several times to see if we should get our own hub off the ground and we got some momentum – we assigned someone to grant writing, someone to be on point for communications, someone else to lead and organize the group, but with it being 100% volunteer-based and everyone having busy lives, it somehow fizzled out. Attending the practice event, however, gave me renewed motivation. What might the future of a Wallingford Emergency Preparedness Hub look like? How many people would need to get involved to ensure that it endures?
Stay tuned for more information on this in the future. Or if you would like to take the initiative to get this back up and running, contact the blog and we’ll get you in touch with the right people! I’ve heard there may be a small sub-group in south Wallingford getting a group up off the ground? Write in with the 411!