What Can You Do To Prepare?

This page has all our CV NET Tips on being prepared, in one place.

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How can you be prepared? See our informative two page PDF!

What You Can Do: Register for Public Alerts

Public Alerts is a Bureau of Emergency Management (PBEM) program that sends urgent safety messages (stay inside, evacuate, boil water etc.) in the Portland-Vancouver metro area. News and information on major service disruptions (roads, transit, public health, safety, utilities, schools, weather) are sent to landline phones, mobile phones (voice and text) and email. To receive messages you must register at Public Alerts

Wireless Emergency Alerts — Depending upon the nature of an incident, safety information is also provided through Wireless Emergency Alerts (WEA) on most mobile phones, Twitter, Facebook, TV, Radio, and on-line newspapers.

• On iPhones, tap your Settings app, scroll to Notifications, and scroll down to Government Alerts. Turn on Amber and Emergency Alerts by simply tapping the slide switch. The slide switch should turn green. Notifications arrive in banner format and can be accessed by swiping down from the top of your screen and tapping on the Notifications tab.
• On Droids, Emergency Alerts are a separate default application icon. If you do not see it on one of your home screens, search for the app in your apps location. The icon is typically a yellow triangle with an exclamation point in the center, and you can view alerts simply by opening the app on your phone.

What You Can Do: Be Prepared!

Emergency Preparedness ... Be part of the solution, not part of the problem!

Go Kit — If you are forced to evacuate on a minute's notice, do you have a Go Kit packed with necessary medicines, cash, clothes, and important documents that are ready to grab and go? Most Go Kits are described as 72-hour Survival Kits and can be purchased or homemade as do-it-yourself kits. [GO/STAY KIT page]

Stay Kit — Do you have at least a week's supply of bottled water and food for your family and pets if you are sheltering in place? A comprehensive emergency kit can help you and your family to remain self-sufficient during a disaster. [GO/STAY KIT page]

Assemble your Stay Kit — Download and print the Family Emergency Supplies Calendar. The calendar takes you through 16 weeks of preparation, a little at a time. Please check it out. [PDF]

Home/Stay Kit (Locally Edited) — Download and print 5 easy pages. [PDF]

Prepare Your Pets for Disasters — See this page on [PETS]. Download and print this [PDF]

Think about Water — We take our wonderful city water for granted, but the supply or safety may be disrupted in an emergency. Chlorine bleach purifies water to make it safe to drink. The amount of chlorine bleach required to purify water is in this chart:

The chart can be viewed in context on this Water Purification Fact Sheet.

We suggest printing the water purification Fact Sheet for reference.

Consider purchasing, placing, and filling a water barrel or two. Here is some helpful advice: Water Barrel Report.

Consider These Tips

Start assembling or building Go Kits (72-hour kit for home, car and/or work), Stay Kit, food, water, CASH, etc. Strap down your water heater! Here are the things we have suggested that you do:

1. Register for alerts: [LINK]
2. Print GO and STAY Kit lists: [PDF]
3. Print GO and STAY Kit lists: [404?]
4. Download and print the kit-building check list: [PDF]
5. Print the Water Purification fact sheet [LINK].
6. Print your sector map from NET Home page.

More Tips!

Make Family Reunification plans: decide where you will meet if your family is separated when a major quake hits. Consider damaged roads, bridges. If your home is uninhabitable what is the evacuation site to gather and evaluate. Remember that Riverdale HS Parking Lot is our staging Area.

Telephones: Land lines will be jammed, and cell towers overwhelmed. Voice may not get through. Use short SMS texts to tell your out-of-area contacts that you are ok. Text keeps trying, uses less data than voice. Be conservative with communication, for the good of the community.

Here is a great resource for community-wide disaster preparedness for all ages! [KIDS]

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How can you be prepared? See our informative two page PDF!

Narcan training and having the kits handy in our homes and in our cars is essential. Preparedness is sensible & obligatory for parents, grandparents, neighbors and all around caring people who want to be empowered to help. Get a kit and get familiar with it.

ICE STORM!

Here are three PDFs to help you prepare for, AND survive an ice storm.

"Lessons Learned Can Help Neighbors Prepare", from the March 2024 issue of SW News, by Gene Lynard. [PDF]

Surviving an Ice Storm (a quick post-storm compilation of ideas.) [PDF]

Sources of Emergency Power - Basic [PDF]

EARTHQUAKE!

We can't prevent an earthquake — we can only prepare for one. How can you prepare?

An excellent checklist is on this page we based on a FEMA communication: ~~~EARTHQUAKE!~~~

Quick tips below are from the above Earthquake! page. Articles appearing in the media are linked to at the end of this section.

A few quick tips

Make a safety survey of your home. If a major quake hit right now, what would injure you? Fix the hazard!

• Tall furniture should be secured to wall studs.
• Your hot water heater — possibly your only source for potable water — should be secured to the wall behind it.
• Know where the gas and water shut off valves are and how to turn them off.
If you smell gas you should turn off the gas at the meter BUT only the gas company can turn it back on, so don't turn it off unless you smell gas.
• Your home should be bolted to the foundation
• Review the Red Cross Earthquake Safety Checklist: [PDF].

Articles in the Media

Not convinced? Judge for yourself.

• THE REALLY BIG ONE — Kathryn Schulz's 2015 article by about the reality and danger of a major earthquake in [The New Yorker]
• Could a Catastrophic Earthquake Really Destroy Seattle? — This review of Schulz's claims found little to clarify: [SLATE].
• To Prepare For 'The Really Big One', Test Your Kit — on [OPB].

URBAN WILDFIRE!

What's the danger of an Urban Wildfire?

Climatologists reported that 2014 was the hottest year on record. The summers are getting hotter and the vegetation is getting drier each year. (2023 is on its way — it exceeded the record in July !) Accumulating brush on the hillsides becomes potential fuel for fires. A carelessly thrown cigarette, or a fire in a homeless camp, or a downed power line can all spark fires. Strong winds coming out of the east and northeast could drive a fire up into the west hills very quickly.

How can the community be better prepared?

• Everyone should be aware of Red Flag days when the danger of fire is particularly high.
• Neighbors should be warned of imminent fire danger somehow.
• Escape routes need to be identified and publicized.

Here are tips on evacuating your family: [TIPS].

The Portland Fire Bureau also advises property owners to take steps to protect their homes. Among them are:

• Creating a space around your home that provides a clearing of inflammable materials or vegetation. Remove invasive trees and shrubs, plant trimmings, firewood, fiberglass boats and recreational vehicles around the home.
• Using fire resistant building materials, particularly roofing and siding as well as decking and pavers.
• Landscaping with fire resistant plants.

For more information about wildfires and preventing and preparing for them go to [Reducing the Risk of Wildfire] on the Portland Fire & Rescue site.

Collins View Firewise Community

Collins View has been officially recognized as a Firewise Community after meeting national criteria. See: [CV FIREWISE]