Disaster Preparedness Notes

by Eleanor Lippman

Shortly after I moved to a cottage at Rogue Valley Manor years ago, a new resident talked to me about the Cascadia subduction zone. Coming from southern California and experiencing several mild earthquakes myself, my curiosity was piqued by this new information. So, I invited several neighbors on my block to meet in the shade of my driveway and talk about how to respond if such an emergency occurred. The meeting ended with those in attendance promising to help one another and share supplies. We all left with that warm and fuzzy feeling of kindness and cooperation.

As the years passed, more and more residents became interested in how to respond to potential emergencies that could threaten the residents of Barneberg Hill, and the concern for our health and safety increased. The recent Almeda fire was a stark wake-up call involving emergency evacuation and, luckily, the fire ended up stopping well short of our territory but provided valuable lessons of what to do.

Accessible storage of emergency gear

As the Area Coordinator for Area 2 READY Team (Residents Emergency Assistance Team, formerly Residents Preparedness Group), I was equipped with two walkie-talkie radios, one to communicate with the other groups on campus and one to communicate directly with the people on top of the hill who are in charge.  I always worried about what would happen to my team of dedicated assistants if I was away from campus and something bad happened. My radios were always kept inside my cottage and unavailable to others—especially the radio that communicated with the team in the Manor.

Finally, a suggestion by another committee resident got me thinking….and doing something about it.

I headed to the store and purchased a sealable plastic tub large enough to house my Emergency Preparedness things; I labeled it and packed away everything related to my job …minus items that could not tolerate heat and cold (masking tape, spare batteries). That tub of supplies, well labeled, is now neatly stacked in the storage area by my trash can where my team can get to it in my absence. In order to do this, I promised myself that on the first day of every month, I would retrieve the two walkie-talkies I was assigned and charge them to avoid having them lose energy when subjected to extremes of temperature.

Thus, my nightmare of being away and not being able to do my job has been solved.

Area 2 team — L to R: Mike Renta, Robin Hendrickson, Eleanor Lippman, Dave Douthit

Oh yes, one other thing: on an unpredictable schedule, the Area 2 READY Team members put on their yellow, high visibility vests chock full of things we might need, and we contact every resident under our supervision. We introduce ourselves, encourage our neighbors to have “Go Bags” ready, and provide other information they may need if the worst ever happens.

And, no. When we ring your doorbell, thank you for the invitation to come in for coffee, but we have to move on to the next cottage on our list.