POINT NO POINT — There’s no way to know if or when a disaster will strike. But you can be prepared.
“People always want to know what do you do first after an earthquake or disaster,” said Billie Dunford, volunteer disaster preparedness coordinator for Point No Point View Estates.
“I tell them, you don’t know what’s going to happen. There’s no ‘Do 1-2-3 step’ plan. You have to assess the situation and go from there.”
Dunford, a retired RN, also belongs to the local medical reserve unit for disaster preparedness. When she got interested in mapping the gated community where she lives about 10 years ago, she found a lot of ignorance regarding disaster preparedness.
“I asked a neighbor if she wanted to do disaster preparedness and she had no clue what I was talking about,” Dunford recalled. The same held true when she brought the matter up at the homeowners’ meeting.
So she reached out to the county Department of Emergency Management. DEM representatives came out and helped map the neighborhood, identifying the neighborhood’s human resources (such as Dunford being an RN) as well as where neighbors kept emergency supplies.
While Dunford and her husband had a medical kit and emergency kit, most of her neighbors didn’t. “So I showed them mine and told them where I keep it.” Most of her neighbors have since ordered emergency kits, first aid kits, and walkie-talkies through the American Red Cross online store.
Just making a plan isn’t enough, however. Practice is important and Dunford has been politely persistent in keeping the program going for more than a decade.
“After one year, we got to where we could pretty much do what we had to do,” she said. Now, neighbors meet and drill about every six months. They bought a big tent to use as a field hospital or shelter, and they regularly practice putting it up and taking it down. The tent, along with 18 five-gallon water containers and bleach for water purifying, are kept in a sturdy pump room that should survive almost any disaster.
When asked about the challenge of starting a similar program and keeping it going for as long as she has, Dunford said anyone who has organizational skills can do it. “It’s kind of fun for me, like a puzzle, figuring out what you need and where to put it.”
Following an earthquake, your neighbors will be your first responders. Take steps now to prepare as a neighborhood by attending the Map Your Poulsbo Neighborhood workshop April 19 or April 23 at Poulsbo City Hall.
