Welcome to MI Emergency Preparedness

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Mission Statement

To prepare Marrowstone Island residents so that, when disasters arise, our community will have equipped itself with the necessary resources, knowledge, and networks that will enable us to take care of ourselves and others for extended periods of time.

Why this website

The beauty of the tall trees and the natural privacy of being surrounded by water are just two reasons that most of us have chosen to live on Marrowstone Island. But these two facts make us uniquely vulnerable to a major event. Fallen trees could damage our homes, block our roads and take down our power and telephone lines. Being an island could partially or totally isolate us from the peninsula and outside services. We could lose the bridge, the causeway, or most of the boats to a major event. Local, State and Federal aid could be unavailable to us for anywhere from days to a month or more.

Regardless of the source of the emergency, it is prudent that we design individual/family, neighborhood, community and county plans to mitigate, prepare for, respond to and recover from an event.  

Please take a few minutes to click on the links in the left sidebar (as they are developed), and consider volunteering to help develop those plans. 

 Emergency Preparedness can make all the difference. Please join your neighbors and other Islanders in this effort. 

There’s a “14% chance the Big One will occur in 50 years.” (Src) And it could happen tomorrow!  “By the time the shaking has ceased and the tsunami has receded, the region will be unrecognizable. Kenneth Murphy, who directs FEMA’s Region X, the division responsible for Oregon, Washington, Idaho, and Alaska, says, “Our operating assumption is that everything west of Interstate 5 will be toast.” (Src) 

Our world-class disaster-preparedness expert, Rita Kepner, offers her own perspective in “Why Bother, You'll Probably Survive” and emphasizes that Jefferson County Department of Emergency Management’s (DEM) job is  “...NOT her to save YOU…” but “... to find/organize/stand up governmental structures and systems like ambulance, fire response, clean drinking water, sanitation (toileting), food, transportation (and communication systems) – so that MAYBE someone can come to help you – in an hour, day, week or month – depending …”

In addition to numerous Federal agencies, the WA Emergency Management Division (EMD) has helped us prepare and respond through a program called Map Your Neighborhood (MYN) which was discontinued in 2021 and will someday be replaced with “Be 2 Weeks Ready”. The title should read “Be 30 days Ready” because our local DEM says here “Everyone needs to be prepared to be on their own at home for 30 days.” 

Per this page on EMD “Map Your Neighborhood workbooks were discontinued in 2021. The other information continues to be provided for your use”. We hope the 11 videos in this YouTube channel will remain.

With guidance from DEM, and sponsorship from our Local 2020 organization, members of our Neighborhood Preparedness (NPREP) team have used the MYN program to train over 100 NPREP neighborhoods (see layers L1 & L2 in this map) in Jefferson County.  The NPREP team has given MI an NPREP Id number of 1121.  

Since we can’t wait for a new program from EMD,  Willie Bence (DEM Director) has urged us all to integrate the best elements of MYN and include them in “Emergency Hubs”. DEM will develop large Community Hubs while NPREP will develop Neighborhood Hubs. Neighborhood Hubs are small and within a short walking distance. With this post, I invite my nearby neighbors to help form our hub that I call “1121nea”. I’m developing a shared web space for our hub that can be accessed by clicking on or searching for bit.ly/hub1121nea.

I also invite Islanders to form a hub in your neighborhood. Ideally, we should have one hub per every 20-40 households, depending on population density. If you are considering forming a hub, either call me at 360-808-0766, email me at hphubbard@gmail.com, or go to section 15 in bit.ly/hub1121nea.

The first few pages of the web space are intended to be used to help you respond and recover from an event. Other pages include mitigation and preparation activities. Section 9 (in bit.ly/hub1121nea) explains why it is important that you make this web space available offline on your cell phone so you can view it when there is no internet. Section 8 encourages you to use the “Outline” feature to help you navigate the document.  Section 15 invites other neighborhoods (on MI) to copy and develop this web space for their hub.

If DEM makes a major announcement about hubs, I will post it to these two platforms (MI ND and MI IO). Otherwise, I will list other updates about hubs in Section 19 of the web space bit.ly/hub1121nea.  

Most of my/our work on MI Emergency Hubs will be located in files and folders in the “MIEP Hubs'' Google Drive Folder (GDF) within the “MIEP (MI Emergency Preparedness)” GDF. Click (or search for) bit.ly/miephubs to view the MIEP Hubs GDF. Or go to the “Files'' section on MI IO or the MIEP Group on MI ND.

I will be moving the following to other webpages.

Click on Five Sections to identify your Section and Area. Your Section and/or Area Coordinator will help you identify your Neighborhood designation. Please click here to volunteer to be a Neighborhood Coordinator or alternate. See responsibilities here.

The MIEP Team will be developing Emergency Response Plan templates that you can use.

Create or buy your Grab and Go Bag.

Review the Emergency Preparedness Tips (EPTs) and Resources.

And make sure we can find you and get to you in time by maintaining your 911 Signs and Access to your driveway and home.

Status

This web page (www.miep.us) is being totaly revamped and will be a work in progress. It is about 5% complete as of 7/31/2023. Please contact me at hphubbard@gmail.com if you wish to help. 

No guarantees

This and other information provided on the web pages in this website (www.miep.us) do not in any way guarantee or promise your safety or survival in any disaster or situation.  This is for informational purposes only and is to be used at the discretion of the individual, family or group.  Not all information or suggestions apply to all people and/or situations; people are encouraged to use common sense at all times.