Emergency management commission stresses communication

Communication was the word that resonated at the Nov. 5 La Conner Emergency Management Commission meeting.

Commissioners continued their review of a draft Community Emergency Management Plan, which communicates strategies for dealing with natural disasters and provides a risk analysis of each potential scenario – from earthquakes and flooding to fires and tsunamis.

“It’s a work in progress,” commissioner Jerry George called the draft plan, due for approval by the end of the year.

Fine tuning the plan has been a priority this year.

“We need to have a document that people are familiar enough with that when an event occurs, they don’t have to thumb through it,” George said. “The CEMP provides legal context in ways that people can act.”

Mayor Marna Hanneman attended the 70-minute meeting. She reported that George as featured speaker at the Nov. 2 Meet the Mayor meeting led to a robust conversation on “what we as individuals can do in an emergency.”

Individual preparedness is essential when it comes to disasters and emergencies. George emphasized: “In emergency situations we could be on our own because (first responder) resources can be tied up.”

Town Administrator Scott Thomas passed out copies of a user-friendly communications plan that encourages individuals and families to develop contact lists that can be referenced during an emergency. Posting the list in a central location of one’s home and carrying a copy in a backpack, purse or wallet is recommended.

The plan urges families to have regular household meetings to review and practice the steps they’ll need to take in an emergency.

“It’s really well laid out,” Thomas said.

Hanneman said she would devote her next Meet the Mayor program, on Feb. 8, to emergency communications and training. She envisions the gathering addressing the communications plan, emergency action strategies and making available “grab-and-go” home disaster kits.

In the event of a major emergency, when regular lines of communication are interrupted, public kiosks and signage could prove vital, commissioners said.

“We have to have communication that you don’t have to go to a meeting for, go online for or read the paper for,” Commission Chair Doug Asbe said.

George provided a brief update on neighborhood mapping, the process of gathering key information from households intended to aid emergency responders, saying his own neighborhood will pick up its mapping campaign after the holidays.

Hanneman said she has named Brianna Wilson to fill a commission vacancy and that the town council will vote to confirm her at its Nov. 11 meeting.

One spot remains open on the five-member advisory board.