Insights

New Fault Lines Revealed in Washington State

• John Cornelison
• 1/11/12

• Tags

  Prediction , Earthquakes , Usgs , Gis , Wa , Regional

Two new articles from the Homeland Security Newswire and the Yakima Herald discuss new fault lines (maybe better described as extended and remapped fault lines) that the U.S. Geological Survey’s Brian Sherrod has been studying. It is too early to not consequences for these and the discovery doesn’t inherently up the likelihood for quakes, but will make future predictions more accurate and does expand our understanding of the mechanisms at work underground – where real faults are much more complex than simple two dimensional lines on a map. Click on the map to the right to see several views of the newly unveiled faults.

Global Warming Moves us Closer to the Ultimate Disaster

• John Cornelison
• 1/11/12

• Tags

  Study , Global , Climate , Climate change

Doomsday clock moves closer to midnight

Numerous articles (including USA Today’s) note that scientists have moved the hands of the doomsday clock toward midnight – as a visible metaphor for our lessened security due to our fuelish ways.  It is notoriously hard to change our social (i.e., automotive) ways, but the consequences of our not taking a long term view are increasingly resulting in massive storm and economic damage today to societies across the globe.

DHS-- Fusion Centers & EOCs Need to Talk

• John Cornelison
• 1/11/12

• Tags

  Preparedness , Communications , Study , Wa

According to the inspector general (IG) of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), state and local fusion centers and emergency operations centers could improve the response of their jurisdictions to terrorism and natural disasters if they talked to each other more often. Many fusion centers and EOCs surveyed do not exchange information.

FEMA P-811-- Earthquake Publications for Businesses (QuakeSmart Toolkit)–Just Released!

• John Cornelison
• 1/5/12

• Tags

  Vashon , Fema , Earthquakes , Preparedness , Business continuity

VashonBePrepared has been working with the Debi Richards and the Vashon Chamber of Commerce and a large number of local businesses this fall to promote business disaster preparedness. A useful new national program has just been announced that promises to provide some great guidance for all of us. The big aim:

VIFR Cookbook Out!

• John Cornelison
• 1/5/12

• Tags

  Vifr , Vashon , Volunteers

Latest National CERT Newsletter Out

• John Cornelison
• 12/14/11

The fall 2011 CERT Newsletter is out and contains a nice overview of CERT activities happening around the country. These serve as a good introduction to the wide range of purposes CERT volunteers are capable of. There is an emphasis in this newsletter of college campus CERTs - including an impressive photo of the Pasadena Community College (PCC) CERT trailer.

Power Outage on Maury Island Serves as Another Reminder to Be Prepared!

• John Cornelison
• 12/12/11

• Tags

  Preparedness , Pse , Power outage , Maury island

A car accident snapped off the power pole at Dockton and Pt. Robinson roads last night about 6 PM. Unfortunately the accident curiously snapped the pole up about 20 feet high and took out the island’s primary electrical power feed. While most of island only experienced a 10 second outage, about 500 PSE customers had a couple hour service interruption. 1200 Maury Island people didn’t have power (and Comcast service) fully restored until about 3:30 PM today.

Cost of Global Warming Apparent as US Reaches 12th Mega-Disasters in 2011-- each over a Billion $

• John Cornelison
• 12/8/11

• Tags

  Study , Climate , Climate change , Global

CBS notes that this year’s 12 disasters costing over 1 billion dollars each surpasses the number seen during all the 1980’s – even with inflation adjustments. In associated reports they note that the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s latest report indicated that additional small and large disasters can be expected with global warming.

VashonBePrepared Returns for Second Community Dinner on December 1st

• John Cornelison
• 12/1/11

Here’s a reminder to attend the December 1st Community Dinner at the Vashon High School Common Room, from 5:30 to 7:30 PM.

FEMA EAS Test Failures Points Out Much Room for Improvement

• John Cornelison
• 11/10/11

There were serious issues that presented the first nationwide emergency alert from working uniformly across the county. Some folks reported 30 seconds of dead air, others garbled audio. Some folks instead heard Lady Gaga’s ‘Paparazzi’!
It is good we had this test as it points out that there is lots of work to be done – likely in various state’s infrastructures.

8 Facts about Earthquake Insurance

• John Cornelison
• 11/8/11

• Tags

  Preparedness , Financial , Earthquakes , Insurance

CBS recently listed a number of sobering facts about earthquake insurance that anyone from a scesmicly active area - like those of us from the Salish Sea would do well to be familiar with. Most know it isn’t included in standard homeowner’s policies, but even with it beware of the large number of restrictions in comparison to fire or other policies.

Adjust your clock for Daylight Savings Time? Then its also time to check your Emergency Stockpile!

• John Cornelison
• 11/8/11

Get Ready: Set Your Clocks, Check Your Stocks is the name of a new biannual campaign to encourage checking on your emergency preparedness kit of food, water, first-aid supplies, medications and food for pets. Do it when you set your clock forward or backward an hour. American Public Health Association is leading (or at least championing) this effort, as noted in this article: http://www.upi.com/Health_News/2011/11/07/Twice-a-year-Check-emergency-stockpile/UPI-85881320643709 The campaign web site has a number of helpful suggestions and guidelines.