[aesop_image imgwidth=”500px” img=”http://www.signaltribunenewspaper.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/Screen-Shot-2016-08-11-at-4.39.58-PM.png” align=”center” lightbox=”on” captionposition=”center”] Neighbors helping neighbors: Building community resilience by working together
By Richard Johnson
“Southern California’s smaller cities and large businesses must take the threat of a crippling earthquake far more seriously than they have been,” a committee of business, public policy and utility leaders declared.
This quote taken from a recent article in the Los Angeles Times highlights the fact that despite all of our planning and training, the region is still not prepared for big earthquakes. In a significant earthquake, our emergency services— police, fire and emergency medical responders— will be saturated with calls for service. The reality is, they will be busy assessing the entire city for damage and directing their efforts to the most critical emergencies. Our neighborhoods will need to be self-sufficient for at least 72 hours before professional assistance can be expected.
In the type of emergency I just described, neighbors helping neighbors will be the primary source of assistance in those first 72 to 96 hours. Getting to know our neighbors is fundamental to building community resilience and disaster-response capacity. Signal Hill has secured a training program that promotes neighborhood disaster response, neighborhood cooperation, planning and community reliance. The program is called Map Your Neighborhood.
Map Your Neighborhood is simple, quick, fun and effective. Where other citizen disaster response programs can take weeks to complete, Map Your Neighborhood takes approximately 90 minutes. The program is delivered by neighbors to neighbors in the home. One neighbor takes a simple and quick facilitator training provided by Signal Hill, collects the materials (again provided by the City) needed for the program, invites their neighbors to attend a meeting in the facilitator’s home and delivers the program’s content. That content includes the nine steps to take immediately following a disaster:
1. Take care of your loved ones.
2. Dress for safety.
3. Check the natural gas or propane in your home.
4. Shut off water at the house main.
5. Place the provided “Help” or “OK” sign on the front door or window.
6. Put your fire extinguisher on the sidewalk.
7. After steps 1-6 are completed, go to the neighborhood gathering site.
8. Form teams at the site and assign tasks.
9. After your team has completed its task, go back to the gathering site and share what you have done.
Map your Neighborhood can be used in a traditional single-family home block or condominium or apartment setting. The process is simple, and it promotes disaster preparedness and community bonding. The materials provided by the city include: a Map Your Neighborhood disaster response “shingle” that details the 9 steps as well as other resources to be used before, during, and after a disaster; a CD that contains all of the forms and printed material needed for the program; and a DVD containing the guided program segments that take you and your neighbors through the entire process of preparation and response, including an exercise to run with your newly organized neighborhood response team.
The materials are available at the Signal Hill Community Services Department, 2175 Cherry Ave. Call (562) 989-7330. The DVD is returned when finished, and the shingles and CD are yours to keep and distribute as needed.
To sign up for a facilitator training session, please contact me at (562) 989-7239 or rjohnson@signalhillpd.org.
It is easy to prepare for a big earthquake. Map Your Neighborhood is a wonderful tool to help get us prepared for the inevitable earthquake, tsunami, flood or fire that will challenge us to respond and recover. It’s up to us to take advantage of this tool, get to know our neighbors and Map Your Neighborhood.
