The Culver Crest edition of the Build Resilience training program will take place on Monday night, April 6, 2015, 7-9pm, at Marycrest Manor.  See the posts here and here for more information.  See you at 7!

Below is a report from Rich Kissel regarding last week’s program:

Thanks to those of you who joined us last night and to those who helped to make it a success.  The overall feedback from many of the attendees was very positive and I think we will have a good return rate going forward.

We had 35 attendees.  I started the session with an overview of the structure of Culver Crest, our topography, challenges, and reviewed our organization, training and CERT associations, and made a few introductions so that the speakers would know about who we are, and the efforts that we have made to prepare our neighborhood for a disaster.  It was well attended by Emergency and Block Captains and 4 of our Ham Radio operators.  The program started lecture-style with a program overview. The main speaker, from Loma Linda University, had a Powerpoint presentation and written materials for handouts.

Before long, she split the room into four groups.  She passed out a single picture of a disaster scene to each group, but each group had a different picture.  The goal was to guess what the disaster was and think about what special needs might be required in each scenario, how we might handle it, and if we could relate what we saw to something that could happen like that in our own neighborhood.  The pictures were of Katrina, Sandy, Deepwater Horizon, and the local Sylmar Fire.

After studying and discussion, the leader called on each group to give their guess and talk about relevant emergency supplies and needs, and how it could relate to a local disaster.  It was serious food for thought.  Many did not realize that such things as an oil field accident, a neighborhood fire, or and earthquake could cut the Crest off from food, water, gas, electric, and rescue services for days if not weeks.  Many don’t realize that the Crest is categorized as a High Fire Severity Zone, or that we have The Overland Avenue Earthquake Fault, or a major oil field accident could happen.

Your support and leadership by coming to the event is more than appreciated.  It may even save your life!

See you Monday!