Mayor John Marchione and Councilmember Kim Allen (on right) breakfast with key Fire and Police personnel in the kitchen of Fire Station #12 on 148th Avenue.
UPDATED: I took this photo during the August 20 Public Safety Committee Meeting. This is the second meeting they've held outside of City Hall. The Council Safety Committee is composed of David Carson (Chair), Kim Allen, and Pat Vache'.
Councilmember Kimberly Allen had requested discussion of two timely items: School Resource Officers (SRO), and Redmond's emergency preparedness for a pandemic swine flu outbreak. Kim was "spot on". One day after the meeting the frightful news of likely widespread Swine Flu outbreaks hit our Nation! Note: Sebelius: Closing schools wouldn't ward off virus - Boston.com Read More >>
Chair David Carson did his homework and invited Dr. Warren Appleton to explain how Evergreen Hospital's E.R. Medical and Emergency Preparedness program operates. Dr Appleton is the Director of Emergency Preparedness at Evergreen (and admired former Redmond City Councilmember.)
The King County Emergency Services agency is first jurisdiction to release community alerts for pandemic flu and other natural disasters. Dr. Appleton explained that sometimes "too much information" is given during emergencies. He recommended one community web site to send a unified message. Evergreen Hospital has an excellent web page designed to help providers and citizens prepare for the H1N1 (Swine) Flu .
Dr. Appleton described the decision-making challenges for prescribing vaccinations to medical workers, families of medical & emergency workers, and caring for "at-risk" youth and pregnancies. Improved communication between the City and Evergreen hospital has resulted from this meeting!
Tom Osborn (sitting far left in photo), Redmond Emergency Management Specialist, recently completed the new "Emergency Mitigation Plan" draft. Mr. Osborn is seeking input from citizens. The plan is a "working" document; and it's large. I suggest you start with the Executive Summary on Page 13. Chapter 13 on strategies is also recommended. Comments to Mr. Osborn tosborn@redmond.gov are sincerely appreciated.
My personal concern is availability and knowledge of shelter locations during crisis. Tom assured me shelter will be announced; and probably on Redmond Community Radio AM 1650. I will Twitter my blog with emergency updates to try to help.
If (and when) the pandemic H1N1 flu strikes go to this Evergreen Hospital Web Page for medical and emergency preparedness information and tune into Redmond Radio AM 1650.
Hi Bob,
ReplyDeleteThanks for bringing this issue forward on your blog. One of the most precious commodities during any emergency is information and it has always been one of my top priorities to keep it coming. My husband and I rode through the Northridge California earthquake near the epicenter with a four year old so and 2 dogs so I have a few "lessons learned" that I have brought forward from that experience.
Over the past several years, Redmond has expanded its options to keep in touch with the public during an emergency, including acquiring our own AM radio frequency, expanding use of our website and developing a network to get information out to local businesses where folks are likely to head during an emergency(like Victor's and QFC).
Your suggestion about the use of social networking, like Facebook and Twitter, is an excellent one-especially when the emergency does not involve a power outage. I'm going to urge that we should add that to Redmond's emergency notification "toolbox".