SW Neighborhoods, Inc. Empowering Citizens since 1978

What does it mean to build a disaster-resistant community? It means raising citizen awareness of the dangers we face, the importance of preparing for disaster, knowledge of how to respond, and insisting that our elected officials do what they can to create a disaster-resistant infrastructure (e.g. building disaster-resistant fire stations and schools – which can serve as emergency shelters – in every community in our city, beefing up seismic building codes, etc.)

A prepared citizenry is the most important component of a disaster-resistant community! One need look no further than New Orleans in the wake of hurricane Katrina to see the effect an unprepared citizenry. Wholesale reliance on government to prepare for (or respond to) disaster can be a fatal mistake. Government planning is critical, but citizen preparation is essential. If every citizen is prepared to deal with disaster, our community will fare far better than if we rely on government alone.

It is important to understand that as bad as Katrina was, the devastation of a Cascadia subduction zone earthquake will be far, far worse. It will affect 84,000 square miles of the Pacific Northwest! “Don’t be scared, be prepared” is Alaska’s emergency preparedness motto. Wise words. It should be our motto too. We need to start planning and preparing now, today. Every one of us. Individual citizen, school principal, business owner, elected official, government agency, all of us.