CouveCast episode 6 Be Ready Vancouver Part I

A major disaster could happen at any time. Are you prepared? Be Ready Vancouver is a new initiative to help support our community in case of an emergency. This is Part 1 of this series which will focus on community preparedness and resilience.  Jordan Macfarlane with the Clark Regional Emergency Services Agency (CRESA) joins us to talk about ways to start thinking about getting prepared. Also here are two local residents, Devon and Mallorie to share steps they have taken to prepare for an emergency. 

Transcript

Speaker 0:00

Welcome to CouveCast, the City of Vancouver's official podcast, hosted by Steve Harris. Each episode is a mix of city insights, stories, behind the scenes, and hopefully a few laughs along the way. No jargon, just real talk with the people shaping Vancouver's future. One episode at a time.

Speaker 5 0:18

Welcome to CouveCast, the City of Vancouver's official podcast. I'm your host, Steve Harris, and today we will be talking about Be Ready Vancouver, a new preparedness initiative to help prepare and support our community in the event of an emergency. Today is part one of this series, which will focus on community preparedness and resilience. I'm joined by Jordan Macfarlane, Emergency Management Coordinator for the Clark Regional Emergency Services Agency, or CRESA, and Devon and Mallorie, local residents, actively preparing for the possibility of an emergency. Thank you all for joining me. Thanks for having us. So, Jordan, I want to start with you. For listeners who may not be aware, what is Be Ready Vancouver? What's the core message there?

Speaker 1 1:01

Absolutely. Be Ready Vancouver is the city's new emergency preparedness initiative. And so we really want to meet people where they're at and encourage people to prepare for disruptions of any size. And the key is starting small, but getting started.

Speaker 5 1:20

Excellent. So what type of emergency, some examples? What are we talking about here? What what could happen that would be something that you would definitely want to be prepared for?

Speaker 1 1:29

Yes, it's important to have an awareness of the hazards in our area, but they can really range from minor disruptions to much larger. Some things that we can be aware of are power outages. We had a large windstorm late last year that resulted in significant out outages across the county. And so that would be an example, urban wildfires with our longer, hotter uh seasons in the summertime. Okay. Um, to to the earthquakes, to the to the big one that people talk about.

Speaker 5 2:01

Yeah. So something I want to add on to that. Uh it's suffice it to say that for people that are preparing or or are prepared, it's going to be a lot more difficult to try and get prepared when it's happening.

Speaker 1 2:13

Absolutely.

Speaker 5 2:14

Yeah. Um What are some ways for folks to be prepared? What are some examples of that?

Speaker 1 2:21

Yes. Well, it's it's thinking about your life and thinking about when a disruption happens, how are you going to get through those those first hours, days with minimal impact to your life? And so it's taking stock of what you need, who's in your household, who are your loved ones nearby, and and making those adjustments and those plans and having those conversations ahead of time. It's as simple as identifying a bag at your house, and that's your go bag, and starting to fill it with things that you would need if you had to leave in a hurry.

Speaker 5 2:55

Yeah. And so some of those are going to be, you know, things you normally would need on a daily basis, like food, water, but also, like you said, things for your own personal, like prescriptions, whatever you need to get through.

Speaker 1 3:06

Yes, absolutely. And those needs can change, those needs can evolve over time. Um, recently, my pet family member she was diagnosed with epilepsy. So now she has medications that she has to take twice a day every day. And so our preparedness plan has been modified.

Speaker 5 3:24

Yeah. Um and building a neighborhood community is important. So today we have Devin and Mallory with us. Thank you both for joining us. Um, tell us about what you have been doing to be prepared.

Speaker 2 3:38

Um, I think some of the most important things you can do are just to take um small steps, like Jordan was saying. Um, it could be something like when you go to the store grabbing a couple extra water bottles, or if your family drinks soda and you use up a two-liter bottle, cleaning it out, filling it with water, and putting it in your fridge. Um, that does a couple of things. It creates thermal battery for if there was a power outage in your fridge, helping keep your food cool longer. But it also just is a good backup source of water that you don't always need a 10-gallon like jug of water that's hard to move around. Sometimes it's just little things, especially if you have kids or anyone in your family that's maybe um elderly or has a harder time maneuvering or lifting things. That's something to keep in mind.

Speaker 5 4:31

So and do you get to a point when you're when you're preparing for things that you know certain things will uh over time expire that you regularly replace so that they're good to go on a moment's notice?

Speaker 2 4:42

Yeah, definitely. Like keeping an eye on cycling things through. Um, Devin and I uh will have sandwiches, just even peanut butter and jelly. Wow. Um ready to go?

Speaker 4 4:55

They freeze pretty well.

Speaker 5 4:55

You you make them up and just snack on those just in case. And you know, you well, I'm gonna have to replace that, but I'm kind of hungry at the moment.

Speaker 2 5:02

Yeah, it's like this was intended for some kind of disaster, but we can we can use it on a Saturday when we go on a hike. So you can just kind of keep those ready, but then cycle through them so that stuff doesn't expire or go bad.

Speaker 5 5:16

Excellent. Um for people that may not be doing this yet or or might be thinking about it, is it expensive when you start getting started to prepare things or or what what kind of cost factor are we looking at?

Speaker 4 5:29

The the important thing that we've learned is trying to use as much that you already have as possible. Um you start you can spend as much or as little on it as you want. The important thing is to be thinking about things like, you know, is your cell phone charged? That requires if you already have a cell phone, you already have a charger. So it's more about adjusting how you live your life and how you're thinking about things, as opposed to going out and buying, you know, an expensive battery pack or or a generator. It's it's what do you have available that you can use in that situation.

Speaker 5 6:08

Does it make sense to have one of those uh you know, they have the packs where you know if it's not quite fully charged, then you've got a backup pack fully charged?

Speaker 4 6:16

If you have the opportunity and if you if you have the fundage and availability to do that, absolutely. Yeah. Um it I the thing that I found was if I if I'm on a limited budget, you know, trying to again just trying to use what I have at my house already. Um, because we've you know we've looked at the battery packs and you're you're talking, you know, $50 to $100 for a decent one. Um and not everybody has that available. Um but if you already have a cell phone charger and you like uh we were talking earlier, uh just changing how your charging patterns. I used to charge my phone whenever the battery got low, but now you know I charge it every night so that every morning I have a full charge and just kind of keeping that makes sense, that process going.

Speaker 5 7:07

I like how uh the idea of it doesn't have to be something that's expensive. Work on what with what you have already and build from that, be as fancy it with it as you want.

Speaker 2 7:16

Yeah, absolutely.

Speaker 5 7:18

Uh so if you were to I kind of you kind of did a little bit with the phones, but if you were to make a list, uh where would you, if someone knew at this, where would you start building from and and what ideally would a general list um compose of?

Speaker 4 7:37

Kind of kind of what a starting point?

Speaker 3 7:39

Yeah.

Speaker 4 7:41

I think for me it was kind of thinking about if the power is out for a day, how start basic. Start basic. Yeah. What what does my life look like if I don't have electricity? One day. One day. Or even one hour. Yeah. Just literally.

Speaker 5 7:58

And it could be in the middle of winter. Could it be 20 degrees outside?

Speaker 4 8:01

It could be a hundred degrees outside.

Speaker 5 8:02

It could I had that happen on Christmas Eve one year. The uh, you know, natural gas for the fireplace was the only thing working.

Speaker 3 8:08

Yeah.

Speaker 5 8:09

And you know, hover around the fireplace, but it was only for uh I think three hours before PUD had everything up and running again. But yeah, that would be one starting point, something minimal amount of time.

Speaker 4 8:20

Just thinking, just thinking about what amount of time can I be can I be comfortable within the environmental conditions? Is it super hot outside? Is it super cold outside? Do I have a blanket that I can that is easily accessible? Do I have, you know, we were talking about water, you know, am I going to get thirsty? Just kind of noting how you live your life so that if there is a disruption of whatever kind, you can be more adaptable and more resilient in those moments. Yeah. Is it even if it's just, oh, it's cold outside, the heater kicks off, or the power shuts down for an hour, an hour is enough to drop the temperature in the house. So do you have an extra blanket already around that you can't. So if you're saying like a week, then what are you building on for that list? Then you're starting to think about food and water and some of those more basic necessities. Uh first aid kits. Um do you have um, you know, medications? Do you have prescriptions that would potentially run out? Do you have a contingency plan for that? Um if it if it's a situation where the power is going to be out for a week, do you have people in the area that you can contact if you have needs so you can rely on those connections and that community? Because such a big part of our preparedness strategy is developing a sense of community and building those connections that you can not necessarily take advantage of someone, but you can lean on someone and be leaned on if the need arises.

Speaker 5 9:53

That's a good point, right? Community, so it doesn't have to be just only in your household. You can also build community within your neighborhood.

Speaker 1 9:59

Absolutely. Yeah.

Speaker 5 10:00

So that's good. And I want to expand on this just a little bit if Jordan's good with this. But also, besides the house, uh, what about in the car? If you're stranded in your car somewhere and something happens, what do you want to have in the vehicle so that you can at least hopefully sit out some of this, whatever whatever the emergency might be?

Speaker 1 10:19

So with preparedness, we have the same priorities. We just scale them to different situations and different bags. And so food, water, first aid, sanitation, shelter. So you're thinking about those key priorities, but then tailoring them to whichever experience. So if you're if you're flashlight? Flashlight, absolutely. Flashlight, that's a great one. Yeah.

Speaker 4 10:43

A headlamp, I found we found some of the things that we have to do. Yeah, that's a great one.

Speaker 5 10:46

The other day you can get like a three-pack and those are great because if you're doing stuff with your hands, uh hands-free, have light whenever you look around.

Speaker 4 10:52

If you're if you need to change a flat tire, you gotta have both hands. Yeah, yeah. Absolutely.

Speaker 5 10:58

Um so something could happen at any moment. This is kind of what we're talking about. How has taken these steps uh made you feel more at ease and like you're gonna be prepared if and when something does happen?

Speaker 4 11:16

I think thinking about it, having a plan uh where there wasn't one before. I mean, I I grew up in Central Oregon where wildfire, like here, was kind of a a constant thought in the summers. And it started with just kind of a backpack by the door with, you know, a couple pairs of socks and whatever I thought I needed when I was 12 years old. Well, as I've gotten older and those needs have evolved to where it's not just socks, but I also have a cat. I also have a partner, I have, you know, I have so many different things that I have to think about now. But fundamentally, that backpack by the door is still kind of the foundation of that. And it's it's the process of thinking about it and planning those things so that kind of like you mentioned at the top, it's it's really hard to make preparations in the middle of something. It's it's it's far better to be prepared than it is to get ready. So I think kind of thinking about it and having a plan, writing things down and kind of practicing, creating a practice of resiliency throughout your week and throughout your day so that it's not all happening when everything else is happening. It's you can kind of rely on a checklist that's already been put together.

Speaker 5 12:33

It's almost like a practiced uh what comes to mind is is the uh the cliche, you know, having a family um escape plan of a fire in the house happening. That's exactly it. If you're not prepared, I don't know if you've seen the the show, the programs where they show like a night vision in someone's home and the alarm goes off and the kids kind of wake up and everyone kind of looks at each other not knowing what to do. As opposed to you've got that plan ready to go, and as soon as that thing hits, that alarm goes off, everyone does their designated.

Speaker 4 13:02

You have a job, you know what you're doing. It there's no you there's no I mean fear plays into it for sure. I'm not gonna say that something like that wouldn't be scary. Right. But the way to kind of move through that is I know what I need to do if this happens. Yep. And thinking about that before it does in a safe situation where you have all day or all week or you know, free time to be able to devote to that is so much better and so much easier than the house is on fire or we're evacuating right now. What do I take?

Speaker 3 13:36

Yeah. That's true. Yeah.

Speaker 5 13:38

And that's gotta be the first step, don't you think, about uh starting to get prepared is is saying, okay, real realizing I need to at least start with a list, I need to do this.

Speaker 2 13:48

Yeah, yeah, absolutely. I know, like for us, um, we've thought a lot about our like our four-legged friends. Um, we have a cat, and so we've created like a little go kit for her that is in a small tote, like a shallow tote. Nice so that that could double as like a litter box if we needed to. So we have extra food for her in there, like an extra blanket that could be bedding for her, stuff like that. And it doesn't take up a lot of space. We can slide it under our bed, um, but we know exactly where it is. So if we did need to leave and leave with our pet, we can just throw that in the backseat of the car, get her, and then it gives you a little peace of mind because we know she has the food she's used to, she has a blanket she's used to, and we even have like a makeshift litter box. So things like that, like I know a lot of people with with dogs or other pets, or or even small kids, you know, where you you know that they can't sleep without their stuffed animal or their special blanket, like knowing where that is, or having maybe a backup or something else that you know that's like an item that's comforting, that's important too. And for adults, like having foods that you actually like, because a lot of the survival foods that you can get are like nutritious, but they're not that good. And we're definitely uh like jar of peanut butter people like have set us back to the phone.

Speaker 4 15:10

The army surplus of yeah. If I if I had a uh like a can of beans versus a jar of peanut butter, there's there's one way that I'm going.

Speaker 5 15:17

As long as you're not mixing the two, one or the other is gonna probably be. So suffice it to say that that when you start the process, the more you you practice and get prepared, the more the better you're gonna feel about this. What would you say to someone who might be listening to this uh that that's always been kind of maybe hesitant to take the steps to do this? What would you say to them to sort of encourage?

Speaker 1 15:41

I would say to start where you're at. I I really think that might be thinking of the power outage or maybe doing a walkthrough at your house and identifying a bag.

Speaker 3 15:52

Yeah.

Speaker 1 15:53

And here is the bag, and then slowly over time fill it with the things that you need. It doesn't need to be this large, daunting task that has to be done this weekend. It really can be something that small actions will add up and the future you will be so thankful. So, what can you do today to make the future you comfortable during a disruption of any size? And so just those small actions, just identifying that bag.

Speaker 5 16:22

Yeah, and I'm guessing when you start doing this, that you start realizing over a while, oh, you know what I'm missing from this? And so you keep building on that.

Speaker 1 16:29

Yes, absolutely.

Speaker 5 16:30

Yeah. Indeed. Well, uh, that's about all the time we have for today. So I want to thank you all for joining me on this episode of CouveCast and Be Ready Vancouver. Be sure to tune into our next episode, which will be part two of the Be Ready Vancouver series. If you want more information about Be Ready Vancouver, check out the website at cityofvancouver.us/beready