Emergency preparedness program helps neighbors with disaster planning

Sans Souci West is somewhat of a secret tucked at the end of Boone Avenue along the Spokane River – about 220 modular homes in a gated community for people 55 and older.

Ponderosa pines tower above the tidy home sites with little to remind people it is the former site of Natatorium Park, the original home of Spokane’s Looff Carrousel in Riverfront Park.

There’s a large clubhouse with a swimming pool offering many activities from weekly tai chi classes and poker games to the monthly potluck dinners and bingo games. Yet the truth is, as is common in today’s society, many residents don’t know their neighbors. Or at least not well enough to know how much help they would need if there was a disaster such as a wildfire.

That’s why a handful of residents are working to create an emergency readiness plan using the step-by-step guide program known as Map Your Neighborhood. Helping them with the process is David Byrnes, the director of the Medical Reserve Corps of Eastern Washington.

“We’ve got some people who are really disabled,” said Sans Souci West organizer Dave Reynolds, who has lived at the park since 2005. “The idea of not being able to get them out is just frightening.”

The last time the park was evacuated was in November 1996 during ice storm. Then tragedy struck last year when an early Christmas morning house fire killed a woman in Sans Souci West. The fire department was able to stop the fire from spreading in the neighborhood where homes are tightly clustered.

Reynolds, who works for the Arc of Spokane, heard about the Map Your Neighborhood program and thought it was perfect for Sans Souci West, which only has one access road.

Because he works with people with disabilities, Reynolds knows first-hand how vulnerable they are in a disaster. He noted that a large proportion of people who died in Hurricane Katrina were the elderly or people with disabilities.

Reynolds and a dozen other residents have been volunteering since June to go door-to-door to find out who lives where and what their needs are in a disaster. Are they in a wheelchair? Do they have animals they would refuse to leave? Do they have dementia or other chronic diseases? Do they have a special skill that could help in an emergency? Do they have a generator?

The idea isn’t for neighbors to act as first responders. Instead it’s a way to help the most vulnerable residents until first responders arrive, which in a disaster can take time. The goal is to help people, reduce injuries and property damage, and prevent panic with careful planning so neighbors know how to rely on each other in the hours or even days before fire, medical, police and utility responders arrive. The process can also strengthen communities and boost quality of life.

“Those of us who are neighbors really need to rely on each other,” said resident Eileen Murphy at a recent planning meeting, where she reported nobody in her section used a wheelchair but there were a couple people who had had strokes.

The group is using the mailbox clusters throughout the kidney-shaped neighborhood to divvy up sections. There are 16 areas that each leader is responsible for mapping, from finding out who lives where and their needs, to locating natural gas meters and propane tanks. They also are finding out what special skills or equipment people have. In the end, the neighborhood should have a complete contact list.

Several other Spokane and Stevens county neighborhoods already completed the Map Your Neighborhood program. The Medical Reserve Corps wants to help anyone interested in preparing a disaster readiness plan in their neighborhood, Bryne said.

The system was put to the test this summer when the Rail Canyon Fire broke out near Sylvia Miller’s rural Williams Valley neighborhood north of Clayton. Miller, a veterinarian who is a Medical Reserve Corps volunteer, instigated the Map Your Neighborhood program earlier this year. So in early July when she saw a huge plume of smoke to the west, she knew who to call.

“We started our call tree,” she said. “Letting people know there was a fire and we were keeping track of it and there was no need to evacuate but to get teams ready.”

Being so rural, residents owned numerous horses, sheep and cattle. For Miller, it was a relief to have a plan on how to evacuate the animals as well as the people.

The fire moved west and north away from their neighborhood, so the full disaster plan wasn’t used. But it was a reassuring to have a plan. Miller said the communication within her neighborhood was good, the problem was trying to get information from the outside about the fire and where it was headed.

“I highly recommend people use this program,” Miller said, adding that some of her neighbors weren’t interested in sharing their numbers or skills with the folks next door. “This is more about saving neighbors lives and property. It’s not a spying device. It’s to help your community and make sure you are safe.”

Miller said her sister-in-law is a local disaster manager in a small coastal town in Oregon. She’s used Washington’s Map Your Neighborhood program in her community.

Reynolds at San Souci West said it’s been worth the leg work and monthly meetings to ensure his neighbors are safe.

“If we can save one life or one home, it’s worth it,” Reynolds said.