Preparedness Program Goal

Our goal is to organize into response teams to provide basic services to our neighborhood in the first days after a disaster. These services include:

• Communication with each other and the outside world
• Fire control
• First Aid
• Neighborhood security
• Search and rescue
• Shelter and support

Organization

Under the guidance of the City of Berkeley neighborhood organization document, we are forming three teams of volunteers:

• The Preparedness Team
organizes the response teams after the disaster, and plans for that organization before the disaster. To date, we have filled 4 out of 12 volunteer positions required for a fully functional preparedness team. The Preparedness Team has met the third Saturday of the month, starting January 21, for 4 months and has focused its discussions mostly on the neighborhood cache.
• Section Captains
and their co-captains are liaisons between residents and the neighborhood plan: captains know who lives where, and their special needs. Residents can contact their section captain to discuss their own needs and/or the neighborhood plan. We have captains for the whole block and co-captains for three sections. We are looking for co-captains for the remaining three sections.
• Residents at large
participate in pre-and post-disaster programs organized by the first two teams — e.g., pre-disaster neighborhood walks to identify utility shut-offs and search and rescue operations after the disaster. Residents at large have been meeting the first Saturday of the month, and will continue to do so for now.

A full preparedness program requires 24 volunteer positions; as of now 11 positions remain open. If you would like to volunteer for any position, please contact Robert (email: rvogel at berkeley.edu; phone: 548 5484).

Web Site

Our web site is an integral part of our preparedness program before the disaster. After the disaster, we assume the web will be unavailable. The design goal is to build an interactive, secure web site where authorized and participating residents can log on to:

• View a disaster preparedness plan.
The personalized plan will include instructions common to all residents.
• Print copies of the plan for storage in emergency supply/first aid kits around the home
easily accessible post-disaster to residents of the home as well as to rescuers.
• Obtain maps
with utility shut-offs for the section and for the entire block.
• Obtain meeting schedules and notes.
• Access other information
made available by the preparedness team and the section captains (for example, home water treatment systems).
• Identify section captains and preparedness team members.
• Section captains will maintain printed emergency reports for all participating residents in the section, as well as section maps.

Neighborhood Cache

We will fund and acquire a cache of supplies (medical, general, search and rescue, communication and fire control). The cache will be split into two approximately equal halves, which they will be housed in locations known to people, so that they are easily accessible, but not removable. The current budget for the cache is $15,000 and the first step for funding will be to solicit voluntary contributions of $500 per household. We have also applied for City of Berkeley funds, but we will proceed with our plan as if no funding will be coming from the city. Details on the content of the cache and estimate of cost of each item is available here.