Be Prepared! (Updated)

Bill "Daily Pundit" Quick has started a new board for discussion of preparedness and survival:  Survival Preps.

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The City of Auburn, WA, is holding Community Emergency Response Team training starting October 5.

I am embarrassed to realize that Kent, Renton and Federal Way already started their fall classes, yesterday or last week, and I missed them.  Sorry.

One of the nice things about Kent's CERT training is that they run two sessions, one in the afternoon for local businesses, and one in the evening for residents.  (Although residents aren't barred from the afternoon sessions, or vice versa.)

Federal Way has "Neighborhood Emergency Teams", which are sort of CERT Lite, and advanced training for CERTs as well.

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Added:  Meant to include this all along.  Anyone who suffered through this blog last year heard all too much about the Howard Hanson Dam and it's imminent collapse. (Which wasn't true, the dam was fine, it was one embankment, but never mind...)
 A member of the amateur radio club forwarded this email to us:

This update on the Howard Hanson Dam is being sent from Vice President and Boeing Chief Security Officer Dave Komendat to all Boeing employees in Washington and Oregon.

Howard Hanson Dam efforts ramping up

In recent weeks, area news media have reported on the condition of the Howard Hanson Dam and the significant progress made to repair damage caused by severe rains during the winter storms of 2008 and 2009.

As a result of these repairs, the Army Corps of Engineers has reduced the potential flood risk from 1 in 33 to 1 in 60. Additionally, the Corps received $44 million in federal funds to complete the work needed to repair the damage and bring the dam to a 140-year protection level.

While this is all good news, the progress made to date has not eliminated the risk of flooding. Put simply: we’re not out of the woods yet. The Corps remains confident that the dam is not at risk of failure, but the remaining work is expected to continue for another two to three years and restrictions on the dam’s water level and flood storage remain in place. This reduced storage capacity could result in larger and more frequent releases of water during heavy rains, which would increase the potential of flooding in the Green River valley.

Additionally, the National Weather Service’s Climate Prediction Center, has predicted that a more severe winter season lies ahead as La Nina moves in and replaces the El Nino system we experienced last year. Many areas are already experiencing severe flooding particularly those states in the Midwest regions like Minnesota and Wisconsin. This is a reminder that we need to be prepared for higher-than-average rainfall and possibly a heavier snow pack than we experienced last year.
I've left off a lot of Boeing-specific information. 

So, the oh-so-lovely barriers in the Green River Vally through Kent are still there, and will continue to be for the foreseeable future.  Things actually look pretty good, vis-a-vis the dam.  But flooding is a reality here, especially since they took some of the best agricultural land in North America and turned it into highways, parking lots, and warehouses...