Friday, July 31, 2009

Head of FEMA commenting on Personal Preparedness

FEMA Head (Craig Fugate) Says Personal Preparedness “Must Be National Priority”; Requires “Considerable National Attention” — “Every Elected And Appointed Official At Every Level of Government Must Make It A Priority”

Pretty clear directive from the Head of FEMA.

http://incaseofemergencyblog.com/2009/07/28/fema-head-says-personal-preparedness-must-be-national-priority-requires-considerable-national-attention-every-elected-and-appointed-official-at-every-level-of-government-must-make-it-a-p/

Thursday, July 23, 2009

Revised Ojai OK Drill date

The date for the Ojai OK Drill has been changed.

It is now confirmed to Wednesday, October 14th, 2009.

Drill begins at 7PM -- NERT teams go to their rendezvous points

Counting completed by 8:00PM

Counts communicated by 8:30PM, via Ham Radio, to Emergency Operations Center

Saturday, July 18, 2009

Welcome to the OK Drill

Thank you for spending time reviewing this web-site. We request you seriously consider implementing this OK Drill within your local volunteer emergency response organizations.

It is important to reach out to your Government and Emergency Response Agencies. During Ojai's 2008 OK Drill, we enjoyed the support of: Ventura County Office of Emergency Services (Reverse 911 Drill), Ventura County Fire Department (visits to 5th grade classrooms and adopting the OK Sign Drill), Ventura County Board of Supervisors (Supervisor Steve Bennett's office providing several thousand OK signs), Ojai City Hall (Support from Mayor and City Council), Ventura County Sheriff's Department (AM Radio Station broadcast), Ojai Valley Amateur Radio Club (Ham Operators shadowing each Neighborhood Area Coordinator and providing communications at our local Emergency Operations Center (EOC)), American Red Cross for providing assistance during counting, and to all the CERT Graduates who searched their neighborhoods looking for and counting OK signs. The primary effort of the drill came from CERT and the community, with strong support provided from Government and Professional First Responders.

The opportunities for creating/enhancing teamwork, communications, and leadership are quite profound.

The annual OK Drill has been consistently performed by the Culver City CERT and Culver City Amateur Radio Emergency Service - it is impressive they can size-up the entire city and communicate results within an hour.

Ojai Valley CERT first implemented the OK Drill on 9/17/08 (700 signs counted within one hour) and has since enjoyed: CERT Classes averaging 40 students; licensing over 42 additional Ham Radio Operators; CERT leadership throughout Valley; and strategic partnerships created between Ojai Valley Amateur Radio Club and American Red Cross.

Between now and the drill we will post articles on this Blog, including use of Twitter ( http://www.twitter.com/okdrill ), Facebook and GoToWebinar.

Our objective is to "push the envelope" by generating (using the power of technology and mutual agreement) a possibility of having as many volunteer emergency response teams holding their OK Drill on the same day (10/14/09) at 7:00PM, your local time. The synergy created will lay a foundation for future drills.

We're avoiding the need to email out updates, so please consider "following" this blog-site, including frequent checks of the calendar at the bottom of the page. Feel free to post questions you have.

Thank You from all of us at Ojai Valley CERT