Portland Now, Emergency Preparedness Plan

Introduction

Feb 02, 2008

Welcome to the site for the Portland Now, Emergency Preparedness Planning.

After Katrina wrecked New Orleans many board members and visitors to Portland Now meetings were concerned about what would happen if we needed to evacuate the neighborhood. They also wondered what Portland residents would do if they needed to take care of themselves for several days. Well, we didn't have those answers. After the shock and sadness of what had happened in New Orleans began to fade, there was very little conversation about this issue. Until August/September of 2007. The questions were brought back up again. There was several minutes of discussion and the Board of Portland Now agreed that this was something that we needed to address.

During a strategic planning meeting the decision was made to explore the possibility of creating an emergency preparedness plan for Portland. The Metro Emergency Management Agency was contacted and was asked should we create an emergency preparedness plan for Portland. They felt the idea had merit. So, a committee was established to create this plan.

The committee has met twice and have already met with American Red Cross representatives as well as someone from NorthWest Area Health Education Center (NWAHEC), with an office in the Portland Family Health Centerand she joined the committee.

Until, we discuss this with a representative from Emergency Management we are not sure what all it will cover, but we do know that evacuation will be in the plan. There will also be opportunities to participate in training through Citizen Corps. Citizen Corps has four training programs they offer and if enough people are registered they will conduct training in a neighborhood.

The committee will meet again on February 7th in the Portland Plaza community room at 6:30 pm. There will also be notes from these meetings on this website.