2007- Some interested members got together for a couple of meetings. A few individuals went door to door in Area 3 and started talking about emergency preparation. A number of handouts and forms were developed relating to sign up sheets, emergency prep supply lists among others. Active members included: Mark Easley, Doug Rich, Frederique Lavios, Amy Monahan and others.
2010- Assistant Fire Chief Larry Goff came to speak at a PNA board meeting and generally stated that the City of Lake Oswego wasn’t capable of helping residents in the event of a large-scale emergency disaster. It was up to neighbors to help neighbors during these trying times.
April 2011- An emergency Preparedness sign-up sheet was passed around during the PNA General meeting and nine residents signed up.
The first Committee meeting was at the municipal golf course (Bunkers) on May 13th with nine people attending. We discussed communications- chain of command, Resources and skills, What is an emergency? Using Area 3 as our test area for developing programs that can be used in all 13 PNA areas. Leadership for the committee: Rick Eilers as committee lead, Doug Rich as the city liaison, Mark Easley for communications, Frederique Lavios for website communication, and Albie Almeida as area 3 rep. We agreed on bi-monthly meetings to keep the momentum going.
May 27, 2011- Committee meeting at Bunkers. We discussed what our committee’s purpose is, what we are striving for and attempting to accomplish. We discussed a door to door questionnaire and a basic survival list.
June 2, 2011- Status of Palisades new website. We were updated with information on how the PNA website can be used to forward emergency preparedness information, such as: area maps, supply lists, links to emergency organizations and publications, newsletters and area contacts.
June 10, 2011- Committee meeting at Bunkers. Discussion on emergency response planning in Area 3 and breaking this area into four sub-areas with block leaders for groups of 20-22 homes each. We discussed holding a block party and invite neighbors to meet each other, discuss emer. Prep. and gathering emails. A mock-up information card was developed and open for committee review.
Summer came finally and it was difficult to get people to meetings. The next meeting was in July.
July 21, 2011- Committee meeting at Bunkers. We discussed if LO Muni Golf Course could be used as a resource for tools or fuel. We discussed purchasing supplies as a group to save time and costs and where to find barrels or buckets for storage.
August 28, 2011- PNA board meeting- I informed the PNA board and residents the progress we’ve made and what we are currently doing.
Sept. 14-Oct 29, 2011- Four members of Palisades joined the fall session of CERT training. This was provided by the Lake Oswego Fire Dept. at the Westlake station. Those that took and completed the course were: Gail Parrick, Rick Eilers, Gregory Monahan and Bruce Goldman.
Nov-Dec 2011- The PNA applied to receive a grant from the city of Lake Oswego relating to emergency preparedness and we were successful. The $2500 grant purchased 24 sets of two-way radios to be evenly distributed throughout the community and used as emergency communication during times of a disaster. We also purchased 50 emergency starter 72 hour backpacks to sell to residents to help them get prepared. We are selling these at cost so we can re-purchase new supplies and continue the process. Another Item was natural gas shut-off wrenches which we purchased 50 and NW Natural donated another 100. Both Gail Parrick and Rick Eilers contributed equally on making the grant a reality. This was Palisade’s first grant award.
January 2012- Gail and I spent lots of time ordering and assembling all the materials from our grant award.
Feb 12-Apr 1st 2012 I hosted a class on Family Preparedness to seven families of the PNA that were interested in preparing for a longer term emergency than 72 hours. Our goal was to be self-sufficient for 30 days with enough water, food, fuel, first aid and emergency supplies to last until more help was available. The class was broken up in to 4 two hour sessions.
March 15, 2012- I met with the Uplands NA board to describe all the accomplishments and failures of the PNA’s NEP program and help them develop their own. I answered lots of questions and gave them sample forms and documents that our association members had designed.
March 22, 2012- Frederique Lavios hosted a Shelf Reliance party to demonstrate freeze-dried and dehydrated foods for survival storage. Many of these items have 25 to 30 year shelf life and are very economical compared to store purchased foods. These can also be used to fight the ever increasing rise in food prices due to inflation. Also displayed were emergency backpacks, emergency car packs, water filtration and other survival gear.
April 19th is Palisades general meeting at the Lakeridge HS rotunda at 7pm. Check the PNA website for more information www.palisadesneighborhood.org
Here’s a list of NEP committee members that have all contributed to our neighborhood emergency preparation goals:
Doug Rich
Gail Parrick
Frederique Lavios
Albie Almeida
Mark Easley
Terry Harty
Gregory and Amy Monahan
Rick Eilers
Christina Hardy
Libet Streiff
Haris Wolfgang
John and June Carlson
Future goals:
Gather more resident’s emails to notify them when PNA events or issues are happening.
Neighborhood radio testing
A summer picnic focusing on emergency preparations
Train 72 hour pack experts
Develop a PNA emergency response plan and an emergency preparedness plan
Get more folks involved
