Safety Tip - National Preparedness Month - Week 1

This past year, we completed a full update of our Business Continuity Plan – the first major overhaul since 2011. That last iteration of the plan laid out a pandemic playbook that served us well during COVID, but it was time to bring it into alignment with FEMA and Incident Command System principles, as well as county and state emergency management practices. This updated version is also strengthened for the types of disasters we know are possible here – from a major Cascadia-scale earthquake affecting our region to localized wildfires like the ones we’ve already experienced.



Each department representatives for each department recently convened to update your Department Response Plans. These define the essential functions of each team – the tasks that must continue in any emergency – and identify what can pause should we need to go into an all hands on deck disaster response or if we couldn’t access some of our critical facilities or systems. 



These plans only work when all of us understand our role. Preparedness is a shared responsibility. Looks for an upcoming intranet post directing you to review the updated plan and your department’s role. By staying ready both at work and at home, you help ensure we can keep serving our community whether we’re facing a major regional event or a smaller, localized emergency.


Week 1 Challenge:

Alerts and Warnings: This week, we are focusing on signing up for alerts and warnings.

You can go to Ready.gov/alerts to sign up for:

  • Wireless Emergency Alerts (WEAs)

  • Emergency Alert System (EAS)

  • NOAA Weather Radio (NWR)

  • Integrated Public Alert and Warning Systems (IPAWS)

  • FEMA mobile App

You can also get Mason County alerts through the Mason County Emergency Management site, masoncountywa.gov.

Another popular app is Watch Duty, specifically for wildfires.

If you’ve signed up, fill out the form below to let us know you participated in Safety Preparedness Month and enter you into a drawing to win a bronze item of your choice! We will draw and announce the winner on Mondays.

Good luck!

GIVEAWAY!

Fill out the form below by noon on Monday, September 15th to be entered into this week’s giveaway and a chance to win a Bronze Item.

Announcements, SafetyAli BurgessAnnouncements, Notify