PREP Year End Activity Summary Report 2009

Your Point Roberts Emergency Preparedness Group has been very busy this year and achieved a number of important accomplishments. 

Emergency generators have been installed at the community center and the church.

Furthermore, the community center and church are now both officially designated as emergency shelters and one more potential shelter is pending.  Emergency food has been stored at the church and other locations.  PREP has also been working closely with our Health Clinic to post important health information such as H1N1 advisories.  PREP has also established a protocol with both DHS and CBPS regarding transit through the border with H1N1 patients who are privately driven to a hospital in Bellingham.  PREP communicates frequently with the DHS in Point Roberts regarding emergency preparedness issues.

The PREP website (www.prepgroup.org) has been continually updated with emergency preparedness and new articles.  The website was recently updated with a new version of the Drupal base system which improves website performance and security.  The Point Roberts property data entry into our computer system is continuing which greatly improves our ability to help those in need.

In conjunction with the American Red Cross, PREP has organized a number of training secessions with community volunteers regarding shelter training and management.  This training is very important, since it allows our trained volunteers to operate on behalf of the ARC in the event of an emergency.

Furthermore, two of our PREP members are in the process of getting certified as Community Emergency Response Team instructors.  We have a number of CERT trained volunteers and in house instructing will enable us to increase our CERT volunteer base significantly.  Our members of the Medical Reserve Corp continue with their training and upgrading.

Our HAM radio operator group continues to be busy with keeping Point Roberts connected with groups all over Washington State and British Columbia.  We have operators who belong to groups that work in conjunction with the DEM, WCSO, State Patrol, and Blaine Police.

Our working relationship with the American Red Cross continues to grow and we were fortunate to have the ARC here at the PREP information booth in September.  The yearly July 4th and Art Festival events were an opportunity for PREP to connect with our community and the PREP dinner/auction fundraiser at the South Beach House was a great success with 126 people in attendance.

To all of the volunteers, sponsors, and other people who have supported PREP, thank you so much.  We look forward to a continued growing group of people who are here to help you help yourselves!