Get Involved in Local Emergency Management

Emergency management and disaster response is too important to be left to professionals and to governments, if for no other reason than those two groups will be overwhelmed by a big disaster, as the events in Japan have shown over the past week. One good way for individuals to learn more about how to be useful in an emergency is to participate in a CERT (Community Emergency Response Team) Program. Besides general information about the program, the site has an index of local CERT programs, so you can find one close to you.

Washington State Comprehensive Emergency Management Plan

In light of recent events in Japan, I thought I would look into the state of emergency planning in Cascadia. The first thing I have dug up is the Washington State Comprehensive Emergency Management Plan (499 pg. pdf).