The EssentiaList

by Catherine Haug

Part of ESP’s mission is to build a stronger Bigfork community, and an integral part of that community is helping our neighbors and our families to be prepared for any emergency or disaster that might befall us.

I have volunteered to help get the Bigfork Emergency Response Team (BERT) website up and running, with links to important informational about preparedness for everyone to access. I am also providing these links on our ESP website for your convenience. These include things like:

• Supplies kits and checklists including ESP Document: Emergency Supplies List;
• Suggestions on how to be ready for whatever may come;
• National Weather Service and their Missoula Hydrograph site that tracks river levels;
• Guide to evacuation levels;
• Sheltering in place;
• FEMA and Red Cross info sites and brochures.

To see all articles concerning preparedness on this site, go to Emergency Preparedness Articles..

About impending flooding

Be aware that even though your home may be on high ground, you could still be negatively impacted by the flood. For example:

• Road and/or bridge closures could leave you isolated and unable to get to a grocery store, etc.;
• The ground beneath your home could be saturated from underground springs or ground water, and flood your basement/crawl space even though you are well above streams and lakes. (This problem is already affecting people in the Bigfork area);
• If you are on a hillside, overflowing springs can cause rock and/or mud slides that could damage your property or home, or block access to roads.

Your most important asset in the face of any emergency is your neighbors, as you all can help each other deal with whatever may come, and provide a sense of security in the face of disaster.

ESP Website Changes

You will notice several new menus in the right-hand column of our home page, as I am reorganizing our site to make information more readily accessible for those who are not versed in searching a blog. These new menus are:

• BLOG (all posts, in reverse chronological order)
• About ESP
• Events
• Preparedness

The Preparedness menu is where you will find the information to help prepare your family and home for the flood (or other disasters). So far, here’s what is listed:

This entry was posted on Wednesday, May 11th, 2011 at 10:14 am and is filed under Community, Emergency Preparedness, ESP Matters. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.