The Brickyard Neighborhood

About Us

The neighborhood consists of about 80 households, with a mixture of homeowners and renters. We started our disaster preparedness efforts in 2016 after several of us participated in the city's CERT (Community Emergency Response Team) training. Our main focus is on preparing individually and collectively to meet the challenges we will face when an earthquake hits us.

Join Us

Everyone is encouraged to participate however they feel comfortable. Within our set boundaries, we welcome both renters and homeowners, with the goal of creating a resilient, helping community.

We typically meet every other month (odd numbered months) to plan, train, learn and reinforce our sense of community.

If you live outside our area, we would be happy to help you establish your own organization.

Committees

We have established several committees to focus on what we anticipate will be pressing needs in the hours, days, and weeks after a major disaster strikes the Northwest.

You can always come to the monthly meetings, or get more involved by joining one (or more) of our committees

Our current committees and their focus:

Medical (Kathy): Keep our supplies current, help train interested neighbors, oversee physical help when it is needed.

Food (Renee): Recommend storage supplies for households, set up and oversee cooking for the neighborhood, if needed.

Sanitation (Rebecca): Help households accumulate needed equipment to deal with lack of indoor plumbing, if it comes to that.

Structural damage (Larry): Fix minor problems (broken windows, sticking doors, downed trees, etc.).

Pets (Nancy): Offer recommendations for taking care of pets in the home.

Assistance (Pete): Be on the lookout for neighbors with special needs (age, medical problems, limited preparation, etc.)

Outreach (Lynn): Increase neighborhood preparation and participation in training and getting to know each other.

Here are the supplies we have on hand at the ‘Base’ location.

(2) Triage kits
(2) Medical kits
Medical evacuation carry seat, and litter
(12) Walkie-talkies
Laminated large neighborhood map
Extra hard hats
Wood burning Rocket stove
Tarps and blankets
Sanitation station

Supplies We Have

We strongly encourage each household to provide for their own food, water, and sanitation.

Having the basics for medical care and immediate support will give us a good head start in coping with the aftermath of a disaster.

We have collected donations of money and supplies for first aid, walkie-talkies, etc.

Supplies We Need

There are certain items that we would like to have access to in an emergency. If you have any of these things that would be available, please let us know.

The following items are on our wishlist. If you have any of these things that would be available in an emergency, please let us know.

a generator for our electrical needs if the grid goes down

a heater for the care center when it is set up. If we have a generator, then an electric heater would work and be easy to find. Access to a non-electric heating source that is safe for indoor use would be valuable

a drone for neighborhood surveillance

an operator with access to a longer range HAM radio to extend our capabilities

an additional solar panel to recharge electronic devices

an additional small refrigerator (like in an RV) for storing temperature sensitive prescriptions, etc.

We will add to this list when we can. If you have a question about our efforts, please email it to:

Pete (peterpowers59@gmail.com ) or

Rebecca (ravengold@icloud.com)

Why is the city/state/government not responsible for this?

It may be a large enough disaster that the government services are overwhelmed and we need to take care of ourselves as best we can.

Shouldn’t the Brickyard group collect food and water for everyone?

It is easier and more practical for individuals and households to prepare for themselves. Our group's focus is to help each other prepare and to make plans for assisting each other when the time comes.

How can I get involved?

Look over the website to become familiar with our planning; make your own plans and preparations; join us for bi-monthly meetings; contribute time to to working on one of our committees.

Will you help me prepare?

Yes. We address issues such as food and water storage as a group at our regular meetings, but are happy to help you individually, too.

What am I committing to by being involved?

Our informational neighborhood meetings are scheduled for the first Monday of every other month and last one hour. Beyond that, we welcome any help with committee work that focuses on specific issues. There is no need for you to participate at all, but we’re hoping to build a resilient, caring community who can work together effectively.

I faint when I see blood. Will you ask me to do medical procedures?

Of course not. You might surprise yourself, though, by finding strength in an emergency in order to help others.

Does the Good Samaritan law protect us?

This legal principle prevents rescuers who voluntarily helped a victim in distress from being successfully sued for wrongdoing, as long as the responder acted rationally, in good faith, and in accordance with their level of training.

Four key elements in good samaritan laws are:

Permission of ill/injured person when possible.
Care given in appropriate (non-reckless) manner.
Person covered by good samaritan laws was NOT the one who caused an accident.
Care was being given because it was an emergency situation and trained help had yet to arrive.

If I’m not home when a disaster happens, will someone take care of my pets, my children, etc.?

We are a resilient, caring neighborhood. In a disaster, we will do our best to take care of the members of our community. Please make sure that someone knows if you have special needs.

FAQs

Look here for answers to questions that aren’t covered elsewhere. Feel free to suggest others that we should cover.

FAQs