Personal Preparedness: The foundation of MVEST disaster management planning is a solid personal preparedness program. As incidents are uncommon, personal preparedness can easily be relegated to a low priority or forgotten with day-to-day activities. This team works to help keep personal preparedness planning a priority for residents.
The Personal Preparedness Team also addresses personal and residential risk mitigation measures such as:
- Fire safe home maintenance
- Domestic fire-prevention education
- Fire extinguisher use and placement within the home
- Earthquake-resistant bracing for our houses
- Home emergency evacuation planning
- Home furniture, cabinet, and drawer seismic security, and much more
MVEST takes advantage of the many public resources available for disaster preparedness: Get Ready Marin, Marin County CERT, Vial-of-Life, Cal OES and FEMA training programs, and the conscientious assistance of the Novato Fire District and other local agencies and non-government organizations (NGOs) such as Red Cross.
Marin Valley community preparedness begins with personal preparedness for either a quick evacuation or for sheltering in place. Residents are encouraged to have a readily accessible “go-bag” of personal essentials to facilitate rapid compliance with an evacuation order. Residents are also encouraged to prepare and maintain a minimum 5-day supply of water, food, and other essentials in the event of a shelter-in-place disaster scenario. Educating the residents about these programs is accomplished by regular articles in the Echo, presentations at the clubhouse, and hands-on work by the Block Captains, who personally visit our residents to encourage preparedness of each household and keeping an updated Vial-of-Life. All MVEST volunteers are strongly encouraged to be personally prepared and to mitigate their residential risks so they can be quickly responsive to emergencies.