Wanda Vollmer knows what it’s like to go through a disaster. When she was in her twenties, she moved back to her family’s central California ranch to help care for her mom. In August of 1994, in San Luis Obispo County, what became known as the Highway 41 fire burned 49,000 acres of land and 42 houses including Vollmer’s family home.

The task for February is to make an action plan. Creating an action plan involves deciding what to do when a disaster strikes and practicing it in advance. There are three main steps to creating an action plan.

The public is invited to attend a new training opportunity, a FEMA class called Until Help Arrives. The class is being offered March 19 from 5 to 8 p.m. at the House of Awakened Culture in Suquamish through a partnership among Kitsap911, North Kitsap Fire & Rescue, and Suquamish Community Health.

The Prepare in a Year task for January is to create a communications plan. The City’s Climate Smart Team is focusing on creating a Climate Smart Communications Plan for when you’re traveling.

Bay Hay and Feed is currently featured in the Chamber of Commerce display window and is using the occasion to emphasize two ways to prepare for emergencies: water storage and sanitation kits.

Bainbridge Island takes its pickleball quite seriously. Ever since the game invention right here in 1965 by Joel Pritchard, Bill Bell, and Barney McCallum, islanders have devoted time, energy, and intense emotion to the sport. Maybe that is why pickleball lends itself perfectly to emergency preparedness.

Kitsap Transit is reminding riders that, when it snows—like it might through Sunday—and road conditions become unsafe, they may activate Snow Routes and their Emergency Service Plan.

We've had a mild fall here on Bainbridge Island, but this week the weather is revving up and bringing us high winds, more rain, and then cold and snow toward the end of the week. That means power outages are likely

You can prepare your household for emergencies in one year by taking a few small steps each month. In January, make a communications plan.

The Bainbridge Prepares partnership is excited to announce Prepare in a Year 2024, a year-long participatory event for the entire community.

Every year since 2013, FEMA has conducted a survey on how well American households are prepared for disasters. The results for 2023 have just been released.

The National Weather Service (NWS) just awarded Bainbridge Island with its TsunamiReady® and StormReady® designations. The designations mean the City has followed NWS guidelines for enhancing public safety in face of the likelihood of a post-earthquake tsunami reaching the island’s shores or of storm surges that affect the coastline.

Instead of giving people things they don’t need this year, why not show them how much you care by giving them the gift of preparedness? There are tons of preparedness gifts to choose from, in a wide range of prices that can work as Hanukkah gifts, stocking stuffers, host gifts, and even presents for the entire family.

BP is announcing an exciting emergency preparedness program set up for 2024. Our goal is to get as many Islanders as possible prepared in 2024 for emergencies.

The National Weather Service (NWS) is forecasting 6 to 15 inches of mountain snow for today December 7 and tomorrow in the Olympics and Cascades above 3,000 feet, including all the passes. If you are planning on driving through the mountain passes, take a moment to prepare your vehicle for the weather.

It’s December and it’s raining cats and dogs and a few large farm animals as well. So what are you going to do to prepare for emergencies at such a time? Stay inside and look around! This is a good time to review everything you’ve done on this 12-month journey to prepare—and feel good about all that hard work. It’s also the time to make sure you haven’t missed anything.

If you live or spend time on the beaches or low-lying areas, be aware of high King Tides Tuesday and Wednesday mornings this week (11/28 and 29).

Looking for ways to store water for emergencies? Local feed store Bay Hay and Feed now offers two excellent items to help you: water storage tanks and water stabilizer treatment.

John Fossett, the adult services librarian at the Bainbridge Public Library, once attended a virtual preparedness summit at which a woman said, “If you can’t grow food in your community, you are not prepared.”

Sheltering in place is not something we have much reason to do in western Washington. But when we do, it is of utmost importance to do it right. Almost always, the occasion will be a chemical, biological, or radiological event.