Be prepared!

Raising awareness and planning for emergencies in the Bigfork area.

Event Notice: Bigfork Preparedness Fair, May 5, 2012

from the Bigfork Eagle; originally published March 25, 2012; updated April 2 and 25, 2012

View Flyer for Preparedness Fair, May 5, 2012

What: Bigfork Preparedness Fair, sponsored by Bigfork Emergency Response Team (BERT)

This is not just about preparing for floods, earthquakes, fires or other natural disasters. It is also about preparing for an uncertain future, such as the effect of inflation and fuel prices on the availability of food supply.

When: May 5, 2012, 10 AM – 5 PM

Where: Bigfork Elementary School (room not yet published)

Who: Free and open to public

If you or your group would like to have a table at the fair, contact BERT, PO Box 85, Bigfork MT 59911.

Additional Information:

See the BERT Contact for additional contact information.

The  purpose of this fair is to inform the public on various ways to be prepared for emergencies. “If you fail to plan, then you plan to fail,” according to Dr. Bruce Nelson of BERT. “Basically, we want to get prepared to take care of each other.”

Currently, BERT is seeking residents with preparedness related skills to share at the fair. As of April 2, the following skills & knowledge have been offered for booths and demonstrations:

  • Trish Ervin – Cooking with wheat
  • Olaf Ervin – Home guard and preparedness food and flooding
  • Ed Mathews – Fires and command tent
  • C.J. Woff – HAM radio
  • Mary Westerman – Candlemaking, canning and preparing seeds in the ground
  • Lana Nelson – Food storage and milk
  • Chris Corrigan – Outdoor cooking and Dutch ovens
  • Kim Moss and Julie Hall – Bees
  • Clark Herron – Milk that can be left on a shelf
  • Adam Grigsby – Container gardening
  • MSU – gardening
  • Freeze-dried food
  • Sandbagging
  • Bigfork and Ferndale fire departments
  • United Way representatives
  • Army Corp of Engineers representatives
  • United Way
  • Red Cross
  • Vet’s Club

The following lectures are planned:

  • Army Corps of Engineers
  • Rainbow Restoration
  • Bigfork Emergency Response Team
  • Ham operations
  • Bigfork Fire History and Potential (Rick Trembath)
  • Red Cross
  • Self Defense (MattNaber)
  • Container Gardening (Adam Grigsby from Plant Land)
  • Preparedness

 

Flood Information Hotline – Flathead Co. OES

By Catherine Haug, from the Daily InterLake, May 18 edition:

If you live in Flathead County, make note of this number:

Hotline Number: 758-2111

Due to overwhelming number of calls, the Flathead County Office of Emergency Services (OES) has opened a telphone hotline of recorded information on:

Please call the hotline number (758-2111) for information regarding the above topics, to allow the main OES number (758-5562) to be open for emergency calls (life or death situations).

see also:

 

 

Preparedness for Any Emergency

by Catherine Haug

I have volunteered to help get the Bigfork Emergency Info website up and running, with links to important informational about preparedness for everyone to access. These include things like: (more…)

Cat’s 4-Day Grab & Go Emergency Food Pack

by Catherine Haug, April 30, 2011

(photo of Trio Bar from MrsMays.com)

After learning from Lana Nelson about what sorts of things to include in a 96-hour (4-day) emergency food pack earlier this week, I decided to go shopping for my own. While her recommendations are fine for most people, I have special needs as a hypoglycemic (insulin resistant) person. This health issue (related to diabetes) requires a diet high in protein, especially animal protein, along with fat and fiber to stabilize my blood sugar. And I need adequate magnesium for my heart.

I don’t want to stock things I would never eat in the absence of an emergency, so I spent more than Lana’s $20 pack. I tried to avoid products with added sugar, preservatives and artificial ingredients, which is very hard to do when dealing with packaged foods. And I tried to buy Organic when possible.

Here’s what my 4-day pack looks like (without the water):

Cat’s 4-Day Emergency Food Pack

Daily Menu (for one person)

I shopped at Harvest Foods in Bigfork and Withey’s in Kalispell for all of the items in my pack. You may get a better price than mine by shopping at stores like Costco and Walmart, but then you will not be supporting the local economy as well as when you shop at locally owned stores. See my post Buy Local Flathead for more.

Total 1635 calories; cost under $60 (doesn’t include bottled water).

  • Breakfast: 1 Organic Pro Bar, 1 apple juice, 1 probiotic; 470 calories
  • Snack: 1 Emergen-C, 1 Lärabar or Trio Bar; 245 calories
  • Lunch: 4 rye crisps with salmon, sardines or chicken; 240 calories
  • Snack: 1 package peanuts; 290 calories
  • Dinner: 1 can soup, 3 Rye crisp, and 1 applesauce cup; 390 calories
  • Before Bed: 1 Ionic fizz with 1 probiotic; 0 calories

My only regret: inability to keep a cultured dairy product such as raw cheese in the pack, as part of the daily breakfast.

Shopping List

For 1 Person

  • 4 each Pro Bar (Peanut butter, grains seeds, fruit as main ingredients)
  • 4 Lärabars (just nuts, seeds and fruits) or Trio Bars (nuts, seeds, fruits, unrefined sugar and sea salt)
  • 4 Organic Peanut packs  (2 oz ea)
  • 2 boxes Kavli Golden Rye Crisps (14 pieces/box)
  • 1 single-serve pouch Albacore tuna
  • 1 single-serve pouch Pink Salmon
  • 1 can sardines with pop top (3.75 oz)
  • 1 can white chicken in water with pop top (5 oz)
  • 4 Organic canned soups (not condensed), with pop top (18.5 oz ea); Serve with 1 rye crisp
  • 4 Organic, unsweetened applesauce cups (4 oz ea)
  • 4 each 100% Apple Juice drink boxes (6.75 oz each), which I will dilute with water
  • Life Savers (1 pack 5-Flavor, 1 pack Butter-Rum) [NOTE: these are not good for me, but they provide something to suck on. I'll try not to use them.]
  • 4 packets Emergen-C (for vitamins, minerals; must be mixed with water or apple juice
  • 4 packets Ionic Fizz (for magnesium & other minerals; must be mixed with water or apple juice; best taken before bed
  • 8 capsules probiotic (room-temperature stable); take 1 with water or juice for breakfast, and 1 with water or juice before bed

For my 2 cats:

  • 8 cans high meat content cat food (6 oz each)
  • 8 servings Veterinary Pea and Duck formula kibble scooped into a zip lock bag

 

Event Summary: Preparing an Emergency 4-day (96 hour) Food & Water Pack

4-Day Food Pack for 1

by Catherine Haug, April 27, 2011

(Photo of 4-day food pack by Lana Nelson; NOTE: fruit leather is missing from the photo)

This event was held on Tuesday, April 26, 2011 at 7 PM in the Bigfork High School Music Room, and was hosted by the recently formed Bigfork Emergency Response Team (BERT), as part of their 2011 Community Preparedness work.

Topics covered at this event:

  • Welcome by Cheryl Richmond
  • Report on current situation, by Mark Noland
  • Ways to become involved, by Bruce Nelson
  • Emergency communication, by Jim Eddington
  • 96-hour Food Pack and Water by Lana Nelson
  • 4-Day (96 Hour) Emergency Kit (Food Only), by Lana Nelson (printable pdf)

In addition, I have added some recommendations from ESP community members.

Here are two news items about how other communities came together to recover from floods:

  • After Floods: Nashville Proud of Model Recovery (NPR News Item): As communities across the country’s midsection respond to potentially historic flooding, federal emergency officials say they could take some cues from Nashville. The city endured record-breaking rainfall and devastating floods one year ago, and FEMA continues to point to the local response as a model. From member station WPLN, Blake Farmer reports.
  • Community Preparedness for Flooding  in Vernonia OR (ESP post based on article in The Oregonian): A small, rural community organized to deal with, and recover from an oncoming, devastating flood.

(more…)

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