BE THE HELP: BEFORE HELP ARRIVES

PLANNING FOR BAYSIDE EMERGENCIES AND DISASTERS

Bayside Corners invites the public – especially Bayside, Jacoby Creek Valley, Indianola residents – to participate in a 4-part Community Conversation Series to initiate the development of a Bayside Plan for Emergencies and Disasters.

This series is scheduled for the second Sunday afternoon of each month at the Bayside Temperance Hall from 3 to 4:30 p.m.

Residents of these rural neighborhoods have a variety of expertise, experience and resources to help each other survive extreme floods, winds and earthquakes.

The Bayside Plan for Emergencies & Disasters will include how to prepare and coordinate neighborhood resources and how to most effectively communicate with and use local and state government aid.

In local government planning, Bayside is often mixed in with Arcata for services. However, the Bayside area population is much more spread out, with rural conditions of creeks and forested hillsides near homes. Bayside Corners’ board has discussed the need for a Bayside-specific Plan in these terms: “Bayside is to Arcata as Humboldt County is to San Francisco.”

When dealing with emergencies and disaster conditions, the rural Bayside area will not be the top priority for response services.

Residents of the lowlands living near Jacoby and Washington Creeks, have been living with serious winter flooding every year.

Residents living farther east in the hillsides, must help each other with removing fallen trees for road passage.

This 4-Part Bayside Community Conversation Series on preparing a Bayside Plan has scheduled local experts to present and guide conversation:

• Sunday, Sept. 13 – Peter Esko, lead for the Humboldt County Sheriff’s Auxiliary Communications Team.

The Humboldt HAM Radio operators volunteer to support and train with County Emergency Operations to provide communications when standard communications methods are unavailable.

Bayside HAM radio operators are urged to join this discussion for residents to learn from you.

• Sunday, Oct. 11 – Anne Holcomb, president of Humboldt Community Organizations Active in Disaster and Lin Glen, active resident-organizer of Blue Lake’s pods system for neighborhood preparedness, where small teams of neighbors provide first-response help, linking with CERT and Red Cross shelters for larger events.

Bayside’s widely-dispersed population has several clustered neighborhoods. These will likely be Bayside “pods”, the same as Neighborhood Watch.

• Sunday, Nov. 8 – Greta de la Montagne, RH(AHG) registered professional herbalist and mentor with the American Herbalist Guild; Holistic Health Practitioner manages a Garden-to-Shelf Apothecary in Bayside.

Greta will present Herbal First Aid: What Neighbors Can Do with accessible, plant-and-spice based kitchen remedies for common household emergencies.

She’ll focus on empowering residents with the knowledge to manage health concerns when professional medical help might be delayed.

• Sunday, Dec. 13 – Brian Dorman MD, Humboldt CART Community Animal Rescue Team. Their mission is to set up small and large animal shelters in time of a disaster, and to educate the public about how to prepare themselves and their pets and livestock for disaster.

HumCART provides emergency response planning, pet evacuation checklists, and training for local first responders on handling animal rescues; and they work with regional agencies and groups following California’s emergency network standards.

Beverages and snacks will be on hand for these Sunday afternoon Conversations, and all residents are urged to get these fall dates on your calendar to participate – before we’re hit with emergencies and disasters.