West Valley CERT

Our thoughts and prayers go out to the people of Haiti and all those affected by the earthquake last week. The disaster brings into focus the painful reality of our own fragile situation. We've heard for years "it's not a question of if, it's a question of when a major quake will occur on the Wasatch Front." The other painful reality that the situation in Haiti brings into focus is the absolute need for us to be self reliant following a disaster. The rule used to be "72 hours". As we've seen in this case, and others before, 72 hours just isn't long enough for relief to arrive, organize and deploy. 7 to 10 days is far more realistic.

Fox 13 has an excellent story on our own vulnerability to an earthquake and what we should expect afterwords. Click here for the story.

The State of Utah also has great information on the Be Ready Utah website. Ready.gov is another great source of information. If you haven't done so recently, now would be an excellent time to check out your family preparedness kits and rotate out anything that's expired.

Our next course starts February 11. Pre-registration is still open. The full course information is on the home page.