Are you and your family Red Cross Ready?

Ah-h-h, Autumn!

We all know the signs that Autumn has arrived: flocks of geese and ducks flying over the lakes and rivers; school buses carrying kids off to class, and leaves turning from green to gold to red.

We pack away the swimsuits, shorts and sandals, and bring out the sweaters and slippers. It’s time to start thinking about snow skiing rather than water skiing.

The change in season also means we’ll be turning up the thermostat, using our fireplaces, and perhaps adding a portable heater to a particularly chilly area in the house. 

But before it gets too far into the season, we ask you to take a few minutes to ensure your family is safe and everyone knows what to do should a fire break out in your home.

• Keep items that can catch on fire at least three feet away from anything that gets hot, such as space heaters.
• Never smoke in bed.
• Talk to children regularly about the dangers of fire, matches and lighters, and keep those items out of reach. Always keep a three-foot perimeter between small children and open flames.
• Turn portable heaters off when you leave the room or go to sleep.
• Ensure that all household members know two ways to escape from every room of your home.
• Make sure everyone knows where to meet outside in case of fire.
• Practice escaping from your home at least twice a year and at different times of the day. Did you know that only 26% of families have practiced escaping from their home? Make sure your family knows what the fire alarm sounds like, knows to crawl along the floor and meet outside in a designated area should a fire alarm sound. And make sure everyone knows how to call 9-1-1.
• Teach household members to STOP, DROP and ROLL if their clothes should catch on fire.
• If smoke, heat or flames block your exit routes, stay in the room with doors closed. Place a wet towel under the door and call the fire department or 9-1-1. Open a window and wave a brightly colored cloth or flashlight to signal for help.

The Red Cross Preparedness Fast Facts - Fires page provides a fire prevention and safety checklist to help you ensure you are Red Cross Ready. And check out the Safety Information tab on the Clark County Fire District 6 site to learn more about preventing apartment (and home!) fires, safe practices when burning candles, and guidelines home heating and carbon monoxide safety.

We can never be too prepared or too safe when it comes to our families. So, before the rains start and the temperatures dip, take a few minutes and ensure your home and family are Red Cross Ready.  

Sue Anderson
SW Washington Chapter

Trick-or-treating for disaster response

Some of the local students who will be trick-or-treating for disaster relief

Among the hordes of ghosts and goblins seeking candy this Halloween will be another group with an entirely different purpose.

Red Cross Club members from several Clark County high schools will be going door-to-door, as well. However, these students won’t be asking for candy. Instead, they will be soliciting cash donations to support local Red Cross disaster services.

Students will be dressed in Red Cross gear and will provide neighborhood residents with information about how the Southwest Washington American Red Cross responds immediately to help area residents who are displaced from their homes by disasters. These services are provided free of charge to those affected by disaster thanks to the generosity of local donors.

Red Cross disaster relief focuses on meeting people’s immediate emergency disaster-caused needs. When a disaster threatens or strikes, the Red Cross provides shelter, food, and physical and mental health services to address basic human needs. The goal is to enable those individuals and families affected by disaster to resume their normal daily activities independently.

In the past fiscal year, the SW Washington Chapter responded to 107 fires, 10 floods and three storm-related incidents, and mobilized relief to 149 families affected by local disasters.

Jim Boline
SW Washington Chapter

Drop, Cover and Hold on!

Ready or not, the Great Shake Out is on!

Tomorrow (10/20) at 10:20am, all across the  United States, people will be dropping, covering and holding on – all in preparation for the “Big One.” It’s called the Great Shake Out and since October is Earthquake Preparedness month, it’s the perfect time to…well, prepare.

Here in the Pacific Northwest, earthquakes are a reality of life. Most of the time, we don’t even feel them. If we didn’t hear about them on the evening news, we’d never know they happened. But those in the know say the big one is coming our way and we’d better be ready.

You’ve got 5 minutes, right? Here’s all you have to do:

1. Drop down under a desk or table.
2. Hold on with your dominant hand.
3. Bend over (if possible) and cover the back of your head with your other hand.  

Is that simple or what? 

So, are you with me? Set your alarm for 10:20am; then, drop, cover and hold on!

And after you crawl out from under your desk or table, share your Great Shake Out experience on Facebook!

Want to learn more?

Check out earthquake hazards in Washington State and earthquake preparedness tips from Washington State Emergency Management Division.

Sue Anderson
SW Washington Chapter

We’re here and we’re ready to rumble!

Welcome to the new blog for the SW Washington Chapter of the American Red Cross!

 

We started this blog as a way to keep you aware and up-to-date with classes we offer, activitites in which we participate, and information to help make your life safer and happier.

 

Along the way, we’ll share stories about our volunteers who are helping locally and at National disasters; local teens who are donating their time in support of the Red Cross; and ways you can volunteer…and make a difference in someone’s life.

 

And now, we’d like to introduce the newly formed SW Washington Red Cross Media Team…

They may look goofy but they’re ready and willing to make a splash with social media!

We look forward to hearing your comments and suggestions for future posts. We hope you’ll check back often. Better yet, sign up to recieve an email each time we post a new entry by clicking the Entries RSS link in the upper left corner of this site.