Cypress Volunteers In Policing (VIP), Orange County Fire Authority Station No. 17 along with West County Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) assisted Julie Wallace’s Neighbor 4 Neighbor emergency preparedness/potluck party on May 19. Joining Wallace were two representatives from Southern California Edison, and Ed Pacheco from Marx Brothers Fire (who recharge and sell home fire extinguishers).
The goals of Neighbor 4 Neighbor (N4N) include opening lines of communication between neighbors, working together to reduce crime and looking out for each other in times of need, banding together to withstand and recover from disasters.
Wallace, who graduated from the CERT basic training class last September, has become a strong advocate for her family and neighbors, being apart of the solution rather than the problem when it comes to emergency preparedness. She recruited several block captains for her neighborhood and encouraged a number of her neighbors to sign up for the September 2013 CERT beginning class.
West County CERT Operations Lead, Wink Chase spoke about the need to prepare both individually and as a group for a major disaster where it could take between seven and 14 days for the professional first responders to come to your neighborhood.
Cypress Police Officer Gael Locklin spoke of how the city was not only gearing up for disasters, but was also reaching out to the community in the meantime to help prevent crime.
Fire Station No. 17 representative Daryl Parks spoke about the capabilities of the fire department in major disasters. He also spoke about the need to prepare both individually and collectively.
More than two dozen neighbors signed up, which was a new record for this type of event.
For more information on Neighbor 4 Neighbor program, please email Wink Chase at wchase@oceva.org.