Monday night is the first meeting of Capitol Hill Preparedness People! or CHiPP. (We prefer Capitol Hill Preparedness People without the exclamation point, fwiw. Quieter, calmer emergency prep for us, thanks.) As we first reported, CHiPP is being kickstarted by Hill resident Angela Wallis. On the group’s Facebook page, she says this is what you can expect at the first meeting which is being held at Bluebird on Pike just above 12th Ave starting at 7 PM:

Neighbors will meet to discuss why we should be prepared for emergencies, and the simple things we can do to build 3-day emergency kits.

We’ll also discuss forming response teams that can assist the neighborhood with things like search and rescue, medical operations, and utility shut-off.

Wallis, if you’re wondering, has a few qualifications to help get this group started. She completed 30 hours of emergency preparedness training through the Community Emergency Response Training (CERT) and a 6-hour “Seattle Neighborhoods Actively Prepare” training on utility shut-off and fire suppression, provided by City of Seattle. She is trained in search and rescue, personal preparedness, disaster medical operations, fire suppression and disaster psychology. She also serves on the Sustainable Capitol Hill planning committee.

With the tragedy in Haiti as backdrop and last winter’s snowy challenges for the community on Capitol Hill, it’s good someone is thinking about disaster planning at the grassroots level. There’s a lot to be done — but small things like getting people to put together an emergency kit can go a long way. In addition to the group getting started, there’s also some free goodies for attendees. Now, time to go check the CHS HQ emergency water supply and make sure our printing press is ready if things get really rough.