(Image: Seattle Parks Foundation)

A group is coming together to make sure Capitol Hill’s neighborhoods of densely packed apartment dwellers can build resources they need to be resilient during emergencies and natural disasters.

Already having an interest in personal emergency preparedness, Heather Currey attended an emergency hub drill after she learned of the event through Central Seattle Greenways. And while North Capitol Hill has its own emergency hub, Currey felt the need for stronger support in the central part of the neighborhood. Now, Currey is the captain of the Cal Anderson Emergency Hub, which is preparing for its September 7th Urban Survival Skills Fair in the park’s shelterhouse and sunbowl.

“Seattle has a fairly wide hub network, so these are places where under disaster conditions, when we’ve lost electricity and it’s harder for people to communicate with each other, hubs stand up to connect neighbors with neighbors, and neighbors with information,” Currey told CHS.

Currey said these emergency hubs are always needed.

The Cal Anderson Emergency Hub already has over a dozen volunteers who have been meeting for about six months and have worked to obtain grants and jump through bureaucratic hoops with the city, including Parks and Rec and the Department of Neighborhoods.

Those volunteer numbers are only expected to grow, Currey said. Continue reading →