Letter to the Editor - Coulterville meeting on February 7, 2012 to discuss forming a Disaster Relief Program

It amazes me how much attention is paid to be sure the tourists are taken care of, Jeff gets the job he deserves, the Butterfly Festival gets the support of the County and so on.

But how many are aware of the fact that Mariposa County has no "ratified" disaster plan in the event of a fire, landslide, or man made disaster like the one the Red Cross just went into in Lindsay, and so on. This also means we are left out of obtaining state and federal funds that otherwise would be available to us if we had had the plan in force.

After attending a recent Red Cross Disaster Mandatory Meeting in Fresno, just to see if there was anything that could be done to know what to do in our little towns of Greeley Hill, Coulterville and Don Pedro. I did not expect what I encountered. It was as if they had been waiting for someone, anyone to represent the North Side and train to be ready to start the process in the event of a disaster and the county called in the Red Cross. We have two reps in Mariposa. Although they only come if the county calls them, it is about the only relief we will get and they are well aware of our situation. Not only the lack of disaster funding but when people come into an area like the North side it sounds easy to say, we will evacuate them to Mariposa. We have elderly and disabled people over here that to them that would not be an option.

So, the wheels are turning and this Tuesday night, the 7th of February at the Coulterville Community Club monthly meeting, Don Florence, the person hired to put this program together, will be explaining what is happening and what we can expect. People on the North Side are encouraged to attend and bring your questions with you. Red Cross is expected to be on the North side the middle of February to search out an evacuation center site suitable to make our North Side citizens safe and comfortable in the event of extended power outages, fire, flood or any type of disaster. Also hopefully soon there will be a person locally to go out to sites where fire has destroyed a home and see if there is any need for the people whose home burned to have a place to go to stay or whatever. This is activated by the Cal Fire, or Fire Chief or Sheriff, but there will be help here on the North side once training of the volunteer is complete which should be shortly.

Dr. Mosher has put a "Code Red" system in place that all you have to do is sign up for it and you will be automatically notified in the event of emergency situations or critical community alerts. It also lets authorities know if someone is in a position that they need to be checked on in the case of any emergency situation or receive assistance. This is just a brief notice of what is going on.

Please try and come to the February 7th meeting in Coulterville at 6:30 in the Old Schoolhouse. Lyle Turpin and Don Florence spoke to people in Greeley Hill at the Community Clubhouse not too long ago, but a lot has been done since then. That's all, please come and support our community so we get the attention the rest of the county gets.

Karen Morse
Coulterville