Map Your Neighborhood is a simple new program implemented by the Bellingham Office of Emergency Management that greatly increases your safety immediately following a disaster. “Map Your Neighborhood” (MYN) is a program designed to help neighborhoods prepare for disasters.
A single disaster causes many individual emergencies at one time. Unfortunately, the police or fire department may not be able to respond to your call for help in a timely manner. Fire departments are mandated to perform Damage Assessments of their entire districts and then to respond to the situations where crews can do the greatest good for the greatest number of people.
Professional emergency response to your situation may be delayed for hours, even days. Of necessity you and your neighbors become the first responders to your emergencies.
Preparing your neighborhood is vital. Neighbors that are prepared are more effective in their response to a disaster and have an increased capacity to be self-sufficient for the first 72 hours after a disaster.
Take action today.
Our goal is to improve disaster resilience in Bellingham by training as many residents as possible in the Map Your Neighborhood plan. The Mayor’s Neighborhood Advisory Committee and the Office of Emergency Management are coordinating on-going 90 minute training sessions of Map Your Neighborhood.
Remember: In a disaster, your most immediate source of help is the neighbors living around you.
