In short
Mayor Dave Maughan writes that emergency preparedness is partly individual and partly a city job, because services like sewer, garbage, medical care, sheltering, and security are hard for a household to cover alone. The city is testing its Rapid Disaster Assessment Program (RDAP) on Saturday, April 20. Every household is asked to put something clearly red or green on the front of the home: green means “Home is Safe,” red means “Home needs Help.” The exercise starts at 10 a.m., and able-bodied volunteers over 18 are asked to report to their nearest LDS church building for assignments.
Dates and deadlines
- Saturday, April 20 RDAP exercise citywide. Place a red or green marker on the front of your home before 10 a.m.
- Saturday, April 20, 10 a.m. The exercise begins. Volunteers 18 and over report to their nearest LDS church building to be assigned to count responses in their area.
Everything else
- The mayor writes that a city’s main job is providing services residents cannot afford or manage alone, and that losing the less obvious ones could be the most dangerous.
- He gives sewer and garbage as an example: without collection, waste becomes a disease risk within weeks, and digging a hole in the backyard is not a solution.
- Medical, structural, sheltering, and security needs are likely beyond what one person can handle, including people with special skills who may themselves need help.
- Communication and transportation can be cut off, so neighbors may be the link between people who need help and the help that exists.
- The city has disaster plans and volunteers who test them. RDAP is the plan for assessing where help is needed when there are no mass response tools available.
- Marking a safe home still matters: it frees up responders to reach households in worse shape faster.
- This is a planned test, not a drill with a surprise date. The point is to measure how fast information can be gathered, relayed, and acted on.
- Mayor Dave Maughan can be reached at [email protected] or 801-927-7752.
Unofficial digest of a city newsletter. The official version is linked below.
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