On Sunday, May 4th from 1 - 3 p.m. a Neighborhood Safety Net organizing meeting will be held at the home of Linda Hedgepeth at 202 East Pedregosa Street. This is the third in a series of meetings to form an emergency response network for the Upper East Association.

In case you missed the prior two meetings, here is a summary. At the first meeting held at Serra Hall in October 2007 approximately 30 residents heard from our featured speaker Yolanda McGlinchey, City of Santa Barbara's Emergency Services Manager who discussed lessons learned from the evacuation drill held in coordination with the Riviera Association.

At the second organizing meeting in February 2008, held at Lieberman/Jensen residence on Santa Barbara Street, Chuck Smith from Neighborhood Safety Net told us that in case of emergency you or your neighbor might be a first responder. Statically, 96% of disaster victims are rescued by families, neighbors, or friends. Only 4% will see an official emergency responder for their rescue.

So far about 40 households have signed up to participate in a coordinated evacuation capability for the Upper East. Our goal is to get 100 households signed up, so we can practice an "evacuation" to the Rose Garden for a picnic. If we can get a total of 100 households willing to participate, that would mean that approximately 20% of the Upper East would become trained in case of emergency. This is important because in case of a real emergency is it likely that a successful outcome will depend on the neighborhood getting together and taking care of each other.

For more information or to rsvp for the meeting on May 4th from 1-3pm at 202 East Pedregosa St., please call Paul Hurst or Lori Hoffman at (805) 879-5040.