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8 | SUN LAKES LIFESTYLES | DECEMBER 2022 | By Dick Spaulding (626) 825-4448 The mission of our Emergency Preparedness Action Plan (EPAP) is to help residents to become prepared for emergencies and major disasters which might leave us isolated and without emergency services. During this past year, our EPAP volunteers have worked very hard to re-build our Emergency Preparedness Organization after two years of pandemic uncertainty. We are very proud of the efforts put forth by our District EPAP teams, Zone Captains, EPAP Coordinators, District Delegates, and Emergency Operations Center (EOC) Management teams. Congratulations are in order for everyone! Here is what we have accomplished to serve you, our residents, during this past year: • Our new Executive Team was appointed to manage EPAP, and has managed the task of rebuilding. • Appointed new leadership for the Information Management Unit and EPAP Patrol Unit. • Resumed distribution of our File of Life packets and EPAP Manuals to new residents. If you are a new resident and did not receive your packet, please contact EPAP at (951) 524-3126. • Started a new EPAP website, containing meeting announcements and training videos. Go to the Sun Lakes website www.sunlakescc. com, Community Info, EPAP. • Reorganized to give more responsibility to each District's EPAP Coordinators to create District operations plans which better suit District Needs. We provided new training to the Districts to help them prepare their operations plans. • Training Programs have been given to assure that all EPAP personnel understand what to do in a disaster. Since we have had many new volunteers this year, more training has been needed than usual. This included Companion Group training, and Drill Preparation training. • Radio training classes were given for EPAP Coordinators and Delegates. They learned how to set up the radios, how to send messages to each other and to the Emergency Operations Center, and how to teach others to use radios. • Riverside County Emergency Management Dept. presented an excellent informative program here in Sun Lakes, "Twelve Steps to Disaster Preparedness" in July. You can watch it on our website now. • Members of our Executive Team attended CERT (Community Emergency Response Training) classes sponsored by FEMA to get new ideas and methods that could help Sun Lakes. We are looking forward to new training programs that can help our District Medical Rescue Teams. • During this past year, we provided Red Cross First Aid and CPR/ AED training classes for Sun Lakes residents. Classes were given by Linda Myers-Kalb. • An area-wide Earthquake Drill was conducted in Sun Lakes on Oct. 20 as part of the Great Shakeout program. This gave our Districts the opportunity to try out their new training, and to encourage you, the residents, to participate. From this experience, we learned new ways to manage emergency events. • Working with Good Day Sun Lakes Channel 97, we produced a new video called "EPAP IN ACTION." You can see it on our website or on Channel 97. The video shows what EPAP does, how it works, and how we communicate using radios. Take a look! We hope that the Districts will use this video and others on our website to train their personnel. Looking forward to next year, EPAP is planning more programs and projects including: • Emergency Preparedness programs and videos for residents. • Drills, table-top exercises, and special events to train personnel. • Keeping residents informed about local city and county emergency preparedness programs. • Additional training classes for EPAP Volunteers. • New Bus Room generator and storage space for emergency power. • Upgrade our emergency radio system for digital communications with the city. EPAP extends its appreciation and thanks to everyone who has supported and volunteered to help us during the past year. Our District Delegates still need your participation in their District EPAP programs. Please help us serve Sun Lakes. For more information about EPAP, call our Executive Team at (951) 524-3126 or email EPAP@SunLakesCC.com. Photos courtesy of Channel 97 from our video "EPAP IN ACTION" on our EPAP website. They illustrate what EPAP does in an emergency. EPAP REBUILT IN 2022 Celebrating 30 years of Emergency Preparedness for Sun Lakes In an emergency, all residents are asked to place this yellow placard in a front-facing window, indicating to the Zone Captains that the resident is okay At our Emergency Operations Center, radio operators send and receive messages from Districts, city, and county Command Posts are set up in each District to coordinate the emergency response

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