King County's Public Health Department is reaching out to communtiy bloggers asking for this information to be shared:  Download Blog post_1 19 12

Staying safe in the storm                                       

Winter weather is causing power outages. Here’s some important information to help you, your family, friends, and neighbors stay safe. 

Carbon monoxide warnings

Carbon monoxide poisoning can kill you. Carbon monoxide gas comes from burning fuels such as gasoline, propane, oil, kerosene, natural gas, coal or wood. You can’t see or smell it.

Prevent poisoning from carbon monoxide:

• Only use a generator outdoors and far from open windows and vents
• Never use a generator or portable propane heater indoors, in garages or carports
• Never cook or heat inside on a charcoal or gas grill.

Carbon monoxide poisoning can happen suddenly and without warning. Physical symptoms of carbon monoxide poisoning may include splitting headache, nausea and vomiting, and lethargy and fatigue.

If you believe you could be experiencing carbon monoxide poisoning, get fresh air immediately. Call for medical help from a neighbor's home. The Fire Department will tell you when it is safe to reenter the home.

For a full list of carbon monoxide prevention tips and other safety and disaster information in English and other languages, visit www.kingcounty.gov/health/disaster.

Staying warm indoors safely

If you have a power outage, use safe ways to stay warm:

• Find places where you can go to get warm, such as the home of friends and family whose homes have power. Many cities have opened centers where people can go during the day to stay warm. Center locations can be found at http://www.kingcounty.gov/safety/prepare
• Wear several layers of light weight, warm clothing rather than one layer of heavy clothing. Wear hats, mittens, and blankets indoors.
• Close curtains and cover windows and doors with blankets. Everyone should try to stay together in one room, with the door closed, to keep in body heat.

Help others

• Warn others about carbon monoxide poisoning. Share the information with neighbors, friends, family and community groups.

• Check on family, friends, and neighbors, especially if they are elderly or if you think their power might be out. 

• If you know someone who has lost electricity, invite them to your home to stay warm.

Food Safety

If power goes out where you live, keep food safe by keeping the doors closed on your refrigerators and freezers as much as possible. A full freezer can stay at freezing temperatures about two days; a half-full freezer about 1 day. Potentially hazardous foods, like meat and fish, should be discarded if thawed and warmer than 41 degrees F.  

Seattle Police Email Community Announcement 
April 28, 2011 
 
Prescription Drug National Take Back Initiative 
The 2nd National Prescription Drug Take Back Day 
Saturday, April 30, 2011 
10:00 am – 2:00 pm 
 
Dear Community Friends; 
 
The following information is from the Drug Enforcement Agency. 

• Unused or expired prescription medications are a public safety issue, leading to accidental poisoning, overdose and abuse.
• Pharmaceutical drugs can be just as dangerous as street drugs when taken without a prescription or a doctor’s supervision. 
• The non-medical use of prescription drugs ranks second only to marijuana as the most common form of drug abuse in America.
• The majority of teenagers abusing prescription drugs get them from family and friends – and their home medicine cabinet. 
• Unused prescription drugs thrown in the trash can be retrieved and illegally sold.   Unused drugs that are flushed contaminate the water supply. Proper disposal of unused drugs saves lives and protects the environment. 
• Take back programs are the best way to dispose of old drugs. 

…. Due to the overwhelming success of the first event, DEA has scheduled the second National Prescription Drug Take Back Day which will take place on Saturday, April 30, 2011, from 10:00 am – 2:00 pm. This is a great opportunity for those who missed the first event or who have subsequently accumulated unwanted, unused prescription drugs, to safely dispose of them. 
 
If you have unused or expired prescription medication, you can turn them in at the following Seattle Police Department Precincts for safe disposal. 

• North Precinct, 10049 College Way N, Seattle 98133 . 
• West Precinct, 810 Virginia ST, Seattle, 98101 . 
• East Precinct, 1519 12the Ave, Seattle, 98122 . 
• South Precinct, 3001 S. Myrtle ST, Seattle, 98108 . 
• Southwest Precinct, 2300 SW Webster ST, Seattle, 98106 

 
Intravenous solutions, injectibles, syringes or medical waste will not be accepted 
 
Drug turn-ins can also be done through the police departments and sheriff’s offices of other local jurisdictions, to include the Port of Seattle Police Department, the Seattle Office of the DEA, and Kitsap and Snohomish County locations among others. To find a prescription drug collection site nearest you, please go to the following link: http://www.deadiversion.usdoj.gov/drug_disposal/takeback/index.html 
 
For more information on prescription drug abuse and the national take back Initiative, please check out the following websites: 
www.deadiversion.usdoj.gov/drug_disposal/takeback/index.html; www.getsmartaboutdrugs.com; 
www.justthinktwice.com 
 
Mark Solomon, Crime Prevention Coordinator, mark.solomon@seattle.gov, 206.386.9766 

Dear Community Friends:

We are beginning a series of security tips for your home to help deter residential burglaries. For this newsletter, we’re going to focus on exterior doors.

Door Security

The most common way used to force entry through a door with a wooden jamb is to kick it open. When a door is kicked in, the frame usually splinters and gives way, allowing the burglar to enter. The weakest point is almost always the strike plate that holds the latch or lock bolt in place. The average door strike plate is secured only to the doorframe molding. These lightweight moldings are often tacked on to the doorframe and can be torn away with a firm kick. Increasingly, we’ve noticed a trend of burglars increasingly using pry tools at doors to gain entry into homes.

Suggestions Regarding Exterior Doors.

• Check the condition of the wood frame. If worn, have a new frame made.  
• Anchor the frame to the wall stud. Do this by removing the short screws used to
  secure the strike plates and hinge plates. Replace them with 3”-4” wood screws. This should be done to all exterior doors.
• Consider upgrading to a four-screw, heavy-duty, high security strike plate. They are available at any hardware store or home improvement center. Install this heavy-duty strike plate using 3”-4” wood screws to cut deep into the doorframe stud. Use these longer screws in the knob lock strike plate as well and use at least one long screw in each door hinge. This one step alone will deter or prevent most through-the-door forced entries. Even without installing a heavy duty strike plate, using the longer 3”-4” screws to secure your existing strike plates will vastly improve the security of your door.
• To combat pry tools being used against your doors, ensure you have 3-4” inch screws on the strike plates, have a deadbolt lock on the door (see below), and install a latch guard on the door that covers the area above and below where your door knob and deadbolt engage. A latch guard like the one pictured here costs about $12 at major hardware retailers.
• Finally, deadbolt locks should be installed on every exterior door, including doors that lead from the garage to the interior of the home. A decent deadbolt lock will retail for about $30. More substantial deadbolts can be run upwards of $200.

Deadbolt Locks

There are two types of deadbolt locks: a single cylinder deadbolt, which has a thumb turn on the inside and is keyed on the outside, and a double cylinder deadbolt, which is keyed on both the inside and outside. Deadbolt “throws” (the part that actually goes in to the door jamb) should always be a minimum of 1” in length.

• Single Cylinder – Install on all solid doors where access to the locks and knobs
  cannot be gained by breaking adjacent glass
• Double Cylinder – Install on all doors where access to locks and knobs can be
  gained by breaking adjacent glass. Never leave the key in the lock. If you live
  in an apartment or condo, make sure you know the building code. 

  Consider deadbolts with captive keylocks on all doors located next to windows.
  These locks have removable thumb latches so that even if a thief breaks a window, he still can't reach around and unlock the door. But because deadbolts can also be a fire hazard, make sure they have a removable key on the inside cylinder for when you are home. When you leave, just remove the key and keep the lock bolted on both sides.

• Note: City of Seattle building codes do not permit Double Cylinder deadbolts to be installed in apartment or condominium settings, nor does the code allow for “Captive Keylock” deadbolts.

Until next time, Take Care and Stay Safe!

Mark Solomon, Crime Prevention Coordinator, mark.solomon@seattle.gov, 206.386.9766

Did you know that West Seattle has a website dedicated to preparing yourself for an emergency?   Check out http://westseattle.bepreparedseattle.info.

This site includes a list of Emergency Communication Hubs.   Depending on where you live on Beach Drive, the nearest hub may be the Alki Community Center or Fauntleroy Church…there are several hubs located in West Seattle.  I highly recommend that you check out the list to see which location is closest to you.

Tomorrow, March 14, at 6:30 p.m., Cindi Barker of West Seattle Be Prepared and Debbie Goetz from the Office of Emergency Management will be at the Delridge Branch Library if you would like to learn more about preparing for an emergency in West Seattle.

Click here to find them on Facebook.

PS: It was just a few years ago that a team of geologist from Japan studying earthquakes and tsunamis stopped by Beach Drive.