The Neighborhood Council Emergency Preparedness Alliance (NCEPA) meets the 4th Saturday of every month from 10:00 am to 12:00 pm, at the City of Los Angeles Emergency Operations Center, 500 E Temple St, Los Angeles 90012.  The NCEPA representatives hear from city department managers and their representatives regarding the city’s plans for coping with a variety of local and major emergencies.  Members of various volunteer emergency groups have presented their roles in emergency preparedness.  The one thing they all have stressed is the need for individual neighborhoods to prepare to be self-reliant for at least 7 days after a major disaster.

The purpose of the NCEPA is to gather information and educate neighborhood councils about their responsibility to organize the communities they represent.  Various tools are available to guide neighborhood council members and stakeholders about how to organize and prepare their neighborhoods, including Map Your Neighborhood (MYN), 5 Steps to Emergency Preparedness and Jump Start.  A new program combining MYN and Jump Start, Ready Your LA Neighborhood (RYLAN), is currently being developed by the city’s Emergency Management Department and will be rolled out soon.  Until then, the City of Los Angeles’ Emergency Preparedness Department has some great information at http://5steps.la/.

Designate an Emergency Preparedness Liaison for your Council
 The NCEPA and the Department of Neighborhood Empowerment, encourage all neighborhood councils to designate an Emergency Preparedness Liaison who will be able to attend NCEPA meetings, and become the contact person for their Neighborhood Council.  For more information, please contact NCEPA Facilitator Len Shaffer, at leonard.shaffer@lacity.org.

Watch a recent NCEPA meeting here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=6&v=MeCINUuu_Bo