Power Outage a Wake Up Call?

We need to make some changes before we have a major weather event or earthquake in our area. The microburst in Dolan Springs that took out 22 power poles was a wake up call. 

This time we were one of only a few places with a power outage. What if power was out in Vegas and other more populated places served by Unisource. Pretty sure they would get service before remote places like Dolan Springs and Meadview. 

A severe weather event or earthquake would take out many more power poles as well as damaging roads repair crews and first responders use to get into or out of Dolan Springs and Meadview. 

When it rains it's common for Pierce Ferry and Stockton Hill Rd to be closed because washes are running high. Several times since I've lived here the ambulance was unable either unable to get to Meadview or transport a patient from Meadview because Pierce Ferry and Stockton Hill Rd were both closed. Severe weather events can close roads and leave medical helicopters unable to fly.

With two firefighters on most days and the chief living in Kingman and working an 8 hour shift, if roads were damaged there's a good chance we would have the two firefighters on duty. So we need local people trained in EMS and CERT or we're in trouble. 

So what do we need? 

Equipment/Supplies
1. Emergency Power preferably solar with battery backup at all three fire stations. the school in Dolan Springs and the designated shelter in Meadview. 

2. Communications, the ability to communicate locally with VHF or UHF radios. So we can gather information on who's injured and what roads are open or closed. We need an HF Ham radio with the ability to communicate with Kingman and Phoenix when other sources are down. 

Training

We need people to care for those who are sick or injured. People with care taking experience and people trained in basic EMS skills. It costs $250 to train EMR's, Emergency Medical Responder and $1500 to train an EMT.

People

We need to train everyone in CPR AED use and First Aid. Train several people to the EMR level and at least two in each community to the EMT level. The book work and test is just the beginning of any EMS training. It's just training, not experience, and it's experience we need when we're ass deep in alligators.