Learn how to help your neighbors if a big earthquake hits Bellingham

A meeting Monday, April 25, will explain the June training exercise for a massive earthquake in the Northwest, and how volunteers can staff a mobilization center after such a disaster.

The informational meeting about the county’s Volunteer Mobilization Center will be 6 to 8 p.m. at the Center for Spiritual Living, 2224 Yew Street Road.

At the meeting, people will learn about the emergency-response exercise June 7-9 that is based on plausible damage from a 9.0 quake off the Northwest coast, and its related tsunami.

The meeting also will feature a video showing how the Volunteer Mobilization Center would operate, and how people can help. In short, the center would be set up after a major disaster. People who want to assist the community after the disaster would go the center to learn how and where they can best help.

For the center to be effective, a pool of volunteers is needed to staff it in shifts. People who can’t attend the April 25 meeting but who are interested in helping at the center should contact Mel Monkelis at the Whatcom Volunteer Center, 360-734-3055 or MelM@WhatcomVolunteer.org.

This story was originally published April 21, 2016 at 10:44 AM with the headline "Learn how to help your neighbors if a big earthquake hits Bellingham."