This Is Only A Test...

In the 1960s and 1970s, emergency signals broadcast over television and radio stations conjured up visions of nuclear attack. Today, those same warnings are more likely to mean that a severe weather condition is upon one's community. But the message is still the same: how people can get information about plans for their safety.

At 11 a.m. PST on Wednesday (2:00 p.m. EST), the entire United States will participate in the federal government's first nationwide test of the Emergency Alert System. As residents watch television or listen to radio, they will hear the familiar "emergency tones" that will let them know what they could do in case there was an actual emergency. The test is expected to last up to 3½ minutes. During this period, regularly scheduled television, radio, cable, and satellite shows will be interrupted as the system is being tested.

The test is being conducted by the Federal Emergency Management Agency, the Federal Communications Commission, and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, as part of their ongoing efforts to keep the nation safe during emergencies and strengthen its resilience against all hazards.

The national Emergency Alert System is an alert and warning system that can be activated by the president, if needed, to provide information to the American public during emergencies. NOAA's National Weather Service, governors, and state and local emergency authorities also use parts of the system to issue more localized emergency alerts. The test is an important exercise in ensuring that the system is effective in communicating critical information to the public in the event of a real national emergency.

Similar to emergency alert system tests that are already conducted frequently on the local level, the nationwide test will involve television and radio stations across the U.S., including Alaska, Hawaii, and the territories of Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands and American Samoa.

The exercise is also intended to encourage the public to use the event as a reminder that everyone should establish an emergency preparedness kit and emergency plan for themselves, their families, communities, and businesses.

Visit www.FEMA.gov for more information about how to prepare for and stay informed about what to do in the event of an actual emergency.

Hello Darkness, My Old Friend

Are you prepared to enter the Dark Days of Winter?  Daylight Saving Time ends this Sunday, November 6 at 2 AM. Remember to set your clocks back one hour before going to bed on Saturday, November 5, else you’ll miss out on that extra hour of sleep! 

In addition to changing your clocks, we’d like to remind you that this is also the perfect time to check your smoke detector batteries and change them if necessary. Smoke detectors that run on 9 volt batteries or hard wired smoke detectors with battery backups need to be changed annually to ensure they will work when you need them. Please avoid tossing the used batteries in the garbage but dispose of the batteries properly by turning in at a Recycling Center near you.

Some Facts About Smoke Detectors:

• Smoke detectors that are properly installed and maintained play a vital role in saving lives and reducing fire deaths and injuries.
• Having a working smoke detector cuts the risk of dying in a home fire by 40-50%.
• Numbers of homes with smoke detectors that do not work outnumber homes without smoke detectors at all.
• Nearly half of all smoke detectors do not work due to missing or dead batteries.

Some Additional Facts About DST:

Ancient Civilizations adjusted their schedules based on available sunlight.  Later in history, schedules instead became standardized based on time keeping devices where time did not falter.  It was Benjamin Franklin who is attributed to resurrecting the idea of adjusting time in a light-hearted 1784 satire. Although Franklin's facetious suggestion was simply that people should get up earlier in summer, he is often erroneously attributed as the inventor of DST.  Adoption of Standard Time did not materialize in the United States until November 18, 1883, before then time keeping was a local matter.  

Modern DST was first proposed by New Zealand entomologist George Vernon Hudson, although many publications incorrectly credit William Willett of the idea.  Germany led the way in adopting the modern DST during World War I on April 30^th, 1916 as a measure to save on coal consumption during war time.   The U.S. Congress originally enacted DST in 1918 but then repealed the act in 1919 and it was not until the Uniform TimeAct of 1966 that provided standardization in the dates of beginning and end of daylight time in the U.S. but allowed for local exemptions from its observance.  

The law as it was originally written required states that observe DST to begin it at 02:00 local time on the last Sunday in April and to end it at 02:00 local time on the last Sunday in October. The law was later amended in 1986 to move the uniform start date for DST to the first Sunday in April (effective 1987). The latest amendment, part of the Energy Policy Act of 2005, extends DST by four or five weeks by moving the uniform start date for DST to the second Sunday in March and the end date to the first Sunday in November (effective 2007). However, the Department of Energy is required to report to Congress the impact of the DST extension by December 1, 2007 (nine months after the statute took effect) which the department has not done and the report is now grossly overdue. If the DST extension failed to save energy, Congress may revert back to the old schedule set in 1986!  And believe it or not, there is actually an organization (standardtime.com) who has been attempting to eliminate Day Light Saving Time altogether since 1998!  

Help Teach A Child To Read

Learning How to Read Begins in Children's Ears 

Most people think children learn how to read through their eyes. But reading is actually learned through the ears. Parents lay a foundation for success in reading by talking to a child, reading books to her, and playing auditory games such as rhyming. The more books you read, the bigger his vocabulary becomes. A bigger vocabulary allows her to recognize lots of words while she reads. If you've read books to him about cheetahs and warthogs, it's more likely he can read those words when his teacher gives a homework assignment about the Serengeti Plains.

Learning to Read, Reading to Learn
A child will normally learn how to read through the following sequence:

• From birth to age three, children listen to lots of words spoken and learn how to talk.
• Children, aged three to four years old have growing vocabularies, and they learn how to rhyme.
• In first grade children are taught how to blend letter sounds together to "sound out" words and memorize sight words. They begin reading simple sentences.
• Second and third graders learn how to read "chapter" books and read fluently with comprehension.

For children who are being raised in homes where English is a secondary or non-existent language, these individuals can find themselves lacking some important auditory tools:

• Can't rhyme due to minimal vocabulary 
• Don't know the short vowel sounds - caused by an inability to hear differences in short vowel sounds. (Short vowels: a-apple, e-elephant, i-igloo, o-octopus, u-umbrella)
• Can't put word parts together to make words - a skill used in sounding out new words.
• Slow recall of letter sounds, sees the letter w but can't remember what it says.

Absence of these critical auditory skills increase the difficulty in learning to read which in turn compounds the overall learning challenges. A team of local volunteers has formed a tutorial group whose goal is to help overcome these learning difficulties by bridging the language gap created by the absence of English in the home place.

  

Volunteers gather at Fellowship Bible Church each Wednesday from 5:30 until 7 PM throughout the school year to read to children or listen to the child read and offer coaching over the rough spots.  Additional volunteers tutor students on various school subjects to help them accelerate and succeed in their classes.

As you can imagine, demand for this assistance in our community is at least twice as great as there are volunteers to support them.  If you are interested becoming a volunteer tutor or know others who would be, please share the FLYER with them and ask them to join in each Wednesday evening – you’ll be surprised by the gratitude you’ll receive from appreciative individuals learning from you!      

Stockings For Our Soldiers

Members of The Senior Program at the SeaTac Community Center are collecting donated items to be placed into hand sewn stockings and shipped to our brave young men and women in uniform serving their Country half-way around the world. The drive will run through November 8.  All items collected at the SeaTac Community Center will be brought to Operation Support Our Troops Northwest for packing and shipping.  

When choosing items to donate, please consider many smaller items to be better than a few large items. For example, a package of ten snack-sized bags of chips is better than a single family size bag of chips. This way, the items can be distributed to more soldiers. A list of recommended items needed include cocoa and cider packets, 6 inch candy canes, packaged cookies, microwave popcorn, gum, breath mints, peanuts and lip balm however, our troops are thankful for anything we send. Additionally, cash donations are always needed to help offset the shipping costs. For further information, call 973.4690

Alternate Routes Required

Typical peak periods of construction and road closures occur during summer months, however a few projects taking place this fall will have an impact on local commuter's travel plans:

Southbound I-5 Onramp at 200th Street 

Detours will be in place during temporary construction forcing closure of the I-5 southbound ramp at South 200th Street / Military Road South for I-5 concrete pavement rehabilitation. Closure will be weather dependant requiring a maximum of 5 single nights between October 10 – November 18, 2011.  Mon-Fri closures will be scheduled from 8PM to 5AM & Sat-Sun 8PM to 10AM.. Detour will be on Military Road South, North to South 188th Street and the Southbound ramp to I-5.

Additional Major Construction Detours in place within the Region:

154th Street between 24th and 32nd Ave South

The City of Seatac recently announced that full road closure of South 154th St between 32nd Ave S and 24th Ave S will continue to remain in effect until December 31st.  During this time only emergency vehicles and local traffic will be allowed to use a portion of South 154th St.  Please refer to the detour map for alternative routes while traveling in this area.

SR 99 - Alaskan Way Viaduct Replacement

A nine-day closure of the State Route 99 Alaskan Way Viaduct will mark the beginning of the end for Seattle’s double-deck highway.  At 7:30 p.m. Friday, Oct. 21, crews working for the Washington State Department of Transportation (WSDOT) will close the majority of the viaduct until 5 a.m., Monday, Oct. 31. 

During the closure, crews will demolish large sections of the southern mile of the viaduct, and complete temporary connections to a new SR 99 bridge now under construction on the west side of the viaduct in SODO. When 99 reopens on Halloween, a “construction bypass” will be in place.  WSDOT has just released this video to provide an example of what this will look like for commuters passing through this area: