ALLEGANY — A lot has changed over the last 10 years, particularly when it comes to disaster preparedness on the South Coast. People have, slowly, started to allow themselves to discuss the need to be ready for a natural disaster, even if they haven’t come to fully embrace the topic.

“You know, disaster preparedness is a hard sell. Most people are so wrapped up in just the daily getting through; so few people really want to look beyond,” Fran Worthen, a resident of Allegany, said recently as she was discussing their community’s third annual Time to Prepare Fair.

The fair, which is actually open to everyone in Coos County, will help get the preparedness ball rolling for some, while keeping it rolling for others. Worthen, who is also the communications coordinator for the Allegany Volunteer Emergency Response Team, called AVERT, said the event is a reminder of the amazing creation built by a couple of life-long residents, Jerry and June Kroeger.

“I think it’s really amazing what the Kroeger’s have been able to do to get so many in a community going in the same direction,” Worthen added.

The Kroeger’s are equally amazed. AVERT grew from a light bulb moment in a car, into an organization that has involved about one-third of the residents in their rural community located east of Coos Bay.

June Kroeger said the idea started on a drive back from visiting family in Bandon after the Hurricane Katrina disaster. “I was driving home one night (seven years ago) and the thought came to my mind, ‘What’s to say something like that, Katrina, would never happen here?'”

As more information about that disaster came to light, one fact from the American Red Cross struck Jerry like a thunderbolt: “If people were educated and trained to take care of themselves, 50 percent of the people who lost their lives in Katrina would have made it; would have survived.”

From that point, the couple decided they needed to step-up efforts to get their community prepared to handle any disaster common to rural communities: flood, windstorm, landslides, wildfire and earthquakes.

They received training through the local CERT training program, brought first aid/CPR classes to the community center, worked with Red Cross and Coos County Emergency Management to bring resources into Allegany and distribute the information to residents. Then they went to work enlisting volunteers to help in the effort.

Worthen said the Millicoma River Park and Recreation District board of directors has been supportive from the start, helping to get grants for GMRS radios, shelter supplies and a satellite phone on loan from Coos County.

“Very few of the county disaster plans reach out into the rural areas. They are focused in the urban areas where there’s the most people and where they can get services to people, but the rural areas already know that we’ll be isolated and we’ll have to help ourselves,” Worthen said.

One of the things that the Kroeger’s understood, early on, was the need to build an emergency communication plan for their area. The population, only a little more than 300, is spread out over 35 miles of rural roads.

Momentum really started building after the couple held an “interest meeting” and about 33 people showed up.

“That really was a big plus for us, at least we had some people to get started and go from there,” Jerry Kroeger remembered. “From there we went up and down road and created these (26) pods. Basically, what we did was look at the area and if there was a bridge or steep ground — we knew that these places would be isolated.”

While he went to work helping the U.S. Coast Guard map out destinations for helicopter supply drops, his wife was working on getting community shelters ready to handle a sudden exodus.

“Our focus right now is to try to complete our shelter, to get the supplies that we need,” said June Kroeger. “We have food already, we’ve got blankets, and water is easy enough to get, but we are having a hard time locating cots.”

Her husband knows where a lot of them are located. “But I can’t get the government to turn them loose. They said, ‘If you got an emergency we’ll get them out to you,’ but that might be three weeks to a month or two afterward. We want to get them and have them on hand and put them where we need them.”

It is an obstacle, but one they expect to overcome, just as they have overcome so many others, through prayer and community support.

“It’s amazing how things fell into place,” June Kroeger said. “Jerry and I knew nothing, absolutely nothing, about this when we first said we need to do something. We started learning then. God and community support, those two things are what makes it go.”

Community events, like the fair on Saturday, help keep it going bringing new residents up to speed and keep existing residents in the loop. While spreading the word that disaster preparedness is a necessity, and it shouldn’t be confused with emergency preparedness.

“We have emergencies all the time,” Jerry Kroeger said. “This is a different deal. When (a disaster) happens you’re really going to have to help each other.”

June Kroeger said the reality of the situation cannot be underscored enough. (When a major disaster happens), all of the focus is going to be on the larger areas — Portland, Seattle, places like that. And before they get to us it’s going to be Coos Bay; we’re going to be the last on the list. We are going to have to take care of ourselves, I feel, for a number of months.”

You can start preparing, or sharpen your skills, at the fair on Saturday. It will run from noon to 4 p.m. at the community center, located along the Coos River Highway.