By RICK WALLACE

For The Beachcomber

Okay, confession time. It’s actually true what The Donald has been saying; The weather on Vashon is rigged. That October storm scare we just had? VashonBePrepared knew it would turn out to be a piffle little thing. We colludedwith the National Weather Service (NWS) to scare the pants off everyone. We even roped Cliff Mass into the conspiracy.

At VashonBePrepared we do understand you’re disappointed the storm was a non-event and we apologize. You stocked up on food, water and batteries: all the other necessities and we let you down. There was none of the fun ofshivering through a three-day power outage. Hardly any big branches and trees blocked roads and driveways … or fell on your heads and homes. You didn’t get a chance to check on neighbors and huddle around the fireplacechatting about global warming and the weird weather. There weren’t even any long lines for socializing while waiting for lattes at Thriftway and no numbered gas cans lined up on the highway waiting their own turn for liquid powerat the filling stations.

But what else could we do? Year after year VashonBe Prepared sounds warnings that winter is coming. We urge you to lay in a couple of weeks of food and other supplies. We tell everyone about the bonus, that getting ready forwinter will (mostly) prepare you for the inevitable big quake we all know is coming.

But, no. Most of you just sit there like lumps and put off disaster prep! Sure, a few people heed our urgings and go all survivalist, but not nearly enough. A few years back we did an island poll and discovered only one-third of ushave enough food and water on hand for even one week, let alone the recommended two weeks. Very few folks make family contact plans and stow prescription medicines and take all those other important steps to keep familiesand pets safe and comfy. Hardly anybody takes the basic steps to be storm ready that can be found at VashonBePrepared.org/StormSteps.

Even the gigantic Cascadia Rising earthquake exercise this summer didn’t get people motivated, despite all the headlines. In fact, the state’s emergency management department just released its after-action report, which says:“There is an urgent need for residents to prepare. Despite the ongoing public education efforts and community preparedness programs, our families, communities, schools, hospitals and businesses are not prepared.”

The fact is a bad storm is the best marketing we have to motivate folks to get prepared. Anyone in emergency response knows we’ll do the best we can, but we’ll be overwhelmed by a disaster. It’s up to you to take care of yourselfuntil help arrives and just remember … it could be weeks.

So, we hope you’ll forgive us for our little rigged-up storm hoax. We also hope you’ll look back, have a chuckle and be thankful you did a great job of stocking up for the winter. Now you’re prepared. You have everything ready toget through a tough winter and a big quake.

Uhm…you did stock up, didn’t you?

— When he isn’t conspiring with forecasters and using a dose of humor to ensure islanders are prepared, Rick Wallace is the new Vice President of VashonBePrepared (he handed over the weather control levers to new presidentVicky de Monterey Richoux).