A few more scenes from the (very busy) West Seattle weekend that just wrapped up: One day after the Alki Statue of Liberty Plaza time-capsule celebration (our Saturday reports are here and here), Eilene Hutchinson and Libby Carr from the Statue of Liberty Plaza Project were out serving leftover “time capsule cake.” (Thanks to Mark Matassa for the photo.) Now rewinding a bit further into the weekend:

Genevieve Aguilar photographed Fandango at DNDA‘s LINKS barbecue, held indoors on soggy Saturday; by later Saturday afternoon, the weather cleared enough for outdoor fun, including this goofy act at Holy Rosary School’s Westfest, with TV personality Jim Dever and son:

At the Southwest Branch Library on Saturday afternoon, Friends of SBL invited patrons to come meet new branch manager Jane Appling (at right in the pink shirt):

And we wanted to mention a few words about the Communications Hubs radio test on Friday night – this is Morgan Community Association president Deb Barker outside West Seattle Thriftway (the MJ “hub”) during the drill:

Cindi Barker, also from MoCA (but no relation to Deb), sent a report on how the test went (it involved small handheld radios that have been distributed to reps in the West Seattle neighborhoods participating in the disaster-preparedness project):

All the Hubs in the WS Communcations Hub system were present and accounted for. Our next hub to come on line, Highland Park, came into the test late, but still checked in and was heard.

The GMRS repeater system worked great, everyone was able to receive all Hubs, from Fauntleroy to Alki. Signal strength was a little variable, as people were getting feedback about their transmissions and moved around to improve the signal. Under simulated conditions, each Hub requested different resources of the type that might be needed immediately following a disaster, including describing a serious, high priority situation, such as the collapse of a building. Hubs also exchanged information about what resources might have become available in their neighborhood and sought to match them up with needs in other locations.

This test placed high demands on each Hub coordinator, as they had to physically set up their Hub location and manage all the radio traffic, and everyone performed at an outstanding level. During the debrief, several people said they attracted concerned attention as they were overheard reporting a fire or gas leak according to their test script, and some used the opportunity to let their neighbors know about the Emergency Communication Hub concept and about the drill, much to the relief of the visitors. All in all, an extremely successful test!

You can find your nearest Hub on this site – they’re spots set up for people to gather to coordinate information and help if disaster strikes and other means of communication don’t work.