By Robin GOLDSWORTHY

Whether a power outage, Red Flag wind warning, or earthquake, Paul Dutton wants to make sure his Crescenta Valley neighbors are prepared for any type of emergency. Dutton is a Community Emergency Response Team – CERT – coordinator, Red Cross volunteer, and professional emergency preparedness consultant. He has worked diligently to inform and educate his community through seminars, classes and lectures. He has now transitioned to social media, and will be launching The Emergency Preparedness Network on YouTube on Jan. 12 at 10 a.m.

“It’s so important right now [to be prepared] as LA County has been declared the riskiest county in America,” Dutton said.

He cites as examples that the County has had more and larger fires in the last three years that have required people to get ready to evacuate at a moment’s notice. As recently as Thanksgiving Day, a Red Flag Warning was issued by Southern California Edison warning residents that they could lose their power for days.

“With more and more wind events, fires, Red Flag Warnings and other disasters – the worst disasters in the entire country – makes this the perfect time to wake up people and get them ready,” he said.

Dutton said on the channel he will be covering everything from outlining each family’s disaster plan to reacting to downed power lines to preparing for Red Flag Warnings and disaster medical operations to losing power and much more.

“I can reach more people with my own YouTube channel in helping [families] get ready for the next disaster. I have held CERT classes for nearly 20 years and have trained over 700 people in 39 classes,” he said. “I just want to get the word out to even more people.”

Dutton plans on posting a new video every week. He said that he currently has 40 video ideas and already plans on 10 that will be posted in the first month alone.

“Our first three will go out next week!” he said.

Dutton is eager to engage with the community and encourages people to send questions to Emergencyprepnetwork@gmail.com.

His goal is to share his experiences so local families won’t be caught unprepared when the next disaster strikes.