COMMUNITY

ORTING RESIDENTS SOUND OFF ON LAHARS

By: Lyle Evansiano May 8, 2008

There's good reason why everybody from The Seattle Times to bloggers across the nation are buzzing about Orting, Washington. It's not the beautiful Cascade foothills setting, our downtown city parks, the surrounding farming concerns, or our growth rate...it's all about The Community.

"If you look at the US Census data regarding Orting households, and compare that to how many people have visited Orting News in the past month, it shows that every household in Orting has visited Orting News." said Rich Carr, Orting News Editor. "Because the community itself has embraced Community News by the Community we've added another feature to Orting News that lets them be heard: Sound Off The Orting Opinion Poll.

Each week a new Sound Off Poll is placed at the top of Orting News with a question relevant to that week. The premier question of Sound Off coincided with the city's recent Lahar Test on Tuesday.

"Lahar warnings and Orting have a venerable and vital existance together." said Carr. "Growing up in South Prairie the word 'lahar' wasn't in the average folks' vocabulary. Since everything from Bridge For Kids to Warning Sirens are now peppering the landscape we thought it ideal to give the community an 'anonymous voice' so thoughts on the subject would be displayed in real time, without edits, and from the heart. It worked."

Here are just a sampling of answers to this weeks' question: Does Our Lahar Warning System Make You Feel Safe?

~Lahar...that's like calling squid Calamari. Why don't these officials call a spade a spade and say they're really doing this to substantiate their jobs and prove that even with all of today's technology they can't really put together a cohesive warning system or emergency plan that is at all realistic and functional.

~Depending on what part of the house I am in, changes how loud the siren is. If I am running the washer and dreyer, and watching tv, or giving one of the kids a bath, I am sure I would not hear it! That is a little scary.

~I looked forward to the warning system going off this morning - just makes me feel safer.

~A joke. Millions spent and it either doesn't work, or they need new this or that, or they blame somebody. A joke.

~If I didn't have my NOAA Radio.. I would never of heard them inside. When I stepped outside, they were very faint. I thought I would be able to hear the one in McMillan, but I was wrong.

As of this writing three out of four residents give the Lahar Warning System thumbs down. Each week all comments are posted anonymously to Orting News, and each is archived on the Sound Off Poll page for future reference.

If you have a good question you'd like answered by the Orting Community, email it to info@ortingnews.com

Didn't hear Tuesday's test? Click on the You Tube video below and see what you think...