A discussion of disaster preparedness
Craig writes:
The below is from the North County Times. The original editorial is on their website.
http://www.nctimes.com/articles/2005/10/18/opinion/editorials/100705192057.txt
This brings up one of my favorite pet peeves. One I don't believe I have ever shared with everyone. Here is my opinion.
THERE ARE TO (sic) MANY PLAYERS!
OES, Fire Safe Council, Disaster Committees, CERT, VOAD, all competing for attention, members, grants, control. With all these originations involved are we being effective in preparing local communities with effective disaster planning?
During any emergency the #1 task is effective command and control. You can't have that if everyone thinks they are in charge.
Being a volunteer I don't have all the official answers but being involved in this disaster preparedness stuff over the past 3 years it seems clear that:
During a declared disaster in the County, the Board of Supervisors are in charge.
Their agency assigned to get it done is the Office of Emergency Services (OES).
Everyone comes under OES or they are not a part of the "official" county response.
Local events are run by local agencies, Sheriff and Fire.
These happen every day, command and control for them is well established.
The only difference between a local emergency and a "disaster" is OES becomes the head of the County command structure.
If you are not a part of the above "official" structure you are not a part of the solution.
You are not a part of the "official" communications channels.
You probably don't know what is going on.
You have no insurance, if you get injured or injure others, you have a tremendous liability.
If you get in the way you will be arrested.
As I understand it, all the above applies to the disaster structure in the cities in San Diego County
The bottom line in my area, Campo, probably:
We will never be involved in VOAD, Fire Safe Council or any other disaster structure other than OES.
Because the same 40 volunteers who are involved in every other community activity in the area ARE TIRED.
We will continue to structure our Disaster Committee under OES.
Our "official" community disaster volunteers are our CERT Team Members.
We will probably fund all this ourselves because we don't have the time or resources to compete with all these other "professional", "volunteer", disaster originations, their grant writers or full time staff.
Bottom line, my opinion, the average citizen still assumes when there is an emergency dialing 911 will bring help in 10 minutes.
There is much to do.
Are we structured to get it done?
Craig A. Williams W6CAW
Chair, Campo / Lake Morena Disaster Committee
craig at craigwilliams dot com
From the North County Times, without permission.
All talk, little readiness for next disaster
By: North County Times Editorial Staff -
Our view: Local officials must at least develop warning, evacuation plans.
North County is not ready for the major disaster that is certain to strike the region. Nobody knows precisely what will happen ---- catastrophic earthquake, another epic wildfire, nuclear meltdown or terrorist strike ---- but we do know that the actions taken by local officials to protect the public are woefully inadequate.
This official failure was outlined Sunday in a special report by the North County Times.
It should be said that most of our cities have disaster plans. However, many are out of date. Others have been revamped since 9-11, but they remain riddled with poor assumptions and uncertainty.
For example, Oceanside says it is well-prepared. After all, its planners say the city, which sits near a big seismic fault, faces a three-in-five chance that a "catastrophic" earthquake will strike by 2017. Police and firefighters are ready to work special shifts, city workers are prepared to help the Red Cross house the displaced, and public works officials have backup plans to keep fresh water flowing.
On the other hand, there is no credible plan to evacuate the city if the San Onofre nuclear plant melts down. This inability to notify the public and give good advice during a disaster is endemic throughout the region.
Consider Escondido, which ---- to its great credit ---- recently took the essential step of staging disaster drills for city workers. Their most likely scenario involves sudden, severe flooding of the city's core if an earthquake or something else causes a major break in the Lake Wohlford dam, which is 111 years old.
Officials reckon that water would race down East Valley Parkway to City Hall in about 30-40 minutes. Much of the city's downtown would be under 11 feet of water in three hours.
Sounds like a lot of time, right? Well, 12 hours or more into the October 2003 wildfires, deputies were still moving door-to-door through neighborhoods trying to warn people that death was coming. Thousands never got any official warning; some were trapped for hours by fast-moving fires that blocked roads.
And yet, this door-to-door strategy is official policy in our cities and back country. County and city leaders are tinkering with "reverse 911" systems that call people with alerts.
But telephone lines would be among the first essential services to fail in a major earthquake, wildfire or flood. What are these folks thinking? It's tough to get a call through on Mother's Day; what are the odds that any surviving lines wouldn't be jammed for days?
It turns out that small volunteer groups ---- citizens taking care of their families and neighbors ---- are making the most progress. In Fallbrook and Hidden Meadows, local fire-preparedness councils have worked with safety officials to design escape routes, designate shelters, and mail maps to residents. The Hidden Meadows group has even sought grants for six warning sirens, the cheap and effective systems that civil defense officials have used since the 1950s all over the Midwest and East Coast.
In celebrating such triumphs of common sense, we do not diminish the complexity of disaster planning. Officials are rightly worried about sending people into harm's way with bad information. And the public won't tolerate major tax hikes to fund elaborate civil defense measures.
Still, homeland security became a national priority after 9-11. What happened?
Government's job is to take reasonable measures to protect the public. No system can protect everyone when the Big One hits, whatever it turns out to be. That's why officials urge families to keep enough food and water on hand to survive for three days to a week.
However, our governments are failing us in their basic responsibilities to let the public know where to go and what to do when the most likely disasters strike.
It is deeply troubling that ---- 20 years after Chernobyl, 11 years after the Northridge quake, two years after the Paradise Fire ---- our leaders are mostly just talking about disaster preparedness.
Pat writes:
I am blogging Craig's note because disaster preparedness is an issue that effects everyone regardless of where they live. Craig lives in an isolated community of San Diego's East County, and he discusses some points are unique to his locality. However, there are many parallels between the Campo/Lake Morena area and the incorporated communities located in San Diego County (San Diego City, Chula Vista, Escondido etc.) as well as as here in Baja California.
Here in the Tijuana & Rosarito Municipios the same kind of thing goes on. The only difference between disaster event planning in Baja California and the U.S. is that, here in the Baja there is no plan. Each community here is entirely dependent on its own resources in the aftermath of an event such as an earthquake or flooding (although a certain amount of cooperation exists at certain levels of government in the United States and the City of Tijuana/Baja California State). It's a "Katie bar the door" approach. Or to restate, the community leadership here has yet to develop the infrasructure to effectively deal with disaster events in a meaningful way (although the mayor of Rosarito has recently proposed a plan as a result of the assassination of the Chief of Police). The Mexican governmental structure (State and Federal) is traditionally not answerable to its citizens in the same manner that The U.S. or California government is. It a different system which is more centralized and insulated from citizen input.
I realize that some may not consider preparedness relevant to their situation. As an example, nieghbor of mine broke down one night on his way home from work on the Autopista between Playas and San Antonio Del Mar. He walked several miles to the guard shack at the North Gate, and was unable to call a tow truck. When he returned to his van the next morning, he found that it had been vandalized and his tools were stolen. I asked him if he had a radio or a cell phone. His answer was it was too much trouble to use these things and they cost too much money.
The nieghbor's experience was not a disaster, but it illustrates the kind of things that can go wrong when one encounters an unforeseen event or situation, and how some people resist adaptation. Typically in a disaster (or mini-disaster) there is difficulty communicating for assistance or contacting family members. Any step that can be accomplished ahead of time to implement control over a critical situation is well worth the investment. There are ways to deal with these sort of things; make your own choices ....
