September 14, 2005

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Palo Alto Online

Editorial: Midpeninsula's fine response to Katrina

One Palo Alto High School teacher posted a notice through the Paly e-mail link to families that a family friend would be driving an empty truck to the area hit by Hurricane Katrina the following day. Virtually overnight she was inundated with about 30,000 pounds of clothing and supplies.

Local Red Cross chapter director Trish Bubenik reported Monday that residents of the Palo Alto area have contributed more than $500,000 for disaster-relief efforts -- nationally the Red Cross has received about $600 million.

Individual businesses and corporations have organized fundraising efforts that have generated many thousands more dollars. As one small example, employees of the Palo Alto Weekly and its sister papers, the Almanac and Mountain View Voice, donated nearly $5,000, which is being matched by the company.

Most such efforts go unreported, lost in the flood of local activities and contributions.

The Palo Alto/Menlo Park Mothers' Club, normally a low-visibility organization, held a modest benefit bake sale, and reportedly raised more than $20,000 for disaster relief.

Local nurses took time off and headed there in person to render care and aid to the suffering.

Mayors of local cities began planning to "adopt" communities devastated by the level 5 hurricane, which created what is believed to be the worst natural disaster in the nation's history. Keith Schneider, a young real-estate professional in the Stanford Land Management Co., is promoting a long-term adoption plan so Silicon Valley communities can provide continuing and specialty aid to the hard-hit regions.

The disastrous failure of the Federal Emergency Management Administration, compounded by apparent failures at state and local levels, left many thousands of the most vulnerable populations unprepared beforehand and un-aided for days afterward. But that disaster will now be judged by history -- harshly, we expect. Billions of federal dollars are now en route and a competent command structure is, at last, in place.

Yet the immediate, from-the-heart local response to the destruction and suffering from the American public ought to go down as a shining source of pride to balance out the shameful governmental lapses. And few places dug deeper faster than the Palo Alto region.

The Palo Alto Red Cross chapter has itself been on full-out emergency hours organizing responses, sending people and collecting donations. Menlo Park's specialty water-rescue team flew out quickly and was soon evacuating people from flooded homes.

While stories of heroism and dedication are featured in the national news, there are lesser acts of selfless compassion and commitment going on around us, at all levels. Even though most of these little heroic acts will never be widely known, the fact of their existence should not be forgotten in the larger picture.

Editorial: Palo Alto undergrounding requires creative financing

It was seen as a huge investment in the aesthetics of the community, so people could look at trees, not wires.

The undergrounding program has been suspended from time to time -- such as after the 1978 passage of Proposition 13. But the vision of less-cluttered skies continued.

It recently hit a snag when some residents got hit by some huge bills, primarily due to inflation and the need to relocate the lines from backyards to frontyards for access. The issue is scheduled to come back to the City Council next Monday, when staff will report on alternatives to extend payments.

But undergrounding is still a priority, the city should at least develop creative, low-impact financing alternatives for homeowners, perhaps liens due upon sale of the property.

It's still a visionary -- or at least vision-improving -- city effort, but it should not fall so heavily on individual property owners due to forces beyond anyone's control.

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