Publication Date: Wednesday, September 21, 2005
Preparing for the worst
Preparing for the worst
(September 21, 2005) Interest in disaster readiness increases in wake of Katrina
by Jocelyn Dong
If there's been an upside to Hurricane Katrina, it's the increased awareness about emergency preparedness.
This week, 18 Palo Alto residents and Stanford public safety officers are taking a three-day intensive course on disaster readiness, sponsored by the Palo Alto Fire Department's Office of Emergency Services.
The Palo Alto Neighborhood Disaster Activities training, also known as "PANDA," gives class members instruction on fundamental skills ranging from disaster medicine to light search and rescue.
Hurricane Katrina "clearly has raised a consciousness of the issue," said Paul Lufkin, a volunteer PANDA instructor. He said this week's class filled up quickly after Katrina, with students citing the hurricane as the reason for enrollment.
Lufkin is already registering people for the next course, to be taught in October. This week's course is the fifth out of seven scheduled for this year.
More than 400 people in Palo Alto are certified in PANDA, Lufkin said.
One fact Hurricane Katrina highlighted -- and that emergency-preparedness instructors emphasize in training -- is that residents will be on their own for at least the first 72 hours of a disaster. Firefighters and police will be handling major, life-threatening crises throughout the city.
PANDA-trained residents thus become part of the Fire Department's "first response," Lufkin said, aiding their neighbors and ensuring the safety of their areas. In addition to disaster medicine and basic search and rescue, students learn about shutting off utilities, handling hazardous materials, disaster psychology, fire suppression and more. At the end of the course, the students test their new knowledge through a mock-disaster exercise.
In addition to the PANDA training, residents have shown increased interest in emergency preparedness by inviting guest speakers from the Office of Emergency Services to their association meetings, according to the city's disaster coordinator, Barbara Cimino.
"It's a window of opportunity," Cimino said last week, as she herself prepared for a one-week deployment to New Orleans. There, she expected to help Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and the American Red Cross coordinate relief shelters.
"It's a chance to use the skills I'm trained in and got to use during Northridge (earthquake)," Cimino said. "It's an opportunity to learn and bring back the experience to the Bay Area."
This week's course is being presented in a new, three-day format. Past PANDA trainings have taken place over six weeks. The same material, which has been certified by FEMA, is covered in both.
The Office of Emergency Services also offers a dozen refresher seminars for the PANDA corps throughout the year.
Lufkin, a retired Agilent employee, noted the irony of being a well-trained PANDA.
"We're all resources at the starting gate, waiting for the big event to occur," he said. "It's mixed emotions. You don't want your training to go to waste, but you don't want a disaster either."
Senior Staff Writer Jocelyn Dong can be reached at jdong@paweekly.com.
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