Publication Date: Wednesday, December 07, 2005
Editorial: Closing the disaster preparedness gap
Editorial: Closing the disaster preparedness gap
(December 07, 2005) Palo Alto area cities may be ahead of others, but would still be overwhelmed by a major catastrophe -- so citizens need to prepare for that, experts warn
There's a somewhat grim joke in the emergency-preparedness field: "If you wrote a booklet about aid you could expect in the first days of a major catastrophe, its pages would be blank."
In other words, you'll likely be on your own -- as an individual, family, neighborhood or community.
That quip stopped being funny when Hurricane Katrina struck New Orleans and the Gulf-states communities in its path of destruction. Now that the wave of national shock and generosity has ebbed and the real investigative finger-pointing has begun, local communities across the nation are beginning to take stock of where they stand in terms of being prepared for something equivalent.
For California, that probably means an earthquake -- the "Big One." But flooding is a possibility in low-lying South Bay communities, and there's terrorism.
It turns out Palo Alto and other communities in the South Bay are well ahead of the nation in readiness, according to an informational report presented to the City Council Monday night. In fact, Palo Alto's emergency manager, Barbara Cimino of the fire department, was called back to the New Orleans area in late September to supervise a multi-state emergency response center for 10 days, helping straighten out the mess.
Her take-home lessons from that searing experience were part of her message to the council, even though the bulk of the report summed up lessons from an earthquake drill last April at Palo Alto High School, the Cubberley Community Center and the city's Emergency Operations Center. Field Exercise Coordinator Kenneth Dueker of the police department collaborated on the report.
The report was positive overall, citing cooperation by the more than 200 persons involved -- police, fire, volunteers and the Red Cross. But there were significant gaps, ranging from concerns about how police officers and firefighters can get from their distant homes to their jobs to how well police and fire agencies from different jurisdictions can communicate with each other.
Communication was one of the most urgent lessons to come from the 9/11 tragedy in New York City -- many lives were lost unnecessarily when police and fire units responding couldn't communicate directly.
Yet as recently as last spring, more than four years after 9/11, it was noted that police and fire agencies in Santa Clara County had difficulty communicating directly with each other. In joint exercises or mutual-aid cases they need to go through a Bay Area-wide emergency channel, which would become jammed in a full-blown regional catastrophe.
A countywide "Interoperability Project" is making progress in the communications gap.
But communications issues still topped the concerns in the report, both in terms of equipment and training and relating to the safety of the Emergency Operations Center (EOC) itself, located in the basement of the Civic Center. This is particularly relevant in that the Civic Center did not fare well in the 1989 Loma Prieta quake -- the large concrete arcade out front had to be torn down and reinforcements were needed elsewhere.
Communications, the report notes, "is a large and complex topic that impacts almost every aspect of disaster response for the city as well as all departments, groups and individuals. Further testing, training and drills are essential, along with the implementation or expansion of emergency communications capabilities."
A sense of urgency penetrates even the official language of the report.
While the EOC staff performed acceptably, and Palo Alto is one of the few cities in the county to even have such a dedicated command post, the report says back-up locations are needed "should the Civic Center be damaged."
Both the police department and dispatch center "could be compromised were the Civic Center to fail," including"a number of mission-critical elements" such as radio and computer systems. And, the report warns, "a collapse of the police garage ... might crush/trap a large portion of city police vehicles."
This outstanding summary is a "must read" for anyone who wants to weigh in on whether a new police headquarters is needed -- as well as what residents need to do in their homes and neighborhoods. While progress is being made, we're nowhere near an acceptable level of readiness, and city leaders must shoulder responsibility for keeping emergency preparedness a top priority -- locally and regionally.
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