City focuses on catastrophe

In response to Hurricane Katrina, the city is reviewing its ability

to handle a major disaster, with officials acknowledging they’ve not

been tested by such a catastrophe.

City and fire officials met Thursday to discuss disaster

preparedness, and a City Council study session takes place Oct. 11

with the City on the same topic.

“We are well ahead where Louisiana was,” City Manager Mike Flad

said, referring to the city’s level of readiness.

But he added that though city, Los Angeles County and state

emergency response personnel are well organized, they have yet to

grapple with a wide-scale disaster.

More than 900 people were killed in areas in the Gulf Coast hit by

the hurricane, which ripped through the Gulf Coast on Aug. 29 with

145-mph winds. Damage from the storm has been estimated at $200

billon.

Vice Mayor Todd Campbell said it was a good idea to take a fresh

look at how the city is prepared for a disaster.

One of the key lessons from Katrina was that a city and region

needed to be pro-active and do simulations to be prepared, Campbell

said.

“While we are not in a below-sea level situation like New Orleans

we are certainly subject to repercussions of a levee being damaged up

north and should be responsive; there is a possibility -- although

unlikely -- we could have water rationing,” Campbell said.

When a major disaster strikes there will always be predictable

problems, such as with communications, said Rich Baenen, the city’s

disaster preparedness coordinator.

“We got a hint of that after the [Sept. 12] power outage, and that

was not a major disaster,” Baenen said.

These days, communications is a broad term that goes beyond just

radios, he said.

“It means the Internet and e-mail,” Baenen said. “We communicate

face to face; we communicate through public information on [cable

television] Channel 6.”

The city also has it own band radio station -- 1620 AM -- to

provide information to the public and can also use other methods,

Flad said.

“During the Northridge earthquake it was as simple as posting

fliers at grocery stores to let people know we had a curfew, where

water was available, where shelter was available,” Flad said. “Some

of it was just tips on what people should be doing.”

On a regional level, the cities of Burbank, Glendale and Pasadena

are joining forces to discuss how to better coordinate a regional

response, Flad said.

The three cities are moving beyond just having police and fire

officials talking with each other but other city departments as well,

Flad said.

“With the Rose Bowl and Rose Parade in Pasadena and Bob Hope

Airport here, a disaster at any one of those areas would require a

coordinated regional response,” Flad said.

Steve Storbakken, the Service Area Director of Safety for

Providence St. Joseph Hospital in Burbank and Providence Holy Cross

Medical Center in Mission Hills, said the hospitals are required to

annually review their preparedness plans but the meetings he has been

to in recent weeks have been dominated by talk of Hurricane Katrina.

Following what happened on the Gulf Coast, two areas that hospital

officials will look more closely at are evacuation plans and

logistics plans of having the infrastructure in place to support

staff and patients, Storbakken said.

“What Katrina taught us is the worst-case scenario is possible,”

Storbakken said. “In this day and age you don’t think about that.”

QUESTION

Do you think the city is prepared for a natural disaster? E-mail

your responses to o7burbankleader @latimes.comf7; mail them to the

Burbank Leader, 111 W. Wilson Ave., Glendale, CA 91203. Please spell

your name and include your address and phone number for verification

purposes only.

* MARK MADLER covers City Hall and the courts. He may be reached

at (818) 637-3242 or by e-mail at mark.madlerlatimes.com.