Getting ready for the worst
Imagine this: Two brush fires -- one in Buck Gulley, the other in
Newport Coast -- are tearing through Newport Beach. As the fires
threaten to converge, 30-foot flames threaten homes and endanger
thousands of lives.
Inside a crowded room in the Newport Beach police station, the
city’s emergency operations center bustles with officials from every
city department working together to maintain the safety of Newport
residents.
Wearing color-coded vests according to their department, officials
coordinate evacuations and shelters where displaced people will be
safe. Requests for help are called in to surrounding cities.
Firefighters battle the flames and police investigate leads that the
fires may have been intentionally set by an group demanding an end to
residential development.
The atmosphere is intense, and everyone is focused on finding a
solution -- but it’s only a drill.
The city of Newport Beach held the drill Thursday to practice its
response to just such a disaster and to evaluate what needs
improvement, Newport Police Sgt. Bill Hartford said.
After Hurricane Katrina, Newport-Mesa residents may be wondering
if their cities are prepared to handle a disaster similar in scale.
Officials from both cities said they are as ready as they can be.
“I think that Newport Beach is as prepared as any other
municipality,” said Newport Fire Chief Tim Riley.
Costa Mesa officials echoed that sentiment.
Newport Beach runs an annual emergency drill, with a different
simulated disaster each year. Costa Mesa holds training sessions
throughout the year, including an annual City Hall evacuation drill.
Last week, Costa Mesa officials conducted a simulated exercise to
provide shelter for residents in the event of an earthquake and
subsequent evacuation.
For the city of Newport Beach, this year’s simulated disaster was
a brush fire, but according to city officials, that’s only one of
several disasters that have the potential to cripple the city.
Earthquakes, fires and tsunamis seem to top the list of officials’
concerns.
Most recently, Newport Lifeguards had to evacuate the beach for a
tsunami warning in June. People were receptive to the warnings, said
Capt. Eric Bauer, of the Newport Beach Lifeguards.
In an oceanfront community, water-related disasters are legitimate
concerns, Bauer said.
The Newport Beach emergency operations center was last activated
in 1993 to provide support for Laguna Beach during the fires that
ravaged that city, said Newport Fire Chief Riley, who served as
incident commander at Thursday’s drill.
Depending on the situation, the head of any city department can
activate the city’s emergency operations center. From there, city
officials convene to decide the most appropriate action.
Once the emergency operations center has been opened, city
officials adhere to a preset command system, said Brenda Emrick, a
fire protection specialist with the Costa Mesa Fire Department.
“Our chain is the local operational area, and then the state, and
then the federal government,” Emrick said.
Should local agencies need outside assistance, Orange County law
enforcement agencies have the ability to talk to one another on the
radio if an emergency shuts down communications.
A large-scale disaster is likely to overwhelm the city’s resources
and require help from surrounding cities, officials said.
“We really rely heavily on each other to provide resources and
protection to our communities when one or more communities are
overwhelmed,” Riley said.
For Costa Mesa, the next thing on the disaster preparedness
horizon is donation management, Emrick said. She said she received
many calls, following Hurricane Katrina, from people wondering how to
help and how to get involved.
When a disaster occurs, everyone is quick to donate, but without
direction and a destination, donations can be lost, she said.
“You may have 100 pallets of water, but then you need trucks and
drivers that have insurance” to deliver the water, Emrick said.
Thursday’s drill in Newport went well, and all the participants
are getting more accustomed to working together, Riley said.
“I think that they’re understanding what their roles and
responsibilities are,” Riley said. “I think the team that was in
there is up to the challenge.”
City officials said they have done their part to prepare for a
disaster -- and now they’re asking residents to help out as well.
“The best answer to disaster preparedness is that individuals take
responsibility for themselves and that they’re self-prepared,”
Lifeguard Captain Bauer said.
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