On the anniversary of hurricane Katrina, there have been
numerous opinion pieces pointing a finger at Washington D.C. - crying that the federal
government failed the people of New Orleans by not riding to the rescue from the get go.
This month, many public employees in Siskiyou County are learning that the emergency system works from the
bottom up, not the top down. County employees have been briefed about their roles as
“disaster service workers” under State law (California Government Code Section
3100-3109) and are taking an introductory course in the
Incident Command System (ICS,) Standardized Emergency Management System (SEMS) and the
National Incident Management System (NIMS.)
First responsibilities for preparedness and care in a
disaster situation lie with you and your family. Recommendations are for you to have
enough food, water and other supplies on hand for your family to sustain itself for 72
hours to a week. (Perhaps longer in case of a pandemic.) You can find checklists online at
http://www.ready.gov/ and “Are You Ready?” - a comprehensive reference for
family preparedness, at http://www.fema.gov/areyouready/
Anyone employed by a public district, city county or state agency is
considered a disaster service worker, so they are expected to have family plans and
supplies ready as they may be called into disaster service.
There are also opportunities
to organize and receive emergency training to help yourself on the neighborhood level. Siskiyou County
has a new Citizen’s Emergency Corps, which includes Citizen’s Emergency Response
Training (CERT,) Neighborhood Watch and Medical Response Corps. The next meeting is on
Wednesday Sept. 27 at 1 p.m. at the Yreka Armory. Please come if you are interested.
There are also many local fire safe councils in which you can become involved.
The next level of response in
an emergency is the most local jurisdiction. This is the district, city or County level.
If possible, the emergency must be handled with resources at that level. If the district
or city becomes overwhelmed, it can ask for mutual aid through prearranged agreements for
assistance from other districts, agencies, cities or the County. These arrangements are
voluntary and sent at the will of the responding entity, but the resources would be
directed by the local Command. No agency is required to pull needed resources away from
their own area. An example of this type of event would be the recent Hoy fire at Lake Shastina
to which many fire departments responded.
All fire, law enforcement and
other emergencies are managed using the ICS – Incident Command Structure. This is a
standardized management system that grew out of the big fires in the Berkeley Hills. All
the agencies and fire departments that reported to help did not have a pre-established way
to integrate into a unified force and there was chaos. In the aftermath, ICS was
developed. It identifies five major functions to be performed: management, operations,
planning, logistics and finance. It establishes an expandable chain of command flexible
enough to fit both small and huge disasters, and it manages by objectives. This system is
the basis for NIMS and is the same one used by the U.S. Forest Service in managing forest
fires. In their introductory class, County employees learned about ICS. In an emergency, they would not be reporting to
their usual Department Head, but would be plugged in where needed under the ICS structure.
When several jurisdictions or
events are involved (such as in the case of last winter’s flood,) a disaster would be
declared by the Board of Supervisors and an Area Command would be established at the
county level. The Emergency Operations Center (EOC) located at the California Department
of Forestry and Fire Protection (CDF) in Yreka would
likely be activated. Here, multiple incidents being handled out in the field (“operations”)
can be supported by an Area Command. Decisions on priorities for allocating resources, and
setting objectives can be made with information from the field, maps and other
information. Logistics can order up additional equipment and trained personnel, and take
care of feeding and housing them. Finance can take care of time card, contracts, documents
and payments. Information Officers can give the press and public the latest facts.
If the County is overwhelmed,
additional resources can be requested through the Northern California Regional Command. If
they are overwhelmed, they can request help from the State Office of Emergency Services.
If the State is faced with more than it can handle, the Governor can declare a State of Emergency
for the State and request national assistance under the Stafford Act. http://www.disastersrus.org/FEMA/Stafact.htm
September is Emergency
Preparedness Month. You are the first response in a disaster. Please make sure that you
are ready. |
