Emergency Preparedness

[aamusedinatx]

In today's Chron an interesting article about California, especially the bay area and emergency preparedness in case that "big one" hits (as it's supposed to in the next 30 years).

article here.

The more interesting snippit (to me):

As much as anything, what worries emergency planners is that Bay Area residents are again lax about an earthquake -- like before 1989.

A Red Cross poll in the late 1990s showed that 82 percent of Northern Californians say they are "not very well prepared" for a big earthquake, and an Association of Bay Area Governments survey concluded that only 31 percent of the core region's 100 cities and nine counties had fully tested their emergency plans.

To counteract the blase attitude among residents, San Francisco began a major publicity campaign for its Web site www.72hours.org this month, offering advice for surviving independently for three days after a quake.

The bottom line, many analysts say, is to expect the worst -- and to expect chaos.

"The thing to remember about California is just what ex-Gov. Pete Wilson once said about this state being 'America's disaster theme park,' " said Frannie Edwards, a statewide authority on earthquakes who manages emergency services for San Jose. "Boy, is it true. You never know what will happen next."

At least there is less chance here of the quagmire that entangled the FEMA on the Gulf Coast, emergency planners say.

In California, the cities, counties and state emergency services are expected to handle quakes on their own with little help from FEMA -- an arrangement that worked successfully in the 1994 Northridge and 1989 Loma Prieta earthquakes. FEMA is supposed to be a last resort, and in all California disasters of the past few decades, its chief role was to hand out reconstruction checks.

"America's disaster themepark" That's putting it mildly.