Why is This Important?
Natural or human-caused disasters can have devastating effects on a community, the economy, and the environment. Having a community or household plan that provides food, clean water, emergency medical services, temporary shelter, and transportation during emergencies can lessen the impacts of disasters. Government agencies must have plans that enable areas to quickly restore vital services so that the effects from a disaster are not compounded by a lack of power, water, sewer, and/or other services.
What is a Sustainable State?
In a sustainable state a community is prepared to meet the emergency needs of all of its members in the event of a disaster.
How Are We Doing?
Local government preparedness
Guidelines under California's Standardized Emergency Management System (SEMS) and the Federal National Incident Management System (NIMS) are designed to help local governments develop emergency operations plans (EOPs) for disasters. Having an EOP compliant with SEMS and NIMS ensures that during a major disaster, responders can work in a coordinated manner with personnel from other local jurisdictions and the state and federal governments.
• San Mateo County and all its cities have EOPs compliant with SEMS.
• Over 1,500 fi rst responders and others in the county have been trained in the Incident Command System classes.
• San Mateo County conducted three exercises in 2009 including the "Great Shakeout" preparedness exercise in March and a more comprehensive functional Earthquake Exercise in April.
• In 2009 an update of the Tsunami Inundation Maps for San Mateo County was completed. Those maps and others can be seen at http://myhazard.calema.ca.gov.
Community Preparedness
Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) training teaches individuals skills such as fi re safety, light search and rescue, skills that can help local communities during an emergency.
• As of 2009, there were 16 active CERT teams in the county, covering almost all areas of the county.
• In 2009, 643 new individuals completed CERT trainings in addition to an estimated 2,300 existing CERT-trained residents.
• The Fifth Annual Disaster Preparedness Day was held in South San Francisco and was attended by approximately 1,000 community members. Another one is being planned for September 2010.
• San Mateo County also maintains an emergency alert system that residents can sign up for at http://www.smcalert.info. The system sends information to residents on their cell phones (by text message) or email about emergencies that impact them. The county estimates that about 13,000 residents are currently reached through SMC alert, along with another 1,500 first responders.
In 2009, San Mateo County gave special attention to disaster planning for people with disabilities and older adults. Through a one-time Homeland Security grant, emergency preparedness offi cials were able to:
• Purchase and deliver emergency kits to all 650 homebound Meals on Wheels recipients within the county, and
• Train 97 community leaders to deliver disaster preparedness trainings to people with disabilities and older adults. The original goal was to train at least 500 people with disabilities and older adults in 2009. To date, this program has trained over 1,300.
