County launches disaster-planning outreach

By: GIG CONAUGHTON - Staff Writer | Wednesday, July 19, 2006 9:38 PM PDT ∞

SAN DIEGO ---- Hoping to nudge people toward becoming more disaster-ready, the county of San Diego next week plans to start mailing 1.4 million "family disaster plan and personal survival guides."

Officials said the blueprints should help guide and safeguard families in the aftermath of disasters like wildfires and earthquakes.

Bill Horn, chairman of the county board of supervisors, who pushed for the mailing and has made disaster preparedness a theme of his chairmanship this year, said the massive outreach would target every family in the county, and would be available in English, Spanish and Tagalog.

County leaders, the American Red Cross and the San Diego County Sheriff's Department plan to hold a press conference at the county offices Monday to kick off the mailings.

Officials from the Red Cross and the county office of emergency services said the mass mailing would be sent in 8 1/2-inch by 11-inch envelopes with glossy photos depicting disaster scenes and family gatherings, and would be buttressed with public service announcements on radio and TV.

The 8-page plans that will land in people's homes are actually worksheets ---- with areas for people to answer questions and fill out important information that will let them create their own disaster-response blueprint.

The worksheets also contain standard information ---- such as recommendations that people prepare kits containing three-day supplies of canned food, water, battery-powered radios, backup batteries, first-aid kits, critical medications and hygiene items.

They also contain spaces to write down locations of gas valves, main water valves, electrical circuit breakers, manual garage door overrides, portable radios, fire extinguishers, blankets and other items.

The mailing also recommends that residents:

- Create maps showing the floor plans of their home, marking the locations of doors, windows, utility shutoffs, first-aid kits, emergency supplies, tools and other important articles. Review the maps with family members and guests such as baby-sitters.

- Establish and post "reunion" locations ---- places where family members can meet after an emergency ---- one immediately outside the home and another site away from the home.

- Make telephone lists of emergency contacts, family members, and an out-of-state person to call in case family members are separated.

Ron Lane, San Diego County's director of emergency services, said the just-under $1 million outreach effort was the largest attempt he has seen in his 17 years at his post ---- and that officials hoped it would get people to create disaster plans.

He said the guides were put together during the last few months after Horn and the county held a disaster-preparedness forum in March.

Lane said there were only 20,000 "first responders" ---- law enforcement, firefighters and other emergency personnel who would be the first to help local residents during emergencies ---- to cover the county's more than 3 million residents. People need to be able to fend for themselves, he said.

"They're not going to be there immediately, necessarily," Lane said of emergency workers. "If families can be their own first responders, that will make a huge difference."

Lane and others, meanwhile, said the evidence shows that San Diego County residents and people across the country aren't prepared.

Jeff Wiemann, chief executive officer of the American Red Cross of San Diego and Imperial Counties, said that surveys have shown that 54 percent of the American public do not believe that they will be victims of a disaster ---- creating an apathy toward being prepared.

"And that's even after people saw graphic footage of the aftermaths of hurricanes Katrina and Rita last year," he said.

The Red Cross helped the county and the Unified Disaster Council ---- a group comprised of disaster-response officials from the county and its 18 cities ---- put the disaster guides together.

Wiemann also said that people have a mistaken tendency to think of disasters as a massive event, like Hurricane Katrina, or the 2003 wildfires that killed 16 county residents and destroyed more than 2,400 homes.

"Quite frankly, we respond every 24 hours to a local disaster," he said, "usually a family that has been burned out of their home or apartment ---- but that disaster is no less traumatic for that family."

Wiemann and Lane said they're hoping the extent of the outreach will push residents to get ready.

"We know we have an uphill battle," Wiemann said. "But it's not a matter of 'if' a disaster happens, it's 'when.'"

Horn also said he hoped the mailing would hit home ---- and that people would not simply discard the material or put off reviewing it.

"My responsibility is to get the message out there," he said. "And the only way to do that so that it will stick with people is to get it in the mail. We just want them to be prepared."

People who would like more information about how to be prepared to deal with disasters can go to www.sdcounty.ca.gov/oes, or www.sdarc.org.

Contact staff writer Gig Conaughton at (760) 739-6696 or gconaughton@nctimes.com.

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