Emergency Preparedness Activities, Barron Park (Neighborhood) Association

Emergency Contact Numbers

Charter (as of 1996 January 12)

• Goal: to provide information and guidance for emergency situations.
• Objectives:
  1. To help prepare residents to be self-sufficient for the first 72 hours after an emergency occurs.
  2. To ensure that the Barron Park Neighborhood, including local schools, are provided with storage bins which contain food, water, medical supplies and other emergency necessities.
  3. To acquire equipment, such as diesel-electric generators and heavy-duty tools, for each city area, for example, Barron Park.
  4. To provide training for residents in disaster and emergency practices and procedures.
  5. To form local communication networks to include amateur radio, computers, cellular phones, bicycles, and foot messengers as needed.
  6. To see that all City wells are up to acceptable standards and accessible for use during emergencies.
  7. To utilize our parks and schools to serve as coordination centers during emergencies.
  8. To schedule emergency preparedness drills.

Activities

• Block Coordinator (formerly Block Preparedness Coordinator)
• PANDA (Palo Alto Neighborhood Disaster Activity) (PDF) : "A Community Emergency Response Training (CERT) Program"
• The Association Of PANDA - providing reference information to the community regarding emergency preparedness
• Palo Alto Resources for Emergency and Disasters Initiative (REDI)

Emergency Alerts

• 2003 test of the City's automated telephone alert system - report by Bob Moss
• Improved neighborhood communications plan in the works: Mountain lion incidents spark residents, police to refine emergency notification system in 2004-07-28 edition of the Palo Alto Weekly.

Advice

• Quack alert: "Triangle of Life - Survival in Earthquakes" by Doug Copp
  This is a widely discredited theory (for USA), but keeps resurfacing (akin to an urban legend). See:
  • Short explanation of problem with this claim by Patrick Muffler
  • Additional: In paragraph 4, Copp claims that after the 1985 Mexico City earthquake, he went into a school and found all the children crushed under their desks. The earthquake occurred at 7:19 AM (local time). A resident of Mexico City has told me that it was implausible that children would already be in classrooms at that early hour.
  • Response from the American Red Cross - bureaucratic statement - the lead-in paragraph can easily be misinterpreted as not rejecting Copp's theory.
  • Urban Legends Reference Pages: Triangle of Life (snopes.com, household section)
    Former location: Urban Legends Reference Page: Crime: Triangle of Life

BPA Newsletter Article Collection

Products

• Palo Alto Area Red Cross Online Store - Disaster Kits and Supplies
• LED flashlights and keychain lights (collection of links). LED lights are superior to conventional flashlights: they use less power to produce light (longer battery life) and are physically much smaller.
• Flashlights and medium portable lights (obsolete)
• PowerFlare : an LED-based replacement for road flares - small size and highly durable

Other Resources

• Emergency Preparedness Resources by Midtown Residents' Association (Palo Alto): an excellent collection of links
• 72hours.org: Are you prepared? sponsored by the City of San Francisco. Includes their version of what residents should keep in their homes and vehicles.
• Flooding/Winterstorms from Office of Emergency Services of City of Palo Alto
  Preparedness Tips (brochure)
• Online version of Palo Alto's Earthquake Preparation pamphlet Living with our Faults,
  Note: This committee collaborated with the city in creating this pamphlet, and was a driving force in getting it distributed to city residents.
• Office of Emergency Services, City of Palo Alto
• USGS Earthquake Hazards Program
• Putting Down Roots in Earthquake Country: Your Handbook for the San Francisco Bay Region by US Geological Survey et al
• Palo Alto Area Chapter of the Red Cross
• RACES: Radio Amateurs Civil Emergency Services - Santa Clara County
• ABAG Local Hazard Mitigation Plan (for earthquakes) ABAG = Association of Bay Area Governments
• Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA):
  • Flooding
    • How to File a Flood Insurance Claim
    • Safety Tips for Flood Victims (from Consumer Product Safety Commission)
  • Reducing Risk through Mitigation: Earthquake Mitigation index and Mitigation Room, FEMA Library
  • Animals and Emergencies
  • FEMA's Project Impact
  • An Index of other Emergency Related Links
  • PEMCO Spotlight: Disaster Preparedness Resources Collection of Links (PEMCO Insurance Companies)
• Earthquake Preparedness Tips from Pacific Gas and Electric (PGE)
• Message Archive of the Emergency Digital Information Service (EDIS) of the Governor's Office of Emergency Services. Archive maintained by CERES: California Environmental Resources Evaluation System, a program of the California Resources Agency
• Landslide Hazards Program by US Geological Survey (USGS) - of special note: Riding the Storm a documentary on Landslide Danger in the San Francisco Bay area.

Earthquake Maps and other Background information

• Earthquake Info from the USGS
• Earthquake Maps and Information from ABAG (Association of Bay Area Governments)
• Hazard Maps from Santa Clara County Planning Dept (Barron Park is on map 9 (as of 2/2003))
• Surfing the Internet for Earthquake Data (collection of links), from the University of Washington
• Seismic Hazards Evaluation and Zoning Program, Division of Mining and Geology, CA Dept of Conservation
• California Seismic Safety Commission
• Seismic Hazard Maps for Northern California from California Geologic Survey of the Department of Conservation

Epidemic

• Pandemic Flu: Guide for families released by US Government (2006-01-06)

Terrorism

• A Soldier's Viewpoint on Surviving Nuclear, Chemical and Biological Attacks by SFC Red Thomas (U.S. Army Ret). Summary: staging a successful attack is much harder than the media would have you believe.

Case Studies - Disaster Prep/Survival

• Experience with Hurricane Ivan

Archives - Activities

• BPA Emergency Preparedness Questionnaire
• 1998 April 22 Letter to City of Palo Alto: concern about lack of preparation for emergencies, request and suggestions for re-evaluating preparation effort
  City responds: see end of article (paragraphs 9 - 13) City Council: Neighborhood notification system planned from 1998 June 10 issue of the Palo Alto Weekly

Archives - History

• Preparedness: various sources, much overlap
  • 1998-99 Winter Storm Preparedness
  • In the water's wake: From ants to mold to insurance adjusters, ... from 1998 February 28 issue of the Palo Alto Weekly
  • Los Altos Town Crier - Earthquake Preparedness Coverage (links to their articles and other resources)
• City's Emergency Preparedness evaluation related to 1998 Flood from San Francisquito Creek:
  From the 1998 June 17 issue of the Palo Alto Weekly:
  • Residents prepare for emergencies (Barron Park activities mentioned)
  • Our Town: The flood next time (commentary)
  • Putting the floodbehind us (editorial)