|
| No time like preparedness month to get ready for disaster Published/Last Modified on Wednesday, September 17, 2008 11:27 AM PDT It is no coincidence that Sept. 11 falls during National Preparedness Month. What better time to reflect on the importance of family, friends and country and to take the time necessary to plan for keeping us all safe in the event of something foreboding and unforeseen. The national observance comes from the Department of Homeland Security, which grew from the ashes of the World Trade Center. While the threat of terrorism is with us all, no matter where we live, a more pressing concern locally is earthquake. And such natural disasters are topmost on the minds of preparedness planners from here to Washington, D.C. It’s about time. And it’s about time we all join them. Thankfully, local, state and national officials are giving more attention to the threat of natural disaster than they have before. Last weekend, county officials held the fourth annual Disaster Preparedness Day over the hill. And the county has used the monthlong notoriety to drum up interest for its own Pocket Guide to Emergency Preparedness, which is available in both English and Spanish at www.smhealth.org. And, significantly, Half Moon Bay officials are now fully vested in the essential planning. Three years ago, a tsunami warning was issued for our very coastline. It turned out to be nothing and we were very, very lucky. The city manager confessed that she didn’t have the cell phone number of fire officials. A police official said his plan was to wait to see if a tsunami engulfed San Francisco before calling for evacuation here. Thankfully, there is evidence that all of that has changed. Half Moon Bay Police Chief Don O’Keefe has taken a leadership role in planning for disaster, and plans on hosting an event in the coming weeks aimed at greater cooperation among people and agencies on the coast in the event of calamity. Tsunami sirens are either in place or coming to vulnerable spots on the Coastside; soon we won’t have to wait for someone to decide whether to tell us of the danger. Even the local chamber of commerce has organized disaster-planning meetings. If you turned on the television over the weekend, you couldn’t avoid the terrible truth of what can happen to those who don’t prepare. The people of coastal Texas who didn’t heed the warnings surely wished they had in the aftermath of Hurricane Ike. After disaster strikes, the only thing the survivors can do is pick up the pieces. There is so much more we can do beforehand. — Clay Lambert |