Mountain lion, car jacker, toxic cloud, and of course, earthquakes. Palo Alto has had its share of emergencies that have affected individual homes to large of the community.

Palo Alto wants to be ready for any emergency or disaster that may befall the city, and Officer Kenneth Dueker of the Homeland Security & Public Outreach Division of the Palo Alto Police Department is reaching out to citizens for volunteers.

Dueker encourages new and long-time residents to take part in the city’s Block Preparedness Coordinator Program, which is part of a disaster plan that forms a partnership between the community and the city so each block and neighborhood can connect to first responders quickly and provide them with critical information about each neighborhood when a disaster takes place.

Check out these eye-opening statistics: Palo Alto’s daily population surpasses 100,000 people, over 35,000 of which includes the Stanford campus population. The population is more than that during football games, big events and the holidays. The city’s 61,200 residents live in 30 neighborhoods on a 26-square mile stretch.

There are only 10 policemen and 32 firefighters on duty during the day. He noted it takes 15 to 20 firemen to respond safely to just one structure incident. Daily calls for incidents average 17 to the police department and 20 to the fire department. In short, if faced with a big emergency situation, the outcome could be disastrous.

“We have to change the way people look at disasters,” Dueker said. “The city wants residents to be resources; not victims. The key to response and recovery must be communication.”

The key is for citizens to be able to provide critical information regarding initial damage, transportation, resource sharing. In short, they need to be part of the recovery process, the “eyes and ears” of the city when a disaster happens.

The plan is to have a coordinator for each block that can meet with neighbors and create a neighborhood directory, distribute information to and from the city, and serve as a communication node for emergency/disaster situations. Above this level would be a neighborhood coordinator, who would do the same thing at a wider scale.

With this emergency program in place, vulnerable neighbors, displaced citizens, damaged structures will be immediately identified and the information can be given quickly to FEMA.

“There are lots of worries, but preparing for disaster is a priority,” said Dueker. “We are looking to you to tell your help, to contact clients who are interested so we can be set up to  respond in an instant.”
 
Dueker indicated BPC and NPC training classes are available. To sign up to be a block coordinator or learn more about the program, e-mail Palo Alto Neighborhoods.

This entry was posted on Friday, August 22nd, 2008 at 7:24 pm and is filed under Real Estate, Palo Alto, Disaster Preparedness. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.