Elizabeth Patterson on Disaster Planning - Questions & Answers

QUESTION: Disaster planning - How could Benicia’s plan for disasters such as a massive earthquake be improved?

We could accelerate BERT training by letting BERT lead on the training at Mills instead of having to depend on the Fire Department staff and facility. We should ensure that we have a current list of medical people who may be available. We should enter into an MOU with the federal Maritime Administration in order to have the Suisun Ready Reserve Fleet respond to our needs. Their fleet can house, feed and attend to victims. They also have cranes that may be useful.

We should avoid putting people at risk such as development that may be inappropriate. We should have specific plans for the step by step process of providing water in the event the water line from the SWP North Bay Aqueduct breaks (our only supply of water). We should enter into a regional response planning process.

QUESTION: What do we have in terms of disaster centers and how could the set-up be improved?

We have an Emergency Operations Center at the Fire Department. There are table exercises conducted for city staff and elected official. There are numerous caches around town with supplies in the event of a catastrophic event. We need to have satellite centers in the event the whole city goes down. We need to have a public awareness about evacuation routes and public education about what to do in the event Valero has a major event. We have resources now, but we have not put together a book (easy and user friendly) that would be a Benicia emergency response “owner’s manual”.

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