In the 20 years since the last big rumble, cities and counties
have added myriad tools to their communications arsenals, allowing
them to get critical emergency information out faster and to a
broader audience.
In the 20 years since the last big rumble, cities and counties have added myriad tools to their communications arsenals, allowing them to get critical emergency information out faster and to a broader audience.
“We’ve enhanced the system quite a bit,” said Joe Kline, the City of Gilroy’s public information officer.
Between their Web site, television Channel 17, AM radio station 1610 and the county’s mass alert system, Gilroy can reach almost every resident with vital information in some form or another, Kline said.
“We’ve acquired quite a bit of new technology since (1989),” he said. “The big advantage to the city’s Web site, assuming that we have power, is that we can easily link to national geological tech groups that track the earthquake. They do all the updating and we can add the local flavor.”
Residents can also tune into local television Channel 17 or AM 1610 on the radio for up-to-date announcements about shelters and other emergency information. A recently launched, countywide telephone and e-mail alert system is another “major improvement” that allows the county to notify the public on a wide scale, said Miguel Grey, emergency services manager with Santa Clara County. AlertSCC is available to anyone living or working in the county and sends messages to phone numbers included in the emergency 911 and 411 directory listings.
Still, the new technology “doesn’t change our basic message that people need to remember – that after a catastrophic earthquake, first responder agencies will be overwhelmed,” Grey said. “Day-to-day life as we know it will cease to exist.”
Although a large part of coping with an earthquake is responsive, residents should take preventative measures as well, such as always keeping a three-day supply of the essentials – food, water, medication – on hand. Residents should also get to know the neighbors and purchase a wind-up or solar-powered radio, Grey suggested.
Since the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center in 2001, emergency services and training has become much more robust, Kline said.
“Many of the things we would respond to in a terrorist attack, we would do the same for a natural disaster,” he said.
In the case of any emergency, such as the communication blackout that occurred last April when cables providing telephone and Internet service to the region were severed, Gilroy assembles its Emergency Operations Center, a task force of the city’s department heads that meets in the basement of the old police department.
“We have a first class EOC down there,” Kline said.
The city also works closely with the school district and Red Cross in emergencies to set up shelters, Kline said.
“When it comes to earthquakes, they’re very much self-announcing,” Grey said. “I think the new technology gives us some capability we might be able to use within the first several weeks after an earthquake but, essentially, individuals need to take responsibility for their own resiliency.”
Residents can register their contact information at AlertSCC.com and visit oes.sccgov.org if interested in signing up for a community emergency response team.
