Also serving the communities of De Luz, Rainbow, Camp Pendleton, Pala and Pauma

Supervisors happy with fire response

Although the San Diego County Board of Supervisors members were not pleased with the fires which destroyed significant parts of San Diego County, the supervisors gave positive remarks to the response during their October 24 meeting.

“From a county administration standpoint, you’ve all been incredible,” said Supervisor Dianne Jacob.

At the time of the October 24 meeting, approximately 600,000 county residents had been evacuated. That figure exceeds the number of New Orleans residents evacuated during Hurricane Katrina.

Shelters had supplies ready for the evacuated residents. “I do think it was remarkable how everything worked,” said Supervisor Pam Slater-Price. “Everyone did pull together, and it was wonderful.”

Some of the supervisors’ praise went toward emergency personnel. “They are doing an incredible job,” Jacob said.

“The rank and file deputies are doing a tremendous job,” Horn said.

Although the Office of Emergency Services Web site, which has a capacity of 5,000,000 Internet hits, overloaded and received 9,000,000 hits, the emergency communications system did not suffer the failures which have plagued past emergency situations. “We did not have any dropped service,” Horn said.

The Office of Emergency Services utilized its press release list to inform local reporters and editors of updated situations. “The media’s been a big help to us, too,” Jacob said.

Jacob also praised the orderly reaction. “I can’t say enough about the San Diego community and the way people have behaved,” she said.

Supervisor Greg Cox felt that the response was an improvement over the October 2003 fires. “I think that’s certainly a credit to our county staff, the firefighters that are out there, the fact that people are better prepared,” he said. “We learned a lot from 2003.”

The county’s “2-1-1” system fielded more than 44,000 calls between October 21 and October 23. The system was intended to relieve the emergency “9-1-1” system by allowing callers to obtain information. More than 80 volunteers joined professional staff in fielding 2-1-1 calls.

In addition to the 2-1-1 service, the county’s expenditures since the 2003 fires include the “reverse 9-1-1” system which allows for mass notification of residents in the event of an emergency.

The county has also spent money on brush clearing efforts, firefighting helicopters, contracts for fire protection service for unserved and underserved areas, and equipment for underfunded local fire agencies.

Cox believes that the total amount spent on emergency preparedness exceeds $100 million. “Obviously it’s been a big investment, but it’s certainly minimized the amount of damage,” he said.

The supervisors realized that the recovery process would not be completed immediately. “We still have a long way to go with this,” said Supervisor Ron Roberts.

 

Reader Comments(0)