By Theresa-Marie Wilson
The long awaited rain has finally come to the Central Coast, but how prepared are we for expected El Nino storms that could cause significant flooding and other damages in the coming weeks.
Five Cities Fire Authority (FCFA) Chief Steve Lieberman, Arroyo Grande Police Chief Steve Annibali, and Public Works Director Geoff English recently gave an emergency preparedness and storm protection presentation to the Arroyo Grande City Council.
“We have done a lot of advanced prep,” English told the council. “This is something we do on an ongoing basis.”
Mutual aid agreements have been arranged should resources such as equipment and sand be needed from agencies outside the area. Those include CALWARN, a statewide water agency network for utility companies, as well as the statewide public works mutual agreement.
“We have resources that we have set aside in advance in the event that we need them in a storm event or any other disaster,” English said adding that city employees are mandated by federal code to respond to emergencies and or disasters and are trained in accordance. “The staff recognizes the need to come in and help the community. It is part of their job.”
In preparation the public works department has cleaned creek and storm drains of debris and have fixed many areas with historical flooding. Additionally, pipes to pump excess water basins into neighboring creeks have been installed where possible. Hundreds of sandbags are also ready for immediate use.
“We have a policy that we have been implementing for several years to distribute sandbags to residents who need them,” English said. “We have been doing that regularly in the last couple of months, particularly in the last few weeks.”
The FCFA has been actively promoting public education and outreach on social media and in businesses throughout their coverage area which includes Arroyo Grande, Grover Beach and Oceano.
“We just want to pound the message home and keep people aware,” Lieberman said adding that from a fire department perspective preparedness “boils down” to collaboration.
The FCFA has been working with the police department, city and county public works, the County Office of Emergency Services, Cal Fire, the Sheriff’s Department and the Five Cities Homeless Coalition. The later is important due to the number of homeless people living in watershed areas.
“We are concerned about threats to those folks as well as putting first responders into swift water rescue,” Lieberman said. “We are trying to work on an education program with the Homeless Coalition to get those people out of harms way.”
The FCFA has planned for potential threats in addition to flooding including loss of landline, cellular and radio systems.
In disastrous situations, the Arroyo Grande Police Station is setup to become the Emergency Operations Center for the city. The facility is centrally located outside the flood plain, is equipped with city-wide video surveillance center, has satellite parking should a major activation be called for, and is a secure facility. The station also has backup power, a backup radio, backup analogue, cellular and satellite phones along with three hilltop radio repeaters that allow for further communication.
Officers are, of course, trained in typical police procedures but they are also trained in public safety such as first-aid, CPR and some rescue measures.
“A lot of people don’t realize that we are pretty blessed in the department (in that) we also have at least three officers that also serve as paramedics,” said Annibali, “one that is a physician’s assistant and one reserve officer that is a former physician. We have quite a depth of experience their beyond just law enforcement.”
The department also has equipment, vehicles and an Incident Command Trailer that could be essential in emergency situations.
For the future, the department is looking to procure a refueling trailer for generators as well as an incident response truck.
Plans are also set for assisting the at-risk community such as the elderly and disabled. Hospitals are required to have their own evacuation and emergency plans.
The downfall of the emergency preparedness planning is that there isn’t a budget set aside specifically for an El Nino response.
“If this was a prolonged or significant event, we would be doing what we need to do to take care of the community and then work with the federal government for reimbursement later,” Lieberman said. “Part of the training and preparedness is getting used to the documentation perspective of what we are doing.”
