02-05-2013 - City of West Covina Update on Emergency PreparednessCity of West Covina
Memorandum
AGENDA
TO: Christopher J. Chung, City Manager ITEM NO.
and City Council
8
DATE February 5, 2013
FROM: Paul Segalla, Fire Chie
SUBJECT: CITY OF WEST COVINA UPDATE ON EMERGENCY PREPAREDNESS
RECOMMENDATION:
It is recommended that the City Council receive and file this informational report.
BACKGROUND:
In the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy that damaged many communities on the eastern coast of the
United States, Councilmember Robert Sotelo requested that the City provide residents with an
update on the City's level of emergency preparedness and -programs that are offered to the
community to be better prepared in the event of a disaster.
Since 1998, the Office of Emergency Services (OES) for the City of West Covina has operated out
of the Fire Department. A Fire Captain has been assigned the following duties: training of
emergency personnel, government officials, and allied partners; preparing citizen volunteers through
Citizen Emergency Response Team (CERT) courses; exercising the Emergency Operating Plan
through local, state and national drills; coordinating with communication volunteers and other
disaster planning and response agencies.
Throughout its history, the City of West Covina has dealt with various hazards affecting the area.
State, county, and local history shows that the region in which West Covina is located is susceptible
to earthquakes, earth movements including landslides and mudslides, flooding, fires (including
wildland and structural), and wind stories. The potential impacts of hazards associated with the
terrain make the environment and population vulnerable to geologically based natural disasters.
Emergencies and disasters could cause damage to residents, businesses, infrastructure and the
environment. Any disaster would cost tremendous amounts of money in terms of response and
recovery dollars and economic disruption. Certain disasters would most likely result in injuries or
death of residents and visitors. The magnitude of these costs and the potential to cause injury and
death will increase as the population increases.
In addition to natural disasters (i.e. earthquakes, fires, flooding, etc.), the City of West Covina could
be susceptible to "manmade disasters" including terrorism, power outage, civil unrest, airplane
crash, hazardous materials spill, etc.
DISCUSSION:
While the City cannot prevent disasters from happening, the effects can be reduced or eliminated
through well -organized public education and awareness efforts and preparedness and mitigation
actions: Most hazards cannot be fully mitigated; therefore, the community must be prepared to
provide an efficient and effective response and recovery. In addition,. federal laws have been put
into place requiring local agencies to develop plans in the event of a major disaster.
The Disaster Mitigation Act of 2000 requires that all local agencies have a natural disaster
mitigation plan in place to be eligible for both pre and post disaster federal funding. As a part of
this process, the City partnered with residents, the business community, and various stakeholders to
create a Hazard Mitigation Plan (HMP) that addresses the risks posed by hazards and the
corresponding strategies to reduce potential impacts from those hazards to protect life and property
of residents, businesses, and the City. This plan allows the City to analyze its vulnerabilities and
reduce the level of risk and losses from future hazard events. Disaster Preparedness operations
usually fall into one of four categories, Mitigation, Planning, Response, and Recovery.
Mitigation
Mitigation includes all actions taken before a disaster to lessen the impact of any one threat. For
many years, most of the focus within disaster preparedness was on Response and Recovery with a
corresponding large outlay of funds to support these operations. It was discovered that correcting
at -risk properties prior to a disaster lessened the amount of money needed to repair these properties
after the incident. Studies found that for every one dollar spent in mitigation projects, three dollars
are saved in recovery.
Planning
At the core of any Disaster Management is the planning that takes place prior to an incident in the
Community. The Office of Emergency Services maintains the City of West Covina Emergency
Operations Plan (EOP), which focuses on the tasks necessary to open and run the City's Emergency
Operations Center (EOC). The City of West Covina's primary EOC is located in the basement of
the Police Department. The EOC opens when responders in the field require additional support and
coordination that can be supplied by an incident command post. Key city employees have roles to
fulfill in a disaster response. Some will be out in the Community; some will be in management
roles in the EOC, but all are part of a centralized and coordinated response.
In recent years, legislation has been focused on getting all institutions ' to write or review their
disaster plans. The City of West Covina has worked with including businesses, health care
facilities, school districts, and faith=based community groups to assist them in developing their
plans.
Response
Although the response and capabilities of public safety is key, major incidents require the response
of all City Departments. The City's Office of Emergency Services works with all the Departments
to better their response capabilities and coordination through participation in -training and simulated
exercises. Part of this training keeps our first responders ready to participate in the California
Master Mutual Aid_ Program. A single jurisdiction may not have all the resources needed. in the
response to a local disaster; therefore,.a jurisdiction will depend on the State's Master Mutual Aid
Program where neighboring cities are able to loan resources to an impacted jurisdiction, when the
resources are not being used locally. With this comes the expectation that resources would be
loaned to West Covina in the event our community is more severely impacted than our neighboring
cities. With this program, it is important to ensure that there is some standardization of response
resources. One of the programs that the City of West Covina participates in to meet this
requirement is the California Incident Command Certification System (CICCS). Currently the
CICCS program focuses on Fire Department response, but nationally there is a movement to make
this an all risk/all agencies standard.
In addition to the preparation of the City Departments, the Office of Emergency Services offers
training for the community through the Citizens Emergency Response Team (CERT) program. This
21 hour training course teaches citizens to be self sufficient for at least 72 hours after a disaster.
After they take care of their own needs they can assist with the needs of their neighbors and the
Community. The City has offered this program in the past through grant funding and hopes to
continue this program in 2013.
Recovery
Recovery is often tougher and longer drawn out job. All of .the actions. before the disaster,
mitigation, planning, and response training, are to lessen the impact of the disaster and hence lessen
the cost of the recovery both in lives impacted and damage to property: Recovery involves getting
everything back to normal, but also ensuring that the City is eligible to recover funding from the
State or Federal government, upon the declaration of the President of the United States or the
Governor of California. If declared an eligible disaster by either office, funds become available.to
the local jurisdictions. through Public Assistance Grants to pay for restoration, usually at a 75/25
ratio. The 25% share paid by the local jurisdiction, the 75% paid by the State or Federal Disaster
funding programs. To remain eligible for this funding, it is required, that the City participate in
emergency preparedness programs, the Hazard Mitigation Program, Standardized Emergency
Management System, and the National Incident Management System.
The residents of West Covina are to be assured that their local government is constantly reviewing
ways to mitigate the impact of a disaster on our community and will make every effort to preserve
the life and property of the City in the event of a disaster. In the coming months, the Fire
Department will be reaching out to the community and seek their input as part of the updated
Hazard Mitigation Plan. Residents and businesses are encouraged to contact the Fire Department
and visit the City's website to participate in this update and to learn more on how to better prepare
their homes and businesses in the event of a disaster.
FISCAL IMPACT:
None.
Prepared by:
rQ � �ec(� I
Chris Freeland
Community Services Director
Approved by:
Paul Segalla
Fire Chief
Jim Rudroff
Fire Captain