RUE'S VIEWS ON ISSUES
Emergency Services
By Rue Furch
When you call 911, how long do you have to wait before help arrives? When you call the police, what can you realistically expect to happen next? Where are your most reliable emergency resources in your own home and neighborhood? For many west county residents, these are urgent questions.
One of my most important goals as Fifth District Supervisor will be to give west county residents a realistic awareness of the county resources that will – and won’t - be available to them in time of emergency.
Many of us recall the record-high 1986 flood along the Russian River and the giant Air National Guard helicopters that plucked people from their roofs and decks when they were surrounded by rising river water. Thanks to budget constraints and the Iraq war, those helicopters probably won’t be here for us next time.
That goes for a lot of other services as well: just ask the people in New Orleans whose homes were destroyed by Hurricane Katrina and the folks in Sacramento who are drawing up budget cuts for California. We can expect sluggish response from the various agencies we turn to --FEMA , CDF, the California National Guard and others -- and we will need to become more self-reliant at the local level. We will particularly need to turn to our neighbors.
But even if state and federal emergency resources are thin, there is plenty that your Fifth District supervisor can do for you.
I will act as your ombudsman to monitor first-responder training programs, revisit emergency plans, and make sure the board of supervisors is setting policies that best allocate the emergency resources that are available. I will determine whether state, federal and county agencies have established communication channels that insure mutual-assistance agreements will actually work and can bring in outside resources quickly. I will find out when those channels were last tested and if new tests are needed. A long career working with non-profits has trained me to ask the right questions and come up with real answers.
And I will provide leadership proactively. There is no question that disaster preparedness falls off between incidents. Memories of the 1995 and 1997 floods are fading, and some of the disaster preparedness Web sites created by private individuals have disappeared. Fortunately some government sites are more informative than they used to be. For example, people need to know that can get very useful weather warnings at:
http://www.wrh.noaa.gov/cnrfc/warnings.php
As your supervisor I will make it easier for neighbors to network and find ways to help each other, working through Neighborhood Watch and other community organizations. I will do all I can to help west county communities find resources, get organized, and get training before trouble comes. And I will monitor county training procedures to make sure county first responders, particularly sheriff’s deputies, get the training they need to best serve west county residents.
I’ve lived through Russian River floods, and know you always have to be prepared. My first priority will be getting resources and support into the disaster areas, and then keeping the resources coming in the days that follow.
Our recent stormy weather was a good reminder that we shouldn’t wait until the next election to beef up disaster readiness and then find out what to expect from first responders when we call 911. If you’d like my help setting up an emergency services meeting in your community, let me know. You can email me
I´ll listen.
