Sample Community Emergency Plan Summary
by Don Farkas

EDITOR'S NOTE: Mr. Farkas is the current Chairman of the Public Safety Committee for the Bel Air - Beverly Crest Neighborhood Council. He's a former assistant co-chair of WLA C-PAB, former chair of the WLA C-PAB Crisis Response Committee, and a former RVA Disaster Preparedness Coordinator. A regular contributor to LACP, he welcomes your inquiries. Feel free to contact Don by email at donfarkas@belairmail.com or by phone - (310) 472-4822.

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CASIANO BEL-AIR PUBLIC SAFETY COMMITTEE

COMMUNITY EMERGENCY PLAN SUMMARY

February 12, 2003

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What the Community Emergency Plan Is:

The Casiano Bel-Air Community Emergency Plan (the Plan) is a basic framework for organizing community members to provide communications, light search and rescue capability, fire suppression, and medical care, in the event of a major emergency such as a large earthquake. Volunteers who respond are to be subject to the direction and control of governmental agencies such as the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) and the Los Angeles Fire Department (LAFD).

What the Community Emergency Plan is Not:

The Community Emergency Plan is intended to supplement, and not replace, individual household, institutional, or business emergency plans. The Plan does not provide for any community stockpiling of food, water, medicines, sanitation, or emergency shelter supplies. Individuals and households are encouraged to maintain sufficient water (one gallon per person per day), food, medicines, and supplies to last at least three days, minimum.

Five Levels of Participation:

This Plan recognizes five levels of participation by volunteers:

Command Central and Command Posts:

In the event of a major disaster, a "Command Central" will be established at a pre-determined location in the community to serve as staging area for volunteers and to be a collection and distribution point for information. A yellow colored, 50 gallon-sized storage container, which is identified with a red cross and marked "Emergency First Aid", will be stored at that location containing community supplies for the Command Central. (There are currently no other locations arranged for supplemental Command Posts.) In the event of a disaster, persons who can help are asked to go to Command Central to volunteer.

The location of Command Central for the Casiano Bel-Air area will be:

Command Central Location:

The sidewalk in front of the residence at _____________________________

At Command Central, the person in charge, called the Incident Commander, will appoint a:

Command Central will also have some basic equipment available for use by the community in a disaster including a chain saw, bolt cutters, large metal levers, support blocks and wedges, crow bars, extra leather gloves, dust masks, fire extinguishers, bulletin board, megaphone, CB radio, sign-making materials, various hand tools, vinyl tarps, first aid kits, and administrative supplies.

Communications:

In the event that telephone service has been interrupted, an effort will be made to have volunteers at Command Central transmit on, and monitor, Citizens Band (CB) radio frequency channel 22 for at least a five minute interval on an hourly basis. To facilitate communications, the specific pre-arranged time for the regular five-minute CB radio broadcast in the Casiano Bel-Air area will start at every ten minutes after the hour and end at every fifteen minutes after the hour. Command Central will also provide a community bulletin board where personal written messages can be left.

Seeking Help:

Individuals seeking help for themselves or others may go to the Command Central if assistance would otherwise be unavailable from police, fire departments, paramedics, ambulance, or other regular emergency services due to a disaster. Individuals who need assistance, but who for some reason can not leave their homes, can signal for help by tying a piece of white cloth to their mailbox or front door nob, where it may be visible from the street. It will be the goal of this Community Emergency Plan that every household or structure within the Casiano Bel-Air area will be checked for personal injuries, hazards, or major structural damage, within one-hour after a disaster such as a major earthquake.

Evacuation:

Fire is the most likely reason why residents would be asked to evacuate. Cars should be parked in driveways facing outward, to facilitate leaving. Because hillside roads may have many bottlenecks and delays, evacuees should not wait until the last minute to leave. Those who leave will likely not be allowed back by authorities until the emergency is declared over.

Emergency Equipment; The "Ten Essentials":

Emergency tools should be kept by volunteers in a safe, easily accessible location (e.g., kept in a backpack in a bedroom closet, in the trunk of the car, etc.). These should include, at minimum, the following "Ten Essentials":

Standardized Whistle Signals For Volunteers:

Actions to be Taken by Volunteers After a Disaster Such as an Earthquake; The "Ten Good Deeds":

Actions NOT to be Taken By Volunteers; "The Ten Big NO, NO's!":