Preparing for The Big One

VERY so often, nature reminds us just how puny and helpless we really are, whether we are government officials or just regular folks. Earthquakes in China, typhoons in Myanmar, tornadoes in the U.S., volcano eruptions in Chile - the list unfortunately goes on and on. Natural upheavals of all kinds have occurred through the history of our planet, but as the world's population grows and we live increasingly in high-density settlements called cities, each event takes more lives and causes more disruption.

In a region that's had its share of earthquakes, wildfires, floods and mudslides, it's a phenomenon Southern California residents know all too well. We try to prepare, to the limited extent we can, but too often we get complacent, setting us up for far greater disaster if and when the Big One should strike.

After a disaster, governments and private organizations around the world rush to assemble aid and move it to those in need. Sometimes it works, but as experience tells us, sometimes it doesn't.

Think back to some of our local disasters. The 1994 Northridge Earthquake knocked out power all over Los Angeles, but Department of Water and Power crews had it back on within hours. They had to improvise to do it; they took a giant crane out on the hill above the San Fernando Valley and basically hung the transmission lines from it until towers could be repaired.

But sometimes it's smaller, unexpected problems that can be the most vexing.

After the 1992 Rodney King verdict, when power was out for several days in the Crenshaw area, city officials were stunned when local churches pleaded for flashlights for seniors trapped in their apartments. Apparently years of earthquake-preparedness warnings about the need to keep a flashlight on hand had been forgotten.

Without for a moment forgetting the lives lost and disrupted, so far we have been relatively lucky. Victims of disasters elsewhere have had a far tougher time. Sometimes the problem is corruption, sometimes tribal enmity, sometimes the sheer scope of the problem, and sometimes simply ineptitude.

In Myanmar, a typhoon has basically destroyed a very large area, leaving thousands stranded and facing hunger and disease. Though foreign governments and aid organizations have mobilized immediately to offer aid, Myanmar government officials seem to be taking the foreign contributions and distributing only tainted food to the communities destroyed by the typhoon. In China, damage from the massive earthquakes includes blocked roads keeping supplies out, and the weather has put a damper on delivering relief by air.

But the U.S. is hardly immune to massive failures in emergency response. We have only to look at the New Orleans floods to see that. In one of the richest countries on Earth, it was not a lack of resources that caused the failures to help but, apparently, an inability to take the situation seriously.

And here in California, we could be beset by an even greater threat - the failure to plan.

Despite the well-known dangers and frequent destruction, we routinely allow building in flood plains, on barrier islands, in fire-prone areas, and along known earthquake faults - all disasters waiting to happen. We also fail to to take the basic precautions necessary for dealing with the inevitable. Think Malibu.

Since fire knows no jurisdictional bounds, it makes sense to put it out wherever it starts. But we even permit building in fire-prone areas where there is no local fire department.

San Diego County, for example, does not have a county fire department. So when San Diego County burns, the rest of us California taxpayers fund the firefighting. And with what do we fund it? The money that ought to be available for building and repairing roads, reservoirs and levees; for keeping state college tuition affordable; for managing our public parks and all those other services facing cutbacks.

But government can't do it all; the rest is up to us.

We all know by now what we should to do to prepare for an emergency. We know we should have a flashlight and extra batteries handy. We know we should keep a supply of extra water. We know we should have a wrench at the ready to turn off a leaking gas line. We know that our cars should be stocked with sturdy shoes, a jacket, an extra pair of glasses and enough supplies for a day or two just in case we can't get home.

And yet how many of us actually take these precautions? If the shortage of flashlights in Crenshaw in 1992 is any indication, nowhere near enough.

Even when relief products and aid workers are available and planes are ready to fly them in, most governments and families are caught less prepared than they should be. That's not altogether surprising, given the daily pressures on every government in the world and many families as well. But it does mean that assuming we're adequately prepared to handle a major catastrophe is probably not realistic.

In anticipation of the next Big One, Los Angeles needs other forms of social organization to take care of ourselves when government can't.

In some places, these sorts of organizations are already in place. Long before there ever were neighborhood councils, and without waiting for government, block clubs in Crenshaw and Leimert Park and Neighborhood Watch groups all over Los Angeles had organized their own crisis networks. They collected and stored information on the number of people and pets living in each house, medical needs, people to notify if a resident is injured.

Today, neighborhood councils can play a vital role in keeping track of people, delivering information, and assisting government authorities. While the paramedics are rescuing someone from a damaged building, someone has to get the fallen trees off the street.

The huge earthquake in China is a wake-up call for Los Angeles. If we're not careful and we don't plan ahead, the next big tragedy filling the world's TV screens could well be ours.

Ruth Galanter is a former member and president of the Los Angeles City Council, on which she served for 16 years.