Blog note: this letter refers to a
2008 grand jury report.
I was pleased to see your preparedness article
“Napa could be lifeboat in a major Bay Area quake” (Oct. 13).
The “lifeboat” analogy is an excellent
reminder of what Napa County’s role may be in the event of a major Bay Area
disaster. A lifeboat that may very well be swamped if we do not prepare in
advance.
Your readers may be interested to know that in
May of 2008, the Napa County grand jury, in a report on the Napa County Office
of Emergency Services, used this same lifeboat analogy to identify the need to
prepare for the possibility of a mass influx of refugees ("Grand Jury
calls on county to prepare for the worst," May 17, 2008).
The grand jury specifically recommended that “the
impact of a significant influx of Bay Area disaster refugees into Napa County
be evaluated and specific plans prepared to deal with this eventuality.”
As usual, the county’s response was “underwhelming,”
failing to agree with the grand jury’s recommendation and noting that
"planning for the potential impact must be in cooperation with neighboring
jurisdictions … we are awaiting the Association of Bay Area Government’s (ABAG)
Recovery Plan Toolkit.”
Well, the ABAG Toolkit was issued in 2012, and
updated in 2013. The Napa County Hazard Mitigation Plan was updated in 2013.
Both of these documents focus on local response to a disaster (primarily
earthquake), which is their primary function. I was unable to find the “county
shelter plan drafted in 2008,” referenced in the article, but shelter is only a
portion of the overall planning required (e.g., medical care, mental patient
care, law enforcement).
The county’s Hazard Mitigation Plan continues
to ignore the “lifeboat” issue. We had a small glimpse of the impact of
refugees with the recent Lake County fires, not to mention the ongoing,
horrific Syrian refugee disaster. Wouldn’t it be better to have concrete plans
in place rather than to make arrangements “on the fly”?
October 18, 2015
Napa
Valley Register
Letter-to-the-editor
by John K. Norris, Napa
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