Step Up Now, Be Better Prepared to Help in an Emergency

You’re always going the extra mile. Sometimes even the extra five kilometers!

This past weekend’s Live Well San Diego 5K was just the latest example of a really tremendous turnout by County employees for a great cause. Hundreds of you ran and walked, volunteered or just donated to make this benefit for the children at Polinsky Center a big success.

It was all the more impressive coming right on the heels – almost literally – of the March for Babies. Your efforts raised tens of thousands of dollars to help babies get a good start in life.

I’m so proud of the fact that every time we put out the word we need help for an important purpose, your response is amazing. Getting up early to join the Point-In-Time count of homeless people. On Election Day, working long hours at the polls or late into the night counting ballots. Making the Grand Opening of the Waterfront Park go smoothly. I see your commitment to serving the public each day and then watch you take it to another level in those special cases.

So I’m confident you’ll come through now for our next big opportunity to serve.

There’s no time people can use our help more than in a disaster. And despite a little welcome late spring rain, we are still in the middle of a severe drought, and we all know that means extreme fire danger.

So we need to get extremely prepared. We’re starting a big push to get more of you ready to help residents during a major disaster. And we need many of you to step up and add some specific skills.

Right now, our focus is on getting a few hundred more County employees trained to work in shelters for evacuees. During big emergencies, hundreds of thousands of people can be forced to suddenly flee their homes. We work closely with the American Red Cross and other organizations to make sure people have safe places to stay. But these groups can get stretched thin in a crisis. And if we wind up with firestorms like those we’ve seen – or even bigger – we want County staff ready to jump in.

Keep in mind, you’re a disaster service worker already. Every County employee is. It’s the law. Some of us have clearly identified roles in an emergency. But if you don’t, you can be assigned to something outside your normal duties.

But think how much better it is to be trained before flames are sweeping down a hillside. It puts the County in a much stronger position to help people at a time when every moment counts. The service you are able to offer will be better if you learn in advance rather than on the fly.

This drive for trained shelter staff is part of our Advanced Recovery Initiative. Other jobs in this program include answering phones for 2-1-1 San Diego, the public information line, and working at Local Assistance Centers, the one-stop shops we set up to help people through the recovery process after a disaster. Many of you have already gotten prepared to fill these roles. That’s great! We need to make sure we continue to have enough employees ready for these duties and really ramp up our shelter team.

As I said, you’ve answered the call to help over and over. I’m counting on you again. We want to get employees signed up as soon as possible to be ready for the peak of fire season. Naturally, you need to consider what your position is, what you might do in a disaster, and check with your supervisor about whether it makes sense for you to be one of those getting this extra training.

While we’re on the topic, please make sure you and your family have done your own emergency preparations. The safety of you and your loved ones is paramount. Stock up on supplies, go over your family disaster plan, get cell phones registered with AlertSanDiego. ReadySanDiego.org is a great resource for getting all of this done.

For the Shelter Team training, visit this Office of Emergency Services page (Sheriff, DA and SDCERA use this page). Thank you for going the extra mile to make our community safer!