March Madness
Jack Haverty
La Honda, CA
April 1993

It was a dark and stormy night.....Well, actually it was one of those rare days in March -- it wasn't raining! The La Honda Fire Brigade and NEST were expecting the worst as dawn came on that Saturday, signalling the start of our first exercise to see how ready we are to handle emergencies in our hills and canyons.

The exercise scenario was planned out ahead of time by Larry Whitney. While we all think of earthquakes as the standard disaster, this one was frighteningly realistic. In fact, it came pretty close to what DID happen in the preceding weeks of heavy rain and mudslides in the area. We were pretending that it had been another "dark and stormy night", raining heavily all night as a windy storm came in from the Pacific. Power and local telephone service were knocked out around midnight, and you could expect that there were trees down, roads washing out, and other problems in the 100 square miles of forests and canyons that the Brigade serves.

Larry Whitney and I jumped into his truck, and armed with hand-lettered signs and a trusty staple gun, proceeded to wreak devastation on the La Honda area. I dropped a 30-inch redwood across one road in less than 15 seconds, less time than it usually takes me to even start a chainsaw. The bridge by Applejack's succumbed to the raging waters of the creek. A huff and a puff, and a house's roof went flying off, or at least that's what the sign said. Roads blocked by trees, wires down, power outages, some 55-gallon drums leaking a noxious-looking liquid, a house sliding into the creek, another smashed by a tree, and a few water storage tanks precariously perched on an undermined hillside -- all these were inflicted on our canyon in about 20 minutes that Saturday morning, while a few early joggers wondered what those crazy guys in the truck were doing. Aah, I forgot. This is after all La Honda.

As we careened through the area, we spotted NEST volunteers, easily identifiable by bright yellow jackets, already at work -- out systematically touring their assigned areas to find problems and get help on the way. In this exercise, they were looking for the signs Larry and I had just put up. In a real emergency, they would be looking for real downed trees, flooded houses, undermined roads, dangerous electrical wires, residents needing help, visiting hikers or cyclists in trouble, and anything else needing attention.

This sounds pretty simple, and it is. But it takes a bit of planning and coordination to make sure that all the areas are covered, and all the dangerous situations are actually spotted. This was a bright sunny day. On a rainy night, finding wires lying across a road, or places where water is eroding a road or threatening a house, can be a lot more difficult -- which is why NEST volunteers have taken various training courses to learn how to do it safely -- that may look like a phone wire, but the high-voltage line draped across the phone line three poles down means that this "phone wire" can kill you.

So, with a 30-inch tree blocking the road, and wires arcing and threatening to start a fire, what do you do? Call 911 of course! But the phone lines to the valley are out and 911 doesn't work! Now what?

The second activity in this exercise was communications -- how an emergency is reported so that the Brigade can come to deal with it, and how all the problems over the vast La Honda area can be coordinated and handled with only a very few people and pieces of equipment. In the exercise, a variety of techniques were used. Many of the volunteers had hand-held two-way radios, and called in to a NEST dispatch center which had been quickly set up at the fire station. Others used the local telephone service to report in to the fire station, where the nerve center was set up.

After looking around at the flurry of activity as people discovered our yellow signs, I went down to the fire station to see how things were going at the nerve center. There were two rooms set up as "war rooms", with status boards, maps, and all sorts of radios, telephones, answering machines, and other weird stuff. In one room the NEST "Center" operated, with Armand Borick manning the communications gear and Drake Lewis keeping track of all the activities and relaying situations to the Fire Brigade command center set up in the adjacent room. As NEST volunteers found problems, they reported them in to Armand, and waited for instructions. Between the radios, telephones, and people with "walk-in" reports, Armand had his hands full, keeping track of what was going on, and sending volunteers off to check out other areas that had still to be covered.

Meanwhile, in the Fire Brigade command center, Jim Young and Jay Melvin dealt with the Brigade equipment and personnel, keeping track of the outstanding problems, where the equipment was currently being used, and deciding what was most important to take care of next.

It was pretty interesting to watch. Knowing where I had put up the various "disaster" signs, I could see the whole process as it happened. A NEST volunteer would be dispatched over the radio and told to check out an area that hadn't been covered - and would find one of my nasty yellow signs. He or she would report the problem in to the NEST Center, who would make sure to get accurate information, especially the location, so that the Brigade could not waste time trying to find the problem. The problem would be carried over and put up on Jim Young's status board, with maybe a question or two back to the NEST volunteer to get some more information to determine how urgent the problem was. Shortly the right piece of equipment (fire engine or medical rescue) would be assigned to the problem, and Jim would issue instructions to them to go deal with it. NEST center would shortly get a report from the volunteer who had been watching over the problem site that the Brigade had arrived.

The system worked -- NEST found problems, acting as eyes and ears for the Brigade, and the Brigade responded, using the local personnel and equipment very efficiently and effectively.

In a serious disaster, such as a powerful earthquake or even a powerful rainstorm, we will have people whose homes are unlivable, or visitors in the area who can't get out until roads are cleared. These people need shelter, and the Red Cross is set up to provide such facilities -- using local volunteers. Another aspect of what NEST volunteers tested out in the exercise was how to set up and operate a shelter, where people could get meals, a place to sleep, and medical help. The La Honda School was used to see how well we could do this.

Some of the disasters that Larry and I triggered with the trusty staple gun ended up destroying houses, which left people standing around in the rain with no place to go. As Jim Young saw this happening, he asked the NEST Center to assist, by setting up a shelter.

This was the signal for the NEST volunteers to start the procedure for getting a shelter going. Cots and blankets (thank you American Red Cross, Bay Area) came out of the fire station attic, and were transported to the school. Since power was out, a request came in to NEST Center from the Shelter to find emergency power. The request was relayed to the Brigade command center, and shortly a truck showed up in the school parking lot with a generator from one of the fire engines. In a few minutes it was hooked up to the emergency lights and outlets that were installed by Steve Bowerman the week before (to whom we and the other residents of La Honda owe our thanks for donating his time to do a very professional job). Lights, power for coffee, and even a TV and VCR to help alleviate the disaster mood!

Since in the exercise we didn't actually have real victims, the local Girl Scout troop provided volunteer victims, who played the part with skill, checking their scripts and complaining on schedule about pains, asthma, and other ailments to see how well such problems could be handled. There was even a NEST volunteer medical doctor, nurse, and psychologist -- which helped a lot when the brigade rescue truck showed up with a victim in a neck brace on a stretcher whom they had just pulled out of a raging creek -- a fake injury, but real water!

Towards the end of the exercise, someone figured out that the "script" which Larry Whitney had planned out was not cast in concrete, and in fact you should expect the unexpected and be ready for it. So,... a quick report on the radio, and Larry's house was a raging inferno, instantly popping to the top of the Brigade's "urgency" list. Larry, you really should have made sure that propane tank was firmly anchored!

All in all, it worked very well -- and ended promptly on schedule at noon for a finale picnic lunch for all the participants. We had tested out the ability to find, report, and respond to problems in our area, set up and operate an emergency shelter, and meld a group of volunteers into a team.

The La Honda Fire Brigade is all volunteers, and provides emergency services in a pretty large area -- about a hundred square miles in all. In an emergency where the roads are blocked, or where a widespread disaster has all the emergency crews in the Bay Area busy with their local problems, our local volunteers are likely to bear the brunt of responding to problems for some time. The NEST organization extends the facilities of the Brigade, allowing the 20 or so Brigade volunteers with Fire, EMT, and other advanced training to be used as effectively as possible. Without volunteers, there wouldn't be any emergency facilities in the area -- any help would have to come from SkyLonda, Pescadero, or further. With roads out and nasty weather, the time to do that might mean a life.

Now that we've gotten our feet wet with an exercise confined to the area, the next step is to hook in the other parts of the emergency system -- the Red Cross, CDF, OES, and county, state, and federal government agencies. In a widespread disaster, these groups have resources which can help, and that we're entitled to receive -- but only if we can find our problems and make them known to the world outside. In a major disaster, there's a lot of help we can get, and that we have already paid for as taxpayers, but it's our responsibility to know how to ask for that help.

Next winter, when the rains return, the Fire Brigade and NEST will be more ready to deal with whatever nature throws at our area. Tomorrow, or next week, or next year, we'll be able to help make the impact of an earthquake a little easier on our area. If you're interested in helping, come get involved, there's plenty of different kinds of tasks for anyone's tastes, of any age!

One last thing... Remember that I said that the people involved in the drill went all around the area to find the "disasters" that Larry and I created. Well, we are far from perfect, and missed only one. Our Fire Chief's house had its roof blown off in the storm, .... but no one noticed. Ooops.

Next winter, or next week, if the power lines blow down and start a fire at your house, and the phones are out too, will YOU know what to do?

Website design by Three Kitty Komputing, La Honda, CA