County streamlines emergency response in Santa Cruz mountains

The Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors recently approved a plan to improve emergency response planning and communication with the Loma Prieta community in the Santa Cruz Mountains.

Changes include more collaboration between Santa Clara and Santa Cruz counties, a joint community safety event this spring and the creation of a joint sheriff's office substation on the Loma Prieta Joint Union School District campus.

Loma Prieta is a small mountain community that straddles the Santa Clara and Santa Cruz counties and faces a high threat of wildfires and other disasters. Santa Clara County residents in the area have Los Gatos addresses.

Several residents expressed concern over emergency response protocol, and Supervisor Joe Simitian, who represents the Santa Clara County portion of the area, co-authored the emergency response plan with then-supervisor Mike Wasserman.

“When disaster strikes, no one cares who's on one side of the line and who's on another, but you need to make sure that public institutions are ready to respond and those artificial boundaries don't get in the way of rapid response,” Simitian said.

Simitian said the recent string of storms in the Bay Area are “proof positive” that streamlining emergency response mechanisms in the area is important.

“I know the community is concerned about emergency response. I know having two different counties with responsibility for one community complicates matters. Finally, I know it's never too early to start getting ready for the next emergency, whether earthquake-, rain- or fire-related,” Simitian said.

The county's Housing, Land Use, Environment and Transportation

Committee will hear a progress report on this plan in May.

Under the new plan, Santa Clara and Santa Cruz counties will develop a memorandum of understanding on shared responsibilities, and organize a joint community outreach event this spring to explain the services available during an emergency.

The two counties' emergency operations centers will also conduct a joint tabletop exercise to simulate what to do in the event of an emergency.

Firefighters and police officers will meet to discuss unified command and response, evacuation routes and mutual aid policies before the start of fire season.

“They say the best preparation for tomorrow is doing your best today. That makes a lot of sense to me. The safety of mountain residents depends on us being ready long before disaster strikes,” Simitian said. “So now is the time to get the county's plans in order. ASAP.”

The Santa Clara County and Santa Cruz County sheriff's offices will move into a new joint substation in the community center on the Loma Prieta Joint Union School District campus later this year. Simitian pushed for including a powerful generator to provide extended power to the station.