Excellent emergency response inspires further preparation
The goal of Tsunami Preparedness Week is to help Marin County residents and visitors be more tsunami resilient, know tsunami warning signs and understand our AlertMarin notification system.
I am a sponsor of the awareness campaign being highlighted this week. As we know, emergency preparedness never stops. It is continuously ongoing and is never finished. We may be better prepared for an emergency today than ever, there is still a lot more that we can do to protect our homes and community.
First, I would like to recognize the remarkable work of Marin’s Office of Emergency Services, Marin County Fire, Marin Health and Human Services and county employees who have all stepped up to serve as disaster service workers in responding to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Kudos to our Emergency Medical Corps and countless community volunteers, like Marin
Voluntary Organizations Active in Disasters, who have supported our Public Health Department throughout this pandemic. We also owe great deal of gratitude to all the individuals in the OES/Emergency Operations Center who have been working night and day during the past year. Thank you to the staff of County Fire and County Parks for reprioritizing their work to support our Public Health Department with the vaccination rollout.
Emergencies know no boundaries and often do not care if one disaster follows another. While the county has been in emergency mode since last March with the COVID-19 pandemic, the EOC has been in operation long before this time coordinating resources for every emergency. During the COVID-19 pandemic, the EOC was tasked with responding to the Woodward Fire, the public safety power shutoff events and harmful smoke from fires throughout the Bay Area.
Responding to multiple emergencies at once is why it is now more important than ever to ensure that there is coordination among our cities, fire departments, police agencies and community.
As this is happening, the Marin Wildfire Protection Agency will complete an evacuation study and launch the Zonehaven software — available to all MWPA partners — to help with evacuations. MWPA’s focus on their home-hardening “home out” approach later this year will begin to move us forward to a more resilient and prepared county. This initiative will aim to reduce the fire spread in the wildland-urban interface from embers cast from an approaching fire by creating a defensible space around the home.
The OES and Disaster and Citizen Corps Council — an official advisory council to the Marin County Board of Supervisors with the purpose of leading ongoing countywide efforts to improve disaster preparedness — plans to improve our emergency preparedness by focusing on communication programs and tools, like Get Ready Marin.
The plan is outreach to neighborhood groups and share the work within our most vulnerable communities. We recognize that, for all Marin to be prepared, we must target low-income residents, communities of color, our older adults and residents with disabilities.
Later this year, there will be a high level OES program evaluation to better prepare for the next decade of emergency responses, preparedness and the recovery after emergency. This review will examine everything we do to prepare for an emergency and how we respond to every type of emergency. This review is important to minimize the loss of life, protect property and ensure our residents are self-reliant for at least 96 hours.
We all need to do our part to build on our successes. Please sign up for AlertMarin.org and become familiar with GetReadyMarin.org. Inspire your neighborhood to become a “firewise” community and join the other 73 Marin communities that have already done so. We must develop a routine of being actively engaged in these activities and programs.
Working and learning together will prepare us for any imaginable disaster. This is our shared responsibility that we must take seriously.
Responding to multiple emergencies at once is why it is now more important than ever to ensure that there is coordination among our cities, fire departments, police agencies and community.