San Francisco Chronicle - (Sunday)
How COVID19 impacts disaster response
There is no playbook for handling a global pandemic while managing a fire apocalypse, but the combined disasters that laid waste to California in the past few months have focused the attention of experts worried that emergencies in the future may come more often in twos and threes.
The coronavirus complicated the response to the many fires that raged across the state, endangering millions of people and raising questions about how the state should handle disasters like earthquakes, fires, storms and flooding when they combine forces and hit at the same time.
“It does complicate things, having overlaid emergencies,” said Brian Ferguson, the state communications director for the California Office of Emergency Services. “Certainly in emergency management we are trying to evolve and adapt all the time. Unfortunately, we’ve had a lot of practice here in California, so we are better prepared than we were in the past, but obviously this is on a larger scale.”
California has dealt with major fires before while other emergencies, like power outages and shootings, were also happening. In November 2018, shortly after Gov. Gavin Newsom took office, a deranged Marine veteran shot 13 people to death at the Borderline Bar and Grill in Thousand Oaks. It happened as California was erupting in flames, with the deadly Camp Fire, in Butte County, and the destructive Woolsey Fire, in Los Angeles and Ventura counties.
But the pandemic, historic heat waves and five of the top 10 largest wildfires in California history combined to create the most extreme emergency state officials have faced at one time.
Alexander Gershunov, research meteorologist at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography in San Diego, said things may actually get worse this fall as downslope winds that have historically been associated with the worst fires in California kick up. “We have COVID, an economic crisis, fire and extreme weather piling on top of each other,” Gershunov said. “These fires are still going to be burning when the Diablo and Santa Ana winds start. Where the wildfires are burning, the winds are already fanning the flames, so those fires are getting harder to control.”
Tarik Benmarhnia, an environmental epidemiologist with the Scripps Institution and UC San Diego School of Public Health, said the fires might have increased coronavirus transmissions by forcing evacuees into closer quarters, like shelters. But the biggest health danger, he said, is the smoke from the fires.
Excessive smoke can cause what is known as oxidative stress, a condition that prevents the body from detoxifying itself and responding to diseases. This may well make COVID19 infections more severe, he said.
“When you get wildfire smoke, you will have a higher likelihood of getting severe symptoms,” said Benmarhnia, who said smoke in the air might also allow the aerosol form of the coronavirus to linger in the air for a longer period of time. “It makes your immune response less resistant, so your capacity to fight against the virus will be affected.”
Benmarhnia said he expects to see more instances of respiratory disease, acute renal failure and death in California over the next few weeks as a result of the confluence of events. And the flu season is just around the corner.
So what can be done to shore up our defenses against such onslaughts in the future?
Gershunov said early warning systems for fires, earthquakes and extreme weather will be crucial so that citizens, government officials and the health care system have time to take precautions, stock up on supplies and protect themselves.
The idea is to work with the National Weather Service, U. S. Geological Survey and other agencies to increase lead time and provide targeted information about which people and communities will be impacted most and then implement targeted intervention efforts and policies.
As with the coronavirus, smoke, pollution and heat waves, people with respiratory problems, the elderly, atrisk communities and those lackDisaster
ing insurance are often affected the most by disasters.
Benmarhnia said improved early warning systems would allow public health officials to provide the most susceptible populations with necessary supplies, including N95 masks, air conditioning and filtering systems and preventive medications for asthma and other health conditions.
“The idea is just to be ready a few months in advance because whatever we do now, we will see these wildfires more often,” Benmarhnia said. “It is our job to make sure we have an effective warning system to identify vulnerable communities and try to implement and evaluate interventions.”
The experience of dealing with overlapping emergencies in the past inspired the governor and California emergency officials to forge stronger relationships with the Federal Emergency Management Agency and make improvements in communications, technology and in the emergency response.
Cal Fire bolstered its firefighting capabilities this year by purchasing new Firehawk helicopters, wildfire cameras and communications equipment. The state also added 172 fulltime members to Cal Fire’s baseline workforce.
The fire season nevertheless got off to a bad start when the number of inmate firefighters was cut in half when coronavirus infections prompted a quarantine at 12 Northern California conservation camps. Gov. Newsom responded by approving the hiring of 858 seasonal firefighters to replace the prison hand crews. Emergency officials also worked with the hotel industry to make rooms available for people displaced by fires so that fewer evacuees would be sent to shelters.
Christine McMorrow, a Cal Fire public information officer, said the coronavirus forced the agency to begin screening all emergency calls and limiting contact with citizens to firefighters wearing masks and protective gear. Many trainings not critical to protecting life and safety were also canceled or postponed.
In wildfire base camps, firefighters now wear masks at all times and have their temperatures taken when they enter and exit the camp. All meals are served packaged in boxes, and there are more handwashing stations.
“Overall we’ve had significant challenges, with lower crew numbers, the coronavirus and the worst fire season in history, but really what that has done is force us to utilize all systems,” McMorrow said. “It’s added some layers, challenged how we do meetings and trainings and changed things, but now we’ve really adapted.”
The stakes are high, given the worrisome possibility that an earthquake could join the panoply of disaster in the Bay Area and across the state.
It is why emergency workers say citizens should take charge of their own disaster planning by knowing their escape routes and placing a threeto fiveday supply of food, water and emergency supplies in gobags next to the front door. Extra clothes, sturdy shoes, a cell phone charger, portable radio, sleeping bag, prescriptions, tools and first aid kit should also be ready to go, according to experts.
“We’re really getting a big whiff of what compounded crisis looks like,” Gershunov said. “We’re taking it one step at a time, but certainly this is motivating us to think of how we can improve the situation, at least how we can improve the information needed for adequate responses to these types of situations.”