Photo By Sgt. Ricardo Hurtado | Major Gen. Vincent A. Coglianese, commanding general of 1st Marine Logistics Group,...... read more read more
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SAN FRANCISCO - While it is unknown when the next major disaster will strike the San Francisco Bay Area, military and civic leaders are preparing during San Francisco Fleet Week 2014.
A two-day senior leaders seminar and medical exchange with key leaders from the local, state and federal government agencies, as well as first responders and senior military leaders was held at the Marines’ Memorial Club, Oct. 8-9.
The seminars focused on capabilities and lessons learned from crises around the world and because of the prevalence of natural disasters to occur, it was significant for civil and military leaders to forge key relationships. The military is well suited to bring essential aid and relief to assist the region when the next “Big One” strikes.
The discussion comes at the anniversary of an important time in San Francisco history.
On Oct. 17, 1989, at 5:04 p.m., the Loma Prieta earthquake hit in a sparsely populated area approximately 10 miles northeast of Santa Cruz on a section of the San Andreas Fault. The earthquake was recorded as a 6.9 on the Richter magnitude scale, and was responsible for 63 deaths and 3,757 injuries. The areas affected stretched from Santa Cruz County to the San Francisco Bay, both on the San Francisco Peninsula as well as across the bay into Oakland. Up to this point, there had not been any large-scale earthquakes since the 1906 San Francisco earthquake.
It hit during rush-hour traffic as men, women and children were leaving work, school and daycare to make their way home. Several transportation structures suffered catastrophic failures and a section of the double-deck Nimitz Freeway collapsed into the bay in Oakland. More than 12,000 homes and 2,600 businesses were damaged, and approximately 1.4 million people lost power due to the earthquake. The cost an estimated $6 billion worth of damage, and became know as the most expensive natural disaster in U.S. history at the time.
This event led many to ask "was San Francisco prepared for the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake?"
“San Francisco was not prepared in 1989 in terms of planning and in terms of resources; however, San Francisco did a wonderful job in our response to that earthquake,” said Anne Kronenberg, executive director of the Department of Emergency Management for City and County of San Francisco. “Mayor Agnos, was the mayor at the time and was a fantastic leader through that disaster. The citizens came together, helped each other, and it was so heartwarming to see what we did in San Francisco. We are a resilient city. In terms of emergency management, we had only two staff people who operated the emergency management office at that time. Loma Prieta was a wake up call for us. Every single mayor and board of supervisors since then has invested in emergency management and really believes that San Francisco needs to be at the forefront.”
The first day of the seminars kicked off with retired Marine Maj. Gen. Melvin G. Spiese, giving the opening remarks to begin the medical seminar. Spiese is the vice president for Training Strategy and Effectiveness for Cubic Defense Applications. He offers strategic planning for training programs and provides advice on current and future crisis management plans and has been working with the San Francisco Fleet Week Association since 2010.
“In the event of a significant disaster, which is reasonable enough to assume will happen again here soon in San Francisco, the first two priorities and capabilities that the I Marine Expeditionary Force is able to deliver are the assistance of command and control with getting communications here to support the decision makers and emergency managers, and then second is our expeditionary medical capabilities to start doing triage and forward resuscitation,” said Spiese. “We can get those things up here to the city with CH-53s [Super Stallions] and MV-22s [Ospreys], so we don’t have to worry about driving on the roads. We have all sorts of aircraft that will allow us to get to the heart of the city to offer assistance.”
The medical seminar focused on advanced battlefield surgical capabilities, technological innovations and reviewed in depth, recent case studies to better help San Francisco prepare for its next significant natural disaster.
“One of the things I love about San Francisco Fleet Week is that we do partner so closely with our military in our humanitarian assistance and disaster relief mission and are working together on that,” said Kronenberg.
A challenging aspect is the management of resources and people. Command and control during a crisis is key and making appropriate plans to ensure the city has the proper and most effective capabilities in place will help them overcome the next “Big One.”
Case study reviews included the Boston Marathon medical response following the bombings, and assessed the scene response and regional healthcare preparedness systems in place. The urban weapons of mass destruction response, and the historical and present chemical and biological threats to concentrated populations, as well as methods of training for chemical and biological events and actual responses to recent attacks. The social media considerations to take in a civilian mass causality incident, and the importance of creating a social media policy, practicing it with disaster drills and ensuring employees and the community are aware of the it.
Following the medical seminar, the senior leaders seminar began with an introduction on the Defense Support of Civil Authorities that covers the support the Department of Defense can offer when called upon due to a natural disaster and the procedures to requesting the needed assistance. While the military’s mission is primarily focused on America’s defense, it is always ready if it is called to respond to a natural disaster.
More case studies were reviewed from disasters not only in the United States but also around the globe. One in particular was the Bohol Earthquake and Typhoon Haiyan (Yolanda) in the Philippines.
On October 15, 2013, a 7.2 magnitude earthquake hit Bohol, an island province of the Philippines. It was the deadliest earthquake in the Philippines within the past 23 years, killing 222 people, injuring 976 and leaving 8 people missing. Less than four weeks later, Typhoon Yolanda hit the Philippines on Nov. 8, 2013, and was one of the strongest tropical cyclones ever recorded and devastated portions of Southwest Asia. The Philippines faced a massive humanitarian crisis with 1.9 million people homeless and more than 600,000 displaced.
Emergency management personnel and the Philippine Consulate General sat on the panel and discussed how the country was affected by the earthquake and typhoon and how they worked their HA/DR efforts with the aid of the United States.
“It’s all about relationships,” said Glicerio P. Doloritos, executive assistant with the Philippine province of Bohol, Office of the Governor. “We are so proud to be here and honored to have this relationship with the city of San Francisco, the United States and the armed services. Because of this relationship, the American people and the Filipino people continue to work together and help each other.”
Doloritos continued to say how important it was to learn from each other, train together and build those international relationships to overcome disasters and get people the aid and assistance they need
“I think it is critical for these communications and even though it comes to a peak during a fleet week environment, this creates relationships and networking among leaders in the community, in the city, the county, the state and the federal government and military, and these people continue to talk year-round,” said Vice Adm. Matthew Nathan, U.S. Navy surgeon general. “Inside of that, especially in this area, which could potentially be devastated by natural disasters or even manmade disasters such as terrorism in major American cities, the time to figure out how for all the agencies, including the federal agencies to work together is not when the disaster occurs. It has to be done in preparation to that.”
San Francisco puts a lot of time and effort into when the fleet comes to town, from taking medical experts that work for the Navy along California, the West Coast and Pacific Rim, and key military leaders and government officials, to bringing them together to talk about how they will partner and support the civic mission if indeed San Francisco has a catastrophe.
“Fleet Week in general, is a wonderful opportunity for America and American cities to learn more about the Navy, the Marine Corps, the maritime services, and break down barriers and understand where their taxpayer dollars are going, and understand and meet the amazing Sailors and Marines that staff these platforms and are there to defend the national interest,” said Nathan.
For more information on how to prepare for the next “Big One,” visit www.sf72.org.
| Date Taken: | 10.09.2014 |
| Date Posted: | 10.10.2014 22:55 |
| Story ID: | 144898 |
| Location: | SAN FRANCISCO, CA, US |
| Web Views: | 123 |
| Downloads: | 1 |
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