How Ready Is Benicia For A Disaster?

The big one finally strikes, perhaps in muggy "earthquake weather"
like the past week in Benicia. There are fatalities and damage in
various areas of Northern California. Phone and Internet service is
disabled and then sporadic. Both bridges and Interstate 780 are closed
for damage inspection and possible repair. The wonderful geographic
buffers that surround Benicia now isolate it.

In this hypothetical disaster, in the face of cuts and a hiring freeze
to make up a $1.2 million "structural deficit" in the city budget, can
Benicia serve the community?

While city officials and volunteers agree that budget cuts have not
reduced Benicia's emergency response capabilities, they add that it's
crucial for residents and business owners to be prepared for a
disaster. There are other factors in the budget crunch, such as higher
maintenance costs for the city's oldest fire engine.

"Currently, we haven't changed our response model," Fire Chief Steve
Vucurevich said, despite three frozen firefighter positions and a
reduced equipment replacement fund.

Speaking to the response time for services in a disaster such as a
large earthquake, Vucurevich said, "I think 72 hours is the
recommendation there. Depending on the incident, it could be longer
than that."

 The city's 354-page Emergency Operations Plan is geared toward an
"all hazard" approach, but its maps make clear that the city has much
more to fear from the proximity of the Green Valley Fault than the
threat of 100- or even 500-year floods. The fault basically parallels
the I-680 freeway through Cordelia, becoming the Hayward Fault in
Martinez.

 Residents are encouraged to store a three-day supply of water and a
disaster supply kit, and to take emergency response training.

One low-cost emergency response asset that the city has developed
since 9-11 is the 350-plus member Benicia Emergency Response Team
(BERT), which conducted its thrice-annual volunteer drill this month.

 "From that drill, you could see there's definitely a desire to
continue that program," said Vucurevich. "The more trained citizens we
have, the better off we'll be in the event of an emergency."

 "This is the first time we actually tried the drill in seven
different locations around Benicia," said Dean Lewis, coordinator of
the exercise and a member of the BERT Service Group leadership.

 Vucurevich called the drill "a great success," including about 100
BERT members and a medical reserve corps composed of BERT members who
are health-care professionals.

 Lewis said one goal of the exercise was for BERT volunteers in the
field to collect information and give it to ham radio operators, who
then communicated it to the city Emergency Operations Center (EOC) at
the main firehouse. "All that worked perfectly."

 Collecting information for first responders such as the Fire
Department will be a major role for BERT in an emergency, Lewis said,
noting, "They get a better sense of how to prioritize where they go.
We can make them more effective, but I don't think we replace anything
they do."

 Fire Division Chief Pete Fiore said the city's purchase in 2009 of a
backup computer server with separate Internet access, "redundant"
phone lines and about a dozen wireless laptops for the EOC has
provided a measure of security and mobility for the center's response
capabilities.

What the city hasn't been able to buy is a replacement for one of its
four Type A fire engines, a 100-foot aerial ladder truck purchased new
in the mid-'80s.  Vucurevich estimated its cost at $700,000 to $1
million.The city also has four smaller, Type B wild-land engines.

Fiore said the projected maintenance cost this fiscal year for the
older engine is $24,443, twice the aggregate cost of the previous
three years.

In addition to keeping that engine in service, the department has
shelved the purchase of any additional large equipment, such as a
fireboat or a mobile pump to access water from the Carquinez Strait in
the event of a failed water system.

If surrounding communities can spare the resources, Vucurevich said
Vallejo has such a pump and American Canyon has a Zodiac brand
inflatable fireboat that Benicia Fire Department personnel trained on
earlier this month. In addition, the chief said, Benicia's four Type A
engines have pumps.

As for the three frozen firefighter positions, Vucurevich said that
has not affected daily or emergency response capabilities.

"We maintain our daily staffing levels as if those positions are
filled, but that comes as an additional cost in overtime," he said.,
"We can't do what we could before, but we do the best we can with what
we've got."