Whether it's a massive earthquake, catastrophic flooding or a terrorist threat, the City of Morgan Hill is prepared to handle it, according to Ken Hulick, who is acting as the Office of Emergency Services coordinator for the city until a new one is hired.
Sitting near a major fault line, and nestled between two hillsides considered high fire danger with a major reservoir on both the east and west sides of the city, there are several natural disaster possibilities the city could find itself dealing with in the future.
But a recently completed citywide emergency plan covers a wide variety of possible crisis, and the well-equipped Emergency Operations Center at the Morgan Hill Police Department is set up just to deal with these situations.
It is the citizens themselves, however, that officials believe need to be more prepared.
"In a general sense, my goal is to have everybody in Morgan Hill properly prepared for the three things we are most vulnerable to here, earthquake, fire and flood," said Morgan Hill Police Chief Bruce Cumming. "All we can do is encourage people to get some training, train people to help people. It really does come down to people taking the extra step and preparing themselves. I think we are making some really good progress in that direction, although we're certainly not there yet."
Deborah Suzuki, coordinator of Community Emergency Response Training, or CERT, said the city is now working with the county and Gilroy to offer at least twice-yearly training to the public.
The next round of training will be offered late this month, with more planned for the fall.
When the city experienced heavy rain in January resulting in flooding, CERT teams responded to assist.
"It really hit home that people can't be relying on rescue teams to come and save them," she said. "We are overwhelmed within minutes. People need to know what to do to protect themselves. It reaffirmed the need to continue to make a concerted effort to get people trained. In an emergency, we have to get the teams there, and if vehicles can't get through, if we can't get the ambulances through, can't get police cars through, then no question about it, people will have to help themselves and their families."
Hulick said there are perhaps 500 Morgan Hill residents who have received CERT training, with 60 or 70 of those holding certification cards, and 13 of them showed up in minutes during the Jan. 19 flooding.
Through the emergency response to the flooding, Suzuki said, she and others learned some ways the city needs to improve upon its procedures.
"Communications was the big issue," she said. "Our communication still needed further refining. We had difficulty contacting some of our people ... we also saw the need to emphasize and be clear in our expectations of how we need to have people respond and further clarification for why we require everyone to travel in teams."
There needs to be a complete list, she added, detailing what responding CERT members need to be equipped with.
"Some that responded had inadequate protection from the rain, which wasn't as much of an issue that day, but if we had had to work 12-hour shifts, we could have been facing a hypothermic situation," she said.
The emergency response also demonstrated the amount of time it would take to gather teams and deploy them in the city, she said.
As they assess the response to the flooding, emergency preparedness officials also have several specifics they'd like to accomplish.
Supply caches in the city need to be replenished, most of the food replaced with new, and Hulick said, if he had an "emergency wish list," at the top would be a recreational vehicle outfitted as a mobile emergency command center.
It would need to be outfitted with two different consoles for communications, places to display maps and a room where officials can sit and confer.
"A mobile command center would be priceless in an emergency," he said.
Cumming said he believes Morgan Hill is moving in the right direction in preparing for possible disasters, natural or manmade.
"It's a little like being a museum guard, charged with guarding the Mona Lisa; the possibility is very remote that anything is going to happen, but you have to be prepared and on your guard in case it does happen," he said. "You can't prepare perfectly for everything, but I think the moment of truth is when everyone comes together. I believe the residents of Morgan Hill would rise to the challenge and come out fine. For me, that's the real success of the community is how it bands together in times of crisis."
Marilyn Dubil Marilyn Dubil covers education and law enforcement for The Times. Reach her at (408) 779-4106 ext. 202 or send her an email.
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