NC's getting prepared, are you?

It is 4am. You begin to hear that familiar sound, the rumbling of an earthquake. Except this one is different. It doesn't seem to end. When it finally does, you dig for your battery powered radio. Nothing. As the sun begins to rise you can see the smoke on the horizon as fires burn from the Valley to the Harbor. Sound like a bad Sunday night movie on ABC?

Maybe, but if you listen to the LAFD, FEMA, or virtually any emergency organization they will all tell you the same thing. It isn't a matter of if, but WHEN. So, are you prepared? FEMA now says that you must be prepared to be ON YOUR OWN for 3-7 days in the event of a large scale disaster. That means local communities will have to find ways to help each other, and save lives as officials try to get a handle on the situation. Some Neighborhood Councils aren't waiting and are taking matters into their own hands budgeting for stockpiles of everything from rescue equipment such as shovels and pick axes to Ham Radio equipment both for their own use and the use of other organizations such as Amateur Radio Emergency Service, LAFD-ACS and so forth.

The West Van Nuys Lake Balboa Neighborhood Council has become the latest in a series of Neighborhood Councils that have placed motions on their agendas to provide funding for emergency preparedness and a citywide Neighborhood Council Task Force has been meeting for nearly a year putting together a plan to link the NC's together in the event of an emergency. Each Neighborhood Council will ultimately decide for itself what its particular community needs, as does each family that puts an "earthquake kit" together, but this is one of those good things that the NC's are doing to really make a difference when our lives may literally depend on it.

So what is the problem? There may not be one. If the Neighborhood Councils have some professional guidance, not a turf war but guidance, as to what the "best practices" are from the LAFD and LA County Search and Rescue these groups could be pointed in the right direction. The only potential "problem" that has developed is a familiar one, everyone wants to be in charge.

Every official agency has told us to be prepared to be on our own, and that is precisely what these Neighborhood Councils are doing. But they need some direction so as not to spend money unwisely no matter how good the intentions. In the event of an emergency they need to know how to react without making a bad situation even worse, and without local agencies feeling as if their domain is being violated.

If my house fell on my head at 4am I would love to hear the words "This is the Los Angeles Fire Department can you hear me?" but I would bet that at that point, that any of us would be just as happy if our neighbors were turning off our gas and digging us out with tools provided by the local Neighborhood Council.

Your thoughts?