Neighborhood Watch Tests Quake Response

The drill in Northridge was the type frequently conducted by police and fire departments: bricks, wood and other debris strewn on the ground, bodies covered with fake blood and emergency crews tending to the injured as though it were a real emergency, in this case an earthquake.

In this drill, however, the emergency workers were not the usual police officers and paramedics. They were members of Neighborhood Watch groups recruited for an experimental program to train them to take the place of government emergency crews in the event of an earthquake.

Councilman Hal Bernson, who was responsible for the Northridge drill, wants to see it repeated citywide. Bernson, who represents the West San Fernando Valley, said he will ask the Los Angeles City Council this month to make such exercises, using civilian emergency crews, part of the the city’s state-mandated Earthquake Awareness program.

The program is based on the likelihood that, in the event of a real disaster, residents will have to rely on their own resources before receiving outside help, he said.

“In a major quake or disaster, there could be a period of 72 hours where people could be basically on their own,” Bernson said.

Bernson said he came up with the program after seeing television reports on Mexico’s September earthquake, in which residents were forced to rely heavily on their own ingenuity to rescue and help victims.

Three months ago, he called for volunteers from his district’s Neighborhood Watch programs to take part in a six-week emergency and medical training course. Twenty-five people were chosen for the Los Angeles city Fire Department course on door-to-door searches for victims, putting out small fires, checking for gas leaks, shutting off utilities in homes and administering first aid.

The drill was staged at noon Wednesday, with participants making believe that an earthquake of 7.5 on the Richter scale had hit a cul-de-sac in the 17000 block of Marilla Street.

The participants, wearing “Safety Watch” vests, were divided into two teams and conducted a door-to-door search-and-rescue operation and a first-aid triage exercise.

Communications Base

Meanwhile, local ham radio operators were airlifted to a mock emergency communications base at the Los Angeles Police Department’s Devonshire Division in Granada Hills. Members of the division’s Ham Watch, a citizen’s group that alerts police to suspicious activity, manned the communications base to pinpoint the hardest-hit areas for fire and police officials participating in the drill.

Bobby Hoy, 60, of Canoga Park, a member of the search-and-rescue detail, said she was skeptical about such exercises until recently.

“I was one of those people who don’t think about it because you know it won’t happen,” Hoy said. But she changed her mind after viewing slides of the Mexico earthquake during a Neighborhood Watch meeting promoting the course, she said.

She said she now believes that “one person who is calm and has a semblance of knowledge of what’s going on could be helpful to others.”

Bernson said he will ask the council to create a new position in the Fire Department for someone who would be in charge of conducting and maintaining the training courses. He said he does not know how much the position would cost, but his office is seeking state money for it.

The councilman said there would be no cost to the public for citywide initiation of the training program and drills because it would rely mostly on volunteers.

Marc Weiser, 31, of Northridge, one of the team leaders in the exercise, already has begun talking to other community groups to get them to join the program.

“I’ve only lived here for four years,” said Weiser, who came from Michigan, “and I realize more than ever that, if an earthquake hit here in the Valley, because of the number of faults we need to get people very active to know what to do.”