Santa Fe Springs Firms Create Aid Network Under Emergency Plan

After the dust from the Whittier Narrows earthquake on Oct. 1, 1987, finally settled, city officials began hearing from concerned business owners.

The earthquake knocked out telephone service, preventing the city’s 3,500 businesses from reporting emergencies such as fires and medical problems. The nearly 80,000 workers who commute to Santa Fe Springs daily clogged streets for hours. At one point it took nearly 2 hours for a city fire truck to travel about 3 miles from the fire station to City Hall, said Fire Chief Robert Wilson.

“Communications were terrible,” Wilson said. “We were overwhelmed. We really had no idea what was going on in the city.”

The safety and satisfaction of the business community is especially important in Santa Fe Springs, where 85% of the land is zoned for commercial use.

“In the daytime, we could have major problems just dealing with the numbers of people” who work here, said Assistant City Manager Fred Latham. “And if this were to occur at night, we could have unoccupied buildings with substantial damage and not be aware of it.”

Partnership Formed

As a result of these concerns, the public and private sectors in Santa Fe Springs have formed a partnership to design an emergency-preparedness plan that would reduce the burden on city government in the three days after a disaster.

The Santa Fe Springs Chamber of Commerce suggested that businesses establish their own emergency communications network. City officials agreed, and in the past year the chamber’s suggestion has evolved into an elaborate plan. Though supervised by the city, businesses will turn to one another instead of the city when disaster strikes.

With just 15,000 residents concentrated in a 2-square-mile area, the best option for Santa Fe Springs is to rely on businesses in the other seven square miles of town to provide their own emergency support, said Tony Ferrara, a supervisor at the California Specialized Training Institute. The institute is a division of the state Office of Emergency Services which is helping a committee of city and chamber officials prepare the plan.

“The city told the businesses, ‘We don’t have the traditional support systems. So you are it,’ ” Ferrara said. “This was a tremendous buy-in on the part of industry . . . and the city was willing to depart from the norm as far as their association with the private sector. What they are doing is making use of what they have, and what they have is industry.”

If an earthquake were to happen once the city’s plan is in place, this is how businesses would respond:

Command Posts

They would immediately report to one of four command posts, where an area coordinator would report any emergencies to city officials by radio. Workers on foot or riding bicycles would check neighboring businesses for injured employees or other problems.

Once damages are assessed, workers would turn to a handbook to see where emergency supplies are available. Under the cooperative plan, a food warehouse might agree to donate food and another firm might provide blankets or plywood for boarding up broken windows.

“We are asking businesses to go beyond their own walls and hold hands,” Latham said. “It’s really exciting.”

Once post-disaster emergencies have been taken care of, the plan calls for businesses to resume operations quickly. For example, a business using propane might not be able to reach a supplier in Los Angeles, so the plan would include a list of propane suppliers in the immediate area.

“An important element is getting the businesses running again,” Wilson said. “They’re producing resources that can be used for the recovery effort.”

Disaster Assistance

The plan also calls for familiarizing business owners with government disaster assistance loans and grants.

Rick Landis, president of the Santa Fe Springs Chamber of Commerce, said the plan has met with an enthusiastic reception from the business community.

“There are a lot of resources in this city, and most businesses are willing to share them,” Landis said. “We’re going to wind up with a business community that is really well prepared. . . . We feel we are on the cutting edge of emergency preparedness.”

It will be about three years before the system is completely in place, Latham said. Next month, the chamber plans to mail questionnaires to all Santa Fe Springs businesses, requesting their participation and outlining information about operating hours, existing emergency plans and other relevant facts, he said.

By the end of 1989, organizers plan to have the handbook distributed and command posts set up. In 1990, they plan to complete training in disaster loan procedures, first aid and other emergency measures. Santa Fe Springs will assign one Fire Department employee to supervise the effort, Wilson said.

The City Council, impressed by the efforts of the business community, has asked city staff to develop a similar emergency response system for residential areas, Latham said.

Ferrara hopes that Santa Fe Springs’ business network can become a model for other cities and counties with large industrial bases.

“The concept is that over a period of time, there will be a network of communication and support,” Latham said, “so when an emergency does occur, the relationships will automatically be in place.”