Supply Lines Needed for the Big One : Preparedness: Emergency plans pay too little attention to arranging the flow of essential materials for use if local sources are destroyed.

October is earthquake preparedness month in Los Angeles. Each year, the media, the mayor and the schools make ritualistic appeals to the general public to think about preparing for the huge quake that experts say is inevitable on the southern San Andreas Fault.

Despite these and other warnings, Los Angeles is tragically unprepared for the Big One.

A recent reading of the state’s emergency earthquake preparedness plan for Southern California shows detailed outlines for assumption of authority by different governmental units. Police, fire, public health and shelter information are readily available. What is lacking is any idea where vitally needed supplies might come from if local sources are destroyed or disabled. Location of suppliers is assumed to be the responsibility of the state’s procurement authorities; no stockpiles of essential materials held in private hands are suggested.

In light of our experience with earthquakes in Mexico City, San Salvador and Soviet Armenia, this is asking for trouble and needless delays.

When an aroused and sympathetic public responds to press reports of disaster-related shortages, cupboards and medicine chests are cleaned out and the relief pipeline is clogged with unnecessary and unrequested aid from well-meaning people. Jamaica’s recovery from Hurricane Gilbert in 1988 and Armenia’s still struggling recovery effort were greatly impeded by such “aid.”

It would be far wiser for government and the private sector to better coordinate their advance planning efforts in the following ways:

--Companies should evaluate their goods and services to see whether they might be of use in an earthquake recovery effort. They should also know what capacity they have for supplying surplus goods at any one time and what amount of such goods and services could be donated or made available immediately at reduced rates.

--Companies should ensure that local disaster authorities are made aware of their capacity to supply essential goods and services. Heavy equipment such as cranes; mechanics, water and energy-related supplies and emergency food, shelter and medical aid should have the highest priorities.

--Individual workers at these companies should consult with management, unions and fellow workers to ensure that both the company and local authorities are plugged into the same game plan for the benefit of the entire community.

--Government officials charged with disaster preparedness responsibilities should make it their top priority to ascertain which goods and services are available locally in the event of a disaster. Then they should solicit companies that have not otherwise informed them to see what they are willing to donate or provide, at cost, to disaster relief efforts. Trade organizations in various key sectors are a quick and efficient way for public officials to gain access to whole industries.

--Government officials should contact nongovernmental organizations with wide experience in disaster relief internation- ally. There are over 100 U.S.-based international relief groups ready to help.

--Computerized data bases should be developed, listing privately available sources of essential supplies. These lists should be made available to all players in a disaster scenario, along with emergency communications equipment (at both ends) to ensure that materials can be ordered to disaster sites quickly.

--News media should be given full partnership with government and business in the planning and response phases of a disaster.

The politics of the budget process in Sacramento and Washington also play a great role in disaster preparedness and response. It was a well-kept secret in relief circles that the federal government’s response to the Hurricane Hugo disaster in mid-September was greatly impeded because the Federal Emergency Management Administration and the State Department’s Office of Foreign Disaster Assistance) were all but broke in the last two weeks of the fiscal year.

Now, with the newly replenished federal budget, FEMA is playing a leading and helpful role in providing financial resources to allow the Bay Area to recover from Tuesday’s destruction.

What is problematic is the relative lack of resources that the Deukmejian Administration has allocated to the state’s Office of Emergency Services. It will take hundreds of millions of dollars to repair key road links in San Francisco and Oakland.

In the end, it is obvious that we will have to rely on locally available talent and resources to plan for coping with a major quake. This will happen only if business joins with government and the nonprofit sector in making realistic assessments of our community’s material needs after such a catastrophe.