LOCAL : County to Send Engineers to Help Assess Quake Damage in S.F.

Orange County will send a team of as many as 90 engineers to help assess earthquake damage in San Francisco so that relief aid for the Bay Area can be expedited, the Board of Supervisors was told this morning.

Hugh Wood, director of the Emergency Management Division for the county, said 10 engineers will leave today. As many as 80 more will be sent Thursday, he said. Emergency management officials worked through the night Monday rounding up civil and structural engineers from both the public and private sector.

A team of four firefighters and an observer has been working in the Bay Area since last Thursday and assisted in the rescue Saturday of the last known survivor on the Nimitz Freeway. Wood said preliminary reports from the team indicate that communications among local, state and federal agencies have not worked as well as envisioned in the area’s emergency plans.

Wood said Orange County should re-evaluate its interagency communication plans in the light of the problems in San Francisco.

“There was a lack of effective communication” among various levels of government, Wood told the supervisors. “It didn’t work as the plans said it should.”

Supervisors’ Chairman Thomas F. Riley has asked Wood to report back next week on the county’s overall emergency planning.

“It’s essential for the Board of Supervisors to evaluate our current capabilities and take whatever steps are necessary to deal with the very real possibility of an earthquake here in Orange County,” Riley said.