Shaken to Action : Preparedness: Residents of a Pasadena street set up a self-help plan to look after each other in the event of a major earthquake. First-aid teams and emergency supplies are in place.

It’s an unfortunate fact of life in Southern California: The next major earthquake could be named for your town. What do you do if you live in the next Northridge?

If you reside on a particular street in northwest Pasadena, you swing into action. You know that block lieutenant Louis Jefferson will make sure than someone checks on Selma Stevens, 72, who is partially paralyzed with back problems, and her 73-year-old husband, Booker.

Block captain Henreen Nunley would immediately dispatch an able body to help another resident who lives alone and recently had triple-bypass surgery.

Red rags would fly in the yards of houses where someone is injured; first-aid teams would be dispatched to those houses. A shrill whistle would signal that someone is trapped.

Ernie Duke and Michael Mims would make the rounds to shut off leaking gas and water lines all along the street. Emergency supplies could last the residents two weeks without any outside help.

Thanks to resident Bunny Wilson, she and her neighbors would have a fighting chance in a major earthquake. Wilson took one look at the trauma and confusion sparked by the Northridge earthquake and realized that the city and county could not provide all the needed lifesaving actions. Neighborhoods would have to fend for themselves.

“The worst can happen,” Wilson said. “We think about the worst-case scenario and work our way backward. It’s as if Los Angeles doesn’t exist, that there is no fire department, no police department. . . . People are going to have to understand that if there is a major earthquake, we are on our own.”

The 43-year-old businesswoman and mother sent out flyers and rallied neighbors to the first meeting of the Prepared Block Assn. on Jan. 29. Twenty-five members of the street’s 43 households showed up. Since then, participation has grown to more than 90%.

The effort already has brought unforeseen benefits to this racially mixed street. A block of neighbors, who for the most part never knew each other’s names, have found a new sense of community and caring for each other.

“I think it’s filling a void in every neighbor’s heart--that they wanted to get to know their neighbors but didn’t know how,” Wilson said. “We have the best block in L.A.”

The block realized that preparing for the worst also meant providing for those like Selma Stevens, who might require help getting to safety, and for those who might need immediate emergency attention in the critical hours after the quake--when the city is paralyzed with confusion and communications are inconsistent.

Organizers inventoried the block’s strengths, weaknesses and schedules. Residents filled out forms charting household members, daily routines, special needs, and talents and tools that could be offered.

Households also plotted the locations of cut-off valves for water, gas and electricity. This information was distributed to the eight block lieutenants who are responsible for six- to seven-house sections, and the block captain.

Armed with this information, the block association now knows who would need what, where and when in an emergency situation, and who on the block can get it to them. After the earthquake, the block lieutenants are supposed to assess damage and report to Nunley, the block captain, by two-way radio. Nunley will then dispatch search-and-rescue teams as needed.

When things stop shaking, and everyone’s emergency needs have been met, the block has organized a security patrol to keep looters and criminals at bay so their “city within a city,” can survive intact until more permanent rescue and recovery arrives.

Ardith Duke, a homemaker with a 3-year-old, said she was the type who would scream and run through the house in panic during an earthquake. Now she is a block lieutenant. “There’s no fear because I’m prepared,” Duke said. “Now, you just take action.”

Wilson and Nunley are quick to credit an outsider, Ted Wright, with helping the block transform from frightened to prepared. “We would have done what we were doing had we not met Ted,” Wilson said. “What Ted Wright brought to us is expertise.”

Wright is a British-born, self-described “back-yard survivalist.” The spry 71-year-old said he outlasted the Nazi bombings of London by living in a back-yard bomb shelter for seven months. The Lancaster resident had been preaching preparedness ever since a minor earthquake in 1980 made him realize that despite the London Civil Defense Force training he received as a rescue volunteer, he was woefully unprepared for a major earthquake.

Wright applied his domestic survival expertise to earthquakes, writing two books on the subject, including “Wright’s Complete Disaster Survival Manual,” published in 1992.

Wright heard about the Prepared Block Assn. after its initial meeting and volunteered his help. Wright and Nunley, a resident with 17 years of military medical-support experience, worked together to come up with the block’s disaster response plan. It is organized along a system where members have two tiers of responsibility: first to their own household, and then to the block.

Wright and Nunley found that few households were ready. Those that had set aside emergency supplies for an earthquake often made fundamental mistakes, like storing them in hard-to-reach places.

So the association set quarterly goals for members to secure adequate food, water, shelter and first-aid supplies and to find a safe outdoor spot to store the items. The association has requested that the name of its street be kept secret to discourage theft of supplies.

Householders were encouraged to get tents, sleeping bags and outdoor cooking gear should their homes become unsafe. “People in Northridge learned by experience that you are not going to risk life and limb to go back into a damaged house,” Wright said.

Wright also consulted with households to point out the safe and hazardous areas in the house and yard. He provided tips on how to make homes safer by securing cabinets, placing glassware at lower levels and bolting heavy furnishings to the walls.

People who want free information about organizing their own block for earthquake preparedness can send self-addressed envelope to Prepared Block Assn., P.O. Box 2601, Pasadena, Calif. 91102