Airport Readies for Next Disaster : Agua Dulce: January quake made officials realize the importance of preparedness, so they are updating emergency plan.

Calling themselves “dreadfully naive” in their preparations for a catastrophe, officials at a tiny airport here are updating their 15-year-old disaster plan in the wake of the Northridge earthquake.

The Agua Dulce Air Park’s revamped plan, which will catalogue community resources and emergency volunteers, includes the purchase of new radio equipment.

It also resurrects a decades-long squabble over the small airport’s possible expansion.

Although the airport was used frequently in the days after the Jan. 17 earthquake, those coordinating airport activities realized they would have had little idea what to do if, for example, telephone lines had been damaged.

“We’ve had an emergency plan in place for several years,” said Stewart Aleshire, a pilot and regular user of the Agua Dulce airport. “During the Northridge earthquake we really found out how inadequate it was.”

Airport officials are now making a list of pilot addresses, the fuel and passenger capacity of planes stored there and the location of on-site emergency generators. A list is also being compiled with the names of elderly and disabled Agua Dulce residents who might need special attention after a major disaster.

Airport authorities have also contacted Santa Clarita government officials so the two agencies can coordinate efforts in the hours immediately after a disaster. They are hoping to arrange to have a bulldozer on hand to repair possible damage to the air park’s dirt runway.

A simulated disaster drill is scheduled Aug. 14 at the airport to test newly purchased radio equipment.

“The big thing we found out after the quake was . . . the airport was really important when the freeways were destroyed and the Santa Clarita Valley was locked off from the L.A. Basin,” said Vic Crowe, member of the Agua Dulce Airport Assn.

“The other thing we learned was that if communications go out, we will need radios,” he added.

The disaster plan discussion also raised a long-running debate among residents, pilots and government officials over the future of the 25-year-old air park, which is up for sale by its longtime owner, James Annin.

Los Angeles County officials want a general aviation facility in the Santa Clarita Valley, but many residents want the air park either to shut down or to remain a small facility.

Pilots say county purchase of the airport would prevent the facility from being closed and the land being developed. But those living nearby fear county ownership would bring more planes, traffic and noise.

After the Northridge earthquake, the airstrip was used to transport five law enforcement officers from Santa Clarita to San Fernando and Santa Monica, airport officials said. Insurance adjusters and utility company representatives also used the airstrip, as did pilots who flew supplies to family and friends in Los Angeles who were difficult to reach because of earthquake damage to freeways.

Supporters hailed it as proof of the airport’s value in an emergency. But critics said nearly all flights after the quake were by helicopters, which do not require a runway.