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Great strides have been made in preparedness since 9/11, but Inyo still has a ways to go with training
By Jon Klusmire Register Staff
After 9/11, federal and state grant money flowed to local jurisdictions in an effort to get communities “equipped” to respond to a disaster.
Now, six years later, the money is still flowing, but the emphasis is shifting toward planning and training and away from buying equipment. The need for more training is one reason that county disaster planners and emergency service personnel have noted that while Inyo County is much better prepared for a disaster than ever before, there is still plenty of work to be done. While it might sound simple to shift gears and simply start training for a disaster, complicating that very necessary step is the sheer number of different people, governments, different governmental departments, first responders, health care providers and non-profit groups that would be involved in any disaster response. The county’s emergency/disaster planners have already conducted several training sessions that involved a county-wide response to an imaginary, but likely disaster. Inyo County, the same as the rest of the country, has been building “capacity” with grant money over the past several years, noted the county’s Interim Health Officer Dr. Rick Johnson. “That’s given us a lot of “stuff, such as equipment” to respond to a disaster, he said, but “capacity alone does not ensure readiness.” While Inyo County is not completely prepared to respond to a natural or man-made disaster, “we’re better prepared than we were five years ago,” Johnson said. Now, the county and its state and federal partners are working to improve “operational capability – the ability to quickly execute preparedness tasks and plans,” Johnson told the Board of Supervisors at a recent workshop. The way to improve “operational capability” is to practice, practice and practice, Johnson said. Another key is to practice and train with all the groups, governments and organizations that will be involved in a disaster response, he noted. “This seems to be a daunting task, but we’re getting closer and closer to being ready” to handle a large-scale disaster, said Tamara Cohn, clinical services director for the county Public Health Division. The most recent disaster drill, Cohn noted, was a good example of how much coordination just among the medical community would be required to handle an emergency. The disaster was a fake bio-terrorist attack in Southern California. The challenge for Inyo County was that people from the attacked area were coming to Inyo County, some knowing there had been an anthrax “attack,” others not knowing, she said. Both Northern and Southern Inyo hospitals, police and ambulance services participated. The hospitals put up their “surge” tents and operations to handle the influx of patients and potential patients. Teams assessed the level of exposure of the “victims,” actually high school students from Bishop and Lone Pine. Besides treating the travelers who arrived in Inyo County, the county Field Epidemiology Response Team went through the protocols that would be used to contact other people, relatives, friends, etc., who also might have also been infected by the “attack.” Several supervisors were impressed with that scenario, noting that Inyo County would probably not be much of a terrorist target, but Los Angeles and Southern California are routinely at the top of the list of potential terror targets. Dealing with an attack or disaster in Southern California that sends streams of “refugees” to Inyo County “ is going to be our disaster,” noted Inyo County Sheriff Bill Lutze, who was head of the county’s Office of Emergency Services before being elected sheriff. Fortunately for Inyo County, Caltrans has done many traffic studies on U.S. 395, and can predict how long it would take a “surge” of vehicles to make it through various two-lane “choke points,” and reach Inyo County, noted Cohn. In reality, based on estimates from Caltrans and the California Highway Patrol, the county will have several hours longer than usual to prepare for a flood of cars filled with people coming here to get away from a disaster in Southern California, she added. That travel time data from Caltrans and CHP also illustrated that vital information can come from unlikely sources, Cohn noted. A similar example of inter-governmental cooperation was that county Water Department employees have used their computer mapping skills to provide a map showing where disabled or bed-ridden residents live. In an emergency, those residents could be quickly contacted and moved from their homes, if need be, she said. Those two examples of tapping into different types of skills, talents and experiences not normally associated with a disaster are just the tip of the cooperative iceberg, so to speak. Virtually every community asset, from schools to fire and ambulance services to hospitals to doctors to churches to governments at the federal, state and local level, will have to be involved in a effective disaster or emergency response, Cohn said. “We have lots of partners,” she said. Lutze added that in any disaster, “there are no boundaries,” so the Inyo and Mono counties’ Sheriff’s Departments, local police departments, CHP, Caltrans, the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power, and fire and ambulance departments will all have to pool their manpower, equipment and resources and work together in a disaster or emergency situation. Dr. Johnson pointed out several key concepts that will drive disaster and emergency planning efforts in the future. The first key to successfully implementing any plan, no matter how well-crafted that plan might be, is that communication and leadership will be critical to a timely and effective response effort. Integrating all health resources in the Eastern Sierra to meet the overwhelming needs of a disaster will also be a goal. As Johnson pointed out, the three hospitals in Inyo and Mono counties cannot handle even several hundred patients all at once, so dealing with thousands of potential victims from Southern California would be overwhelming. Developing alternative care sites would also be part of the plan to handle medical care in an emergency. Again, he stressed that all public and private sectors of the community, as well as volunteers, have to incorporated into disaster or emergency planning. Finally, he noted that at all levels, plans and guidelines and approaches continue to evolve, and the county and its emergency and disaster teams have to integrate new programs, new ideas and new guidelines into existing plans and procedures.
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