Community, Part II -Knowledge in Action

04 Thursday Jul 2019

Posted by Michael Calderwood in Beautiful Cambria, Cal Fire, Cambria Fire Department, Communicating, Community Involvement, Educating a Community, Emergency Preparedness, Emergency Services, Home, Living Our Values, Searching for Cambria's Reality, Social Responsibility, Words matter

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Community, David Pierson, Disaster Preparedness, Leadership, Safety and Responsibility, Social Responsibility, Wildfire Preparedness

“Wildfire Preparedness Day” took place on a peaceful Saturday morning. The Veteran’s Hall filled with a mix of community members and emergency services professionals, as well as citizen-staffed emergency response teams and experienced building contractors who brought information and expertise to help us prepare for emergencies. Wildfire is a significant threat, but many of the conditions the community might experience during an earthquake or even a tsunami were addressed in this three-hour session.
With all of these risks factors as background, the Cambria Fire Safe Focus Group, under the leadership of Chair David Pierson, put together a program that took these issues on, and delivered practical, factual information and strategies to help the community prepare for and respond to catastrophic effects of a disaster, primarily wildfire.

The event was videotaped and can be viewed HERE. It is well worth a viewing.

Mission
The Cambria Fire Safe Focus Group is a local focus group of the San Luis Obispo County Fire Council, which is a County focus group of the California State Fire Safe Council. The Fire Safe Council is comprised of stakeholders in community fire prevention and especially wildland fire pre-planning, community education and preparedness. The Cambria Fire Safe Focus Group was established to improve local fire safety, especially from wildland fire. Their mission is to mobilize Cambrians to protect our community, homes, businesses, and environment from wildfire.

The Landscape

Wildfire is a genuine threat to California. Cambria’s location presents additional challenges to emergency response, particularly fire. Within the forested areas, drought has taken a severe toll on many native Monterrey pines, adding significant fuel to a potential fire. Homes and open fields share the landscape, with mixed conditions of well-maintained lots running into overgrown fields of weeds and scrub.

Neighborhoods are embedded into wooded, hilly terrain served by narrow, winding streets. Most of the local roads are paved, though those that are not are somewhat difficult to drive at anything more than a slow mosey. During an emergency evacuation, getting out of a neighborhood and on to the main feeder street can quickly become a nightmare. Hundreds of residents would be making the same dash to safety.

With the threat of wildfire most likely driving people to the south, the main road – scenic Highway 1, would quickly become filled with cars, overwhelming the capacity and adding minutes and hours to any evacuation.

The 1

Sitting along the wondrous California Highway 1, Cambria is often a stopping point for visitors making the legendary drive up the coast, through Big Sur, and beyond. Hearst Castle, visible from parts of town, draws hundreds of thousands of visitors annually. All of the added cars and bodies to the region underscores a significant concern for residents and emergency services personnel alike. The 1 is the only major route in and out of the area, and it can quickly become a chokepoint during an emergency. Recent roadwork brought this home like an earthquake, as many community members found themselves caught in standstills as portions of the road were closed to allow road crews to do their work, Normal 15-minute runs became hours-long crawls.

Evacuating a Neighborhood

The evacuation scenario for Beautiful Cambria took center stage. Dan Turner of the San Luis Obispo Fire Safe Council presented the preliminary results of a study conducted by Cal Poly Professor Cornelius Nuworsoo and his transportation and engineering students. The report initially focuses on the Lodge Hill area of Cambria, and uses population data, infrastructure (roads and streets) conditions and traffic flow modeling to determine how efficiently a mass evacuation could be executed. The results are gasp-inducing. Best case estimates project a three to four-hour window to evacuate the residents of the neighborhood.

KSBY reporter Aja Goare attended the event and filed this report.

The good news, given the seriousness of the information, is that residents now have an acute awareness of what they might face in a crisis. With that awareness comes the opportunity and the mandate to become better educated on preparedness and response planning. Combined with the information and resources provided by all the event participants, Cambrians who take action will increase their chances of getting through a disaster reasonably intact.

The study will continue, expanding into other neighborhoods in the Cambria/San Simeon area. The information gathered to date, and all that will follow, will inform the thinking and planning of professionals and citizens alike, and lead to better, more effective evacuation and fire-safe space planning.

Taking Responsibility

The opening session featured Steve Crawford, a very talented (and brave) representative from PG&E. This segment could have gone a few different ways, as PG&E has been found responsible for starting deadly and devastating wildfires in California. Steve had the unenviable task of educating the community on the comprehensive strategy the utility was following to reduce the risks of accidental fire events caused by their equipment.
One of the key strategies PG&E will be following will be proactively shutting power distribution off in the event of hazardous conditions, such as high wind events that might cause trees, power poles and high tension wires to fall, spark and ignite a fire.
Mr. Crawford did a great job of explaining technical, operational, and situational scenarios, and the processes that would be used to manage power shutoffs. His presentation answered a lot of questions and gave the audience critical information that will help them better manage through a power outage.

For more detail, visit the PG&E site.

All The Information

Cambria Fire Chief William Hollingsworth closed the formal program with an unveiling of the newly-created North Coast Emergency Preparedness website. The chief has been leading a team tasked with designing and implementing a comprehensive, real-time web tool that would provide access to all the information people might need to prepare and respond to emergency conditions. The site contains links to just about any agency, report, and how-to guide a concerned resident might need. The site is accessible on mobile, desktop and tablet platforms and browsers. Every resident should bookmark this site, and it should be promoted by local businesses, hotels, and services organization.

We Are In This Together

Beautiful Cambria is America in a small container. There are many opinions on many topics. There are minor disagreements, and there are sometimes harsh conflicts between passionate proponents and equally excited opponents. Friction can be uncomfortable, but it can also be a catalyst for positive action. The citizens who sit on committees or represent the community in elected positions, and who go to meetings and voice their opinions make the community work. And when the going gets rough, people join hands and get to work.

Beautiful Cambria. Beautiful Cambrians.

Community Part I – Our Brother’s Keeper

04 Thursday Jul 2019

Posted by Michael Calderwood in Beautiful Cambria, Cambria Schools, Communicating, Community Involvement, Emergency Services, Home, Homelessness, Living Our Values, Searching for Cambria's Reality, Social Responsibility, Words matter

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Cambria, Community, Community Involvement, Leadership, NCAC, North Coast Advisory Council, Social Responsibility, Susan McDonald

The past few weeks have brought into focus something that I have been trying to capture about beautiful Cambria. The community was invited to attend two different town forums, both on topics that cut across all artificial barriers. Both sessions shared a set of common characteristics. First, they were led by top-shelf chairpersons. Both committees have an outstanding group of citizens who serve our community with passion and distinction. And both forums featured expert presenters who brought facts to what are often emotionally charged and occasionally hyperbolic topics – Homelessness and Wildfire Preparedness.

Session One – Homeless in the Community

The first event, hosted by the North Coast Advisory Council under the leadership of Chair Susan McDonald, offered an in-depth discussion of homelessness in the community. The council put together a panel of fourteen experts who represented governmental, faith-based, and non-profit organizations that deal with the myriad issues grouped under the HOMELESS label.

It was, at times, depressing, shocking, and despairing. But those moments were countered by hope, success, actions and intelligent determination to meet the issues where they are, and not accept the simple and superficial arguments that say there are no answers except the one that aligns with an individual’s worldview.

Stones in the Road

When we were young we pledged allegiance
Every morning of our lives
The classroom rang with children’s voices
Under teacher’s watchful eye
We learned about the world around us
At our desks and at dinner time
Reminded of the starving children
We cleaned our plates with guilty minds

And the stones in the road
Shone like diamonds in the dust
And then a voice called to us
To make our way back home

Mary Chapin Carpenter

Read Kathe Tanner’s excellent reporting on the Forum.

Homeless

What does “homeless” mean? There are as many variants as there are people, it seems.

People without a place to live due to a financial crisis or a health crisis. Victims fleeing domestic abuse. People who have a mental illness, addiction, or untreated substance abuse problems.

There are the transients, the part-timers, the semi-homeless, the on and off again homeless. There are rotating families who struggle to find the ways and means to a permanent place. There are veterans and those who illicitly claim that status.

There are those who like the freedom of rootless life, who depend on the kindness of strangers for sustenance. There are those who similarly wander, but use other methods of extracting support from communities.

Kids

Most distressingly, there are, in Beautiful Cambria, almost one hundred kids classified as homeless. They couch surf or share grossly overcrowded motel rooms with others in similar situations. They rotate through homes and sheltered places, often claiming a corner of a floor or perhaps a shared bed. Sometimes they shiver in a car or a campground. That might be fun during an adventurous road trip, but not so much as a way of life.

As reported by a school administrator, there are 601 students enrolled in the Coast Union school system. Of those 601 students, 73.8% are eligible for nutrition assistance. That’s 447 kids. The meals provided by the school are often the only healthy food these kids regularly get.

The numbers seem to remain constant, but the faces change. Families who come to this area are looking for a place where they can build a decent life. They work hard, contribute to the community, and help make the local economy run, yet can’t get enough traction to sustain a permanent home base. So they move on to the next place and are replaced by the next group of hopefuls.

Solutions in Action

As the forum progressed, the experts on the panel stood up and answered the question, “What are you going to do about it?” It was heartening to hear the consistent answer – “This is what we are doing about it.”

Each presenter gave a straightforward description of what their organization does, the challenges they face, and the programs and approaches they rely on to provide critical services.

The level of cooperation and coordination was heartening. The inter-agency relationships painted a picture of the few doing the work of many. Churches and schools, CCSD employees and citizen-driven action committees are all taking on a piece of the challenge. From Veterans Services to Domestic Violence victim support, from the Sheriff to State Parks, the message that rang out was – it is not just “my” problem – it is “our” problem.

There are no rose-colored glasses here, but there is a lot of clear vision. The problems facing too many of us are real, and the impacts are not insignificant. The truth takes the heart in many directions. There is real human suffering, and in beautiful Cambria, it is met by true humanity.

For more detailed information, download the NCAC meeting minutes here.

The starving children have been replaced
By souls out on the street
We give a dollar when we pass
And hope our eyes don’t meet…

Stones in the road
Leave a mark whence they came
A thousands points of light or shame
Baby, I don’t know