Dear MP City Council with a cc to the Menlo Fire Board and Volunteer Leaders,
I'm writing again about Portola Valley's Evacuation planning. What they plan will impact Menlo Park. This needs to be coordinated! East Palo Alto, to my knowledge, has yet to start its evacuation planning. Realistically, when the Hayward fault erupts, the EPA residents may have no choice but to evacuate into Menlo Park and Palo Alto! Palo Alto might be prepared, but we aren't.
On Thursday, June 2 (8 a.m.) the Portola Valley Emergency Preparedness Committee will discuss the PV Evacuation plan. I learned this today at the excellent Portola Valley Wildfire Preparedness Fair which was well attended, including by former Menlo Fire Chief Harold S. The June 2 agenda is not yet posted. I found a draft plan online, but it might not be current.
PV's Safety Element will be discussed at a special May 17 (4 p.m.) meeting. The PV plan includes the AB 747 and SB 99 legal mandates for evacuation planning. These might also apply to Menlo Park.
* The MP Safety Element community engagement process has commenced, but I know of no update related to legal mandates pertaining to evacuation planning.
* Wildfire danger could impact Menlo Park. In 2020, a wildfire conflagration was predicted to burn through Woodside and Portola Valley. At that time, I heard then Chief Harold S. state that firefighters were planning on "holding the fire line" at the 280 Highway. Fortunately, the winds shifted and Woodside and PV were spared. In that scenario, even if the fireline was held at the 280 freeway, drifting embers could get into Menlo Park attics and vents. This is a leading cause of home fires. I was told today that embers can drift for up to 10 miles!
* The Zonehaven related evacuation planning has yet to be shared with the general public. The back-room planning efforts need to be public so their robustness can be evaluated.
* MP currently lacks Emergency Assembly Points along with a transportation plan for those without vehicles. Of course, we also need to communicate the plan (beforehand) to residents in their primary languages. A plan to shelter in place is likely also needed along with a plan for "boots on the street" to notify residents who are hard of hearing, lack mobile devices, visually impaired, etc.
MPC Ready volunteers want to work in partnership with our government and the community to reduce disaster risk. We need a MP-led, results-oriented structure, with transparency, accountability and oversight, like the Portola Valley Emergency Preparedness Committee meetings. I have attended several and I consider them a model of government/community efficiency and collaborative partnership. At the link, please also see their new Guide to organizing PV neighborhoods for disaster preparedness. MPC Ready provided input into that document in a meeting with the PV person leading the committee. We would be more productive if we had a government-sanctioned, results-oriented structure aimed at a shared goal and with the right people involved. Residents should not have to spend so much time on trying to get government inefficiency fixed.
Please see my prior email to you below. The Fire District held an April 26, 2022 Study Session with the volunteer leaders of the community-based groups. We look forward to hearing next steps from the Fire Chief and Fire Board. My main ASK was for a new forward-looking model to replace the current top-down, command-and- control and one agency in charge approach. That approach is considered very outdated for the kind of collaboration and cooperation that's needed today.
I would appreciate the City Council considering the benefit of establishing a Menlo Park Disaster Preparedness Committee with a similar mission as the one in PV.
Sincerely,
Lynne Bramlett, concerned 26-year Menlo Park Resident
---------- Forwarded message ---------
From: Lynne Bramlett >
Date: Fri, Jan 28, 2022 at 11:50 AM
Subject: Portola Valley Evacuation Routes & Implications for Menlo Park (and related)
To: City Council >
Cc: Bernstein, Chuck >, Rob Silano >, Robert Jones >, Chang Kiraly, Virginia >, Jim McLaughlin >, Lynne E Bramlett (CERT) >
Dear City Council,
cc to Menlo Park Fire Protection District Board,
Please see the Portola Valley agenda with slides that detail the results of the Portola Valley evacuation study. The primary proposed evacuation routes are Sand Hill Drive and then Alpine Road. Should a fire jump the 280 freeway, we will have Menlo Park residents trying to evacuate on the same routes! Seems to me that all this should be jurisdictionally coordinated.
Portola Valley and Woodside both have Emergency Preparedness Committees. These working committees bring together all stakeholder groups in their disaster management system. Woodside Fire also has an employee whose primary role is to support the efforts of WPV-Ready and WPV-CERT. We can learn from the Woodside-Portola Valley government-community partnership working together effectively to improve community resiliency for known hazards, especially fire. They are focused around a shared, unifying goal. They have an effective results-oriented team structure where issues and problems can be raised, discussed and addressed. Minutes from meetings supply documentation for action! The right people are part of the team. I'm told the Portola Valley committee is led by a former CEO. No wonder it seems so efficient.
An outside advisory committee is a requirement for emergency management programs to be accredited under the National Fire Protection Association NFPA 1600 standards. These standards incorporate national policy, research, and best practices. I would like to see these followed in the greater Menlo Park area. They represent a clear benchmark for any emergency management program. I believe that Menlo Park needs an trained, knowledgeable and effective in-house emergency manager as part of a broader disaster management system where the Fire District also has a role. We need an effective results-oriented team structure to discuss problems, such as how to reduce community threat from fires as a serious secondary consequence of earthquakes. Earthquake experts predict that the Hayward fault will erupt next. It erupts, on average, every 150-160 years. The last eruption was in 1868. Along with building failures (causing injuries, death and displacement), a major eruption is predicted to cause hundreds of fires with some becoming configurations. The threat to Belle Haven (and East Palo Alto) from post-earthquake fires needs serious discussion. The Hetch Hetchy water infrastructure could become disrupted and the City has less than a day's worth of water stored today, as detailed in an Almanac article on water supplies. Multi-story and bigger warehouse style buildings also typically require special equipment (ladder trucks and longer hoses) and more fire-fighting personnel. Threats were detailed (at least generally) in the Fire District's Community Risk Assessment: Standards of Cover. This document also stated that some areas lack enough water for current development, let alone new development. While not stated, the implication was that the area being referred to was in Belle Haven and the parts of East Palo Alto near the Bay.
The Menlo Park Fire Protection District Board recently discussed the Constant Associates study of disaster preparedness. (One may access the report at the Agenda for the Feb 2 Fire Board E-Prep Committee meeting.) The Board had serious concerns about this report. They did not vote to accept the report. I also had serious concerns. As a next step, the Board proposed the idea of a study session at the Board's Emergency Preparedness Committee on Feb 2 meeting (2 p.m. ) Unfortunately, the agenda topic is Regular Business, so not a study session. I believe that a Menlo Park study session is needed starting with an update on what's needed for effective emergency management programs. The well-informed and respected author of Emergency Management: Concepts and Strategies for Effective Programs (2020 edition) was the emergency manager for the City of San Francisco. I suggest having him speak. Please let me know if I can be of any help in arranging a study session.
Please see my prior memo to you on the topic. The Menlo Park Police Department has the responsibility for evacuations in our jurisdiction. Right now, no-one is in charge of our area's overall disaster management system. The gaps needed addressing and the problems have created unnecessary "headwind" and volunteer demoralization and attrition. We need a forum for authentic discussion across the policy makers, stakeholders, volunteers and other concerned members of the public. At minimum, please give us the forum to be heard! I will do everything I can to help with this effort. Please reach out.
Lynne Bramlett
Leader, MPC Ready
https://www.mpcready.org/
650-380-3028
---------- Forwarded message ---------
From: Town of Portola Valley, CA >
Date: Fri, Jan 28, 2022 at 8:01 AM
Subject: Emergency Preparedness Committee
To: >
Emergency Preparedness Committee
* Date: 02/03/2022 8:00 AM
* Agenda: EPC Agenda Packet 02-03-22
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