LAKEPORT >> The Lake County Board of Supervisors were trained in the Standardized Emergency Management System (SEMS) during a workshop Tuesday afternoon.
“This is the system we use in California for all disasters,” Russell Patterson told the board.
Patterson has been hired by the state to provide the training when needed, Kerrie Lindecker, a district representative from Sen. Mike McGuire’s office said.
The system was the result of response efforts to a fire in East Bay hills in 1991, which resulted in “significant deaths, including deaths to first responders.”
After the Lake County Office of Emergency Services (OES) was moved from the Lake County Sheriff’s Office to the county administrative office, multiple improvements to the service were outlined. Training in SEMS is partially the result of the 2014 December Winter Storm, as well as the adoption of a multi-year strategic plan.
With the former system being more concerned with acts of war, SEMS established protocol for natural disasters and focuses on “how we will as a community … respond to an emergency,” Lake County OES Director Marisa Chilafoe said.
“Every county has a difficult role in disasters,” Patterson explained. “Besides dealing with unincorporated areas, the county has its regular issues regarding social services, public health and everyday services that you proved – as well as assisting local governments.”
These difficulties are made more manageable by a multi-level approach, which begins with on-scene responders and climbs the ladder through city, county and state government.
“Emergency management is about 96 percent communication,” Patterson said. “Everybody needs to know what everybody else is doing. That is extremely critical.”
Because of this “the county has … the most significant and hardest role in emergency management,” Patterson continued. “You are the official conduit to the government and getting them the resources they need.”
District 5 Supervisor Rob Brown asked if more specialized training would eventually be provided different emergencies, as Tuesday’s workshop was primarily focused on fires.
Linderdecker said they would be, but wanted to focus on fire first since it is the county’s most likely scenario. A strategy can also be created in the event of Mount Konocti erupting.
“Driving home from Lakeport every single day … I look at that mountain and it scares the heck out me,” Brown said.
District 3 Supervisor Jim Steele voiced his desire to have resources from outside agencies brought in to help develop any plans, such as maps from the California Department of Forestry.
“If we get fire and wind … it is going to be a different scenario,” Steele explained.
Jim Comstock, supervisor for District 1, said that the system is a step in the right direction for the county.
“Are we where we need to be yet? No, but are we on the road? Yes,” Comstock said. “You talk to fire personnel and they’ll tell you it’s not a matter of if something is going to burn, it’s when.”
Contact J. W. Burch, IV at 900-2022.
