it's about building a network at the school if your child is at school the schools provide for them until you are able to get there. could be organize and meet at home or if home is is not available we will meet at the school. you want your cites not to be dependent on communication and services which the shelter and fire department are services. >> yes. and that is absolutely not the role of the fire department. >> no. after a disaster. one of the things that when nert and your neighbors are nert that is the basis of training is to post a resource board where people can stick notes. your nert staging area the cites are on our website to get the know the neighbors who are

trained and get trained to help build a krcritical mass. that's a place where people can stick notes on who's okay. >> out of area contact? >> as we discovered in katrina the out of area contacts are important for communication. because no one you couldn't call a new orleans area code it was not happening. he was able to reach myself in california and our aunt in dallas,texas on a land line. how many know their relatives phone numbers. i'm not meaning picking up your cell phone and clicking, mom. the red cross has a wallet card there is your emergency contact plan where you write down a land line number. we're discovering that text mess anning and e mails work.

having the information in your son's back pack or your purse or the car in multiple places so you community with your out of state contact and through that you coordinate your reunionification. >> you have to speak into the microphone. >> it says all the communications will probably be down. >> on your pile of rubble that's your house there is no reason why you can't put a note saying this is where the family is. when you listen to the radios and the radios tell you where the shelters the first thing we set up is communications. you can go there and get communications out. you are right it will be chaotic in the beginning. you have to keep trying. by having everyone's e mail and

phone number and the out of state contact you just keep trying. >> on a basic level, member pay phones. those are supposedly operating on a different system they supply their own power. i'm not a technician but that's what i have heard. we recommend to people to keep a roll of quarter in their kit because you will not have a place to get change. there will be a huge line to use the pay phones if the communication towers are down. that's another one of the as everybody said. we will do what we can. there's not going to, a lot of things you can plan to being available. you will plan to utilize those things where you find it available.

>> i want to add. if you have a digital phone system when the electric guess everything goes. if you have a land line that does not depend on any of that. and you know good if you have home security. in 911 it was difficult you can't get your cell phone to work. if you have a digital phone and your computers depending on that on cable you will not be able to get anything through. no e mail or nothing. >> erica we have lots of questions we will get to them >> i wanted to really encourage you in building your network

cindy from safe is in the back of the room they offer safe blocks we are tapping that resource with nert and providing a block captain training for nert that will include the preparedness to teach about making that block communication plan. that will increase you were network and your ability to tell them options in tomorrterms of them. >> what to immigrants face and how can they be addressed? >> can you briefly repeat. >> what are issues immigrants face in emergency preparedness and disasters and how can they be addressed. >> i think about folks want to be able to have a list of the documents to keep with them.

especially those that are on work visace and don't have citizenship able to meet that. there are other barriers as well. i think for during the initial emergency services those services will be available. >> especially in san francisco the immigrant status will not be an issue. yeah. thanks. >> i can't think of other things. >> i know that the immigrant community expressed from the mission district that service a lot of immigrants there might be a fear that even my union form my indicate to them they would be turned inform so i would like to welcome people to who do have a better connection to know that getting nert training does not go to anything connected with

police or turning in there is no background check. free training is available to immigrants and nonim grants alike to connect to agencies where they are not afraid would be helpful for us. >> anybody in the audience want to speak to that specific issue? >> okay. >> do you conduct out reach in schools? and in public housing laelement and how do you work with rec and park. >> yes, yes and yes. with the schools we have red cross youth clubs. we do the training and first aid and cpr. we have the 1 minute announcements for everyday we do a preparedness message to get the school prepared. we do out reaches to schools and the pta's and churches and other organizations. we will come out to your homes,

neighborhood associations. all we need to do for our free training is need a room with 20 people. everything else we take care of. >> we partnered with the disaster coordinator for the school district to train teachers and students. the students receive the 20 hours of volunteer credit if they take the training class. we are trying to start a team nert training program in the high schools. the health and science requirement is somewhat of a fit but whenever you add something to the school curriculum you take something away it's an about the of a bit and take. lincoln and washington high school are the 2 high schools that have hosted nert for their high school students. >> if you are parents or have connections with schools talk to

the principals and school board and advocate for preparedness. if we get third graders trained they will go home and say where's our water. do we know how to turn off the gas or where will we meet. be the voice if promoting that in the schools. we have the information available we need help getting in the door. >> one more thing is many of the nert cites are rec and park cites. we have an emergency permit on file with rec and park for use of the cites. >> and in terms of rec and park most of the rec and park employees have gone through or going through training through the red cross. they are tied in to this they are a very strong partner. >> jamie. >> the same thing about park and rec and someone said about housing developments? >> yes.

>> personnelly i would think if that come back to a neighborhood level. a lot of the developments have residents rooms and resident meeting that's an opportunity for team to do out reach and get scheduled into the meetings and talk about disaster preparedness and how to make a kit. there are quick easy ways to bring that topic up in the meetings and get people awear. >> is there an effort to get kits to people affording that and that sort of thing. >> that's a good question. there are challenges with giving out disaster supplies they require constant rotating and updates. twoshgs people use the supplies in the kit. which if you need them today you know then what are you going to do you will use the batteries

and flashlights. our focus is on preparedness issue. it doesn't cost money to identify an out of area contact or where you will meet with our family. we have done training around the city a partnership with the red cross. one challenge was people showing up. we did advertising and people didn't necessarily come to the presentations. because it requires more than putting up a sign and it requires more contact than our department has. people in the building have to encourage their neighbors to come to these trainings. back to disaster kits. we have a grant from the hospital council to purchase disaster buckets from the red cross. it's not many. our focus is on low income families. family and child care providers.

we are looslooking at organizeds like day care centers and providing them with supplies. so they're available after a disaster. that's one way we are addressing that. >> did you have a follow up to that? >> you keep saying turn off the gas. i've tried to get a hold of pg and e. a lot of the meters have frozen nuts or whatever you want to it. i tried to get pg and e to look at the one in my house and says it's impossible to shut off. how do we get pg and e to address the fact the old meters in front of houses you can't turn them

off? >> is there a plant question? excuse me. you are right. let me tell you, the meter reader you spoke to is probably not the contact person. i suggest this is not trying to brush you off. i strongly suggest you call the pg and e 1-800 number or pg and e.com that's the safety issue the company is obligated to respond to that potential safety issue. i'm not sure how many times this occurred but it has to be fixed. >> well. that's -- i again encourage you to call the 1-800. >> give me a name.

you call the 800 numbers. after today come see me and i will take your name and someone will call you that's a promise. >> okay. >> how dou chose the safety place for your disaster kit? >> good question. san francisco that's a challenge. >> they said bury it in a free standing structure in your backyard. how many of us have a backyard? san francisco. >> i live in an apartment and there is not many places to store my disaster kit. i have it at the foot of my bed where i know i can get to it. it's bright and it's hopefully i will be able to get to it. if everything falls down can i get to it? probably not. have you to do the best you can with what you have.

the interior wall in your house. but it in a corner under a defect. protect it as best you can and that's all you can do. if you can put it in the yard, great. some people say i have it in the garage that may not be the best place. you do the best you can. >> we recommend you keep extra supplies at work and your car. so wherever you are you will have access to something. have shoe in your car will be helpful if you have dress shoes. >> how do you arrange to get businesses reimbursed after a disaster.

>> we had the question in the morning session. currently we are at the state now we are trying to approach the businesses. before even doing that talking with the city to make sure we can the agreement to have them to get paid and so i'm not sure there is not much more i can say. >> and the red cross has the same thing. i can walk to a say way and say i will and and do your water supply for the chelter i'm running. i promise you we will pay you back. what we have done is gone and set up a written memorandum of understanding. a written contract we have. your disaster leaders and our shelter managers have copies so we can go in and say it's okay here is a document saying, here's my identification. here's our memorandum of understanding and we are not

going to abuse our store, thanks. >> it's important in bringing the business community into our planning. if there are any like business associations merchant in your area bring them in as you do your emergency planning in your neighborhood. i want to be community partners building the relationships before the disaster when you walk in the store they will be likely to give you the bandaids if they know who you are before a disaster. >> is there plans in place to us taxis and buses to evacuate folks? >> buses, yes, the city currently uses muni as one of our partners for evacuating people in house fires. yes, there is a plan to use

buses. we have not taxis are not part of the city's plan. but there's not any reason they couldn't be. taxi commission is next door to my office. i will see if they want to partner with us. >> anyone else want to add anything? >> for san francisco is there a map that identifies shelters and nert and red crosses locations with emergency services. >> we have a map of the city that shows all the shelters. on the nert website you can see where all the nert staging areas are. and those are nert staging areas are out door spaces. those areas will not have to be inspected before we start setting up services there. or nert sets up services. the shelters have to be inspected. we have to stock them with cots and water and medical supplies

and staff. that information is -- >> i wanted to remind you that the nert staging area is your neighbor's helping each other. and so they are not the place to go to show up with nothing to not help. they are the place where you go and say, what can i do. and how can i help? if you have a need you should let them know that. you are approaching your neighbors who had training and a conversation with each other. and that's our limitation and our strength. >> one. things you want to encourage people to do is do a map for your own neighborhood. there are resources that are not resource like nert. it's helpful to know if one neighbor was in the military and has lowgistic training or used to be a nert and had first aid training so you know who has

what skills. who has a generator. there is someone in my building who has a generator. wouldn't power the whole building but it's got to know. >> make the milk shakes. >> did you have a follow up or comment to that question? >> i think offiit was the anniversary of the 06 quake there was a map that showed which fire hydrants. >> the emergency drink water act put out. there is an emergency drinking water map. you can get to it from the puc's website and 72 hours. org. it shows the fire hydrant they show is incorrect. the locations are correct. >> they did reprint the picture is not accurate.

so, >> still get that map >> they are downstairs today with the map. you can go to the puc's website. from sfgov. org. it's available on line. >> i want to talk about the hydrants. we have 2 types of hydrants in san francisco one is a backup water supply with big black plugs that's not drinking water. on the original roll out of the 100,000 hand outs they put a drinking water drop on the big hydrant. the reprints have the skinny knobby hydrants. the small little you know the british style smaller plugs much the big round one with the

smooth head is not drinking water. the smaller standard white hydrant is the drinking water and the new reprint has the correct photo on it. >> that's a good thing to know. >> let me get through this last question of this and then we can open it up. how do a get a consultant to assess what i need to do to improve my building in the event of an earthquake and to help me to find softest spots in my house? >> urn fortunately dbi is not here they have a great table downstairs the dcht building inspection and they do all inspections they often offer classes free to the community where you go to the site and have an hour lunch training on what you are talking about.

i want to promote the program that -- the mitigation project. >> there is a fly are at the back of the room. it's a preparedness course. we are giving out the free home earthquake safety kits. not the disaster kits with food and water the straps for your systems and the puddy for the china cabinets. we are giving out the starter kits for free. there is a class in san francisco. if we are out of fliers see me and i will tell you where on our website you can find the free classes with the free kits. >> we have a question. >> do we have satellite phone service in california. >> yes. >> it can compliment service in an emergency.

we are planning heavily for less low tech communication systems like ham radios. you can get a ham radio license for 10 dollars and guaranteed you will be able to community in case of a disaster. >> do you know how many? >> i don't know the mileage it depends upon the terrain. there is a website on sfgov. org/acs to get information about ham radio communications in san francisco. all right. other questions? >> i was curious the difference in red cross and nert idealy you would want both. would i start getting 20 people

together for red cross? >> it depends on your community. if they are ready to go and say, we want to go all out go to the fire department and get the full nert training. if they are like, i'm not sure and you are just getting to know each other the red cross training is great because it's an hour we cover the personal preparedness much the first step if you want to say, let's get everyone in the same room and look at everyone and know their names. you can invite us both. you can invite the humane society and they'll do animal care and control. >> and they will come out and do something. you can have your miniresource fair depending on nature of your

community. >> cpr? >> yes. >> right. we do first aid/cpr and shelter training and case management and damage assessment. they do a lot of search and rescue and triage we don't do any triage. a combination of what you want. first steps invite us or both and we will get in touch with our friends at the fire department. >> we will take more questions before we do that, feel under your seat we have there is 4 stickers that are on the seats there are a lot of seats much if you have a sticker we have a prize for you so let's see here. >> there's one in the back! [applause]. all right. you get a prize. hold that up so everyone knows

what they are looking for. >> all right. yeah! [applause] >> there's 3 others under there. feel around to the seat next to you. yeah! [applause]. all right number 2. all right! there's the third where's the fourth one. all right! >> excellent. okay other questions that people have? go ahead. [inaudible]. >> if you drink the bad water in the fire hydrants happens to you. the smaller hydrants are connected to the drinking water system. the larger hydrants are connects to the reservoir on top of twin peeks. >> any contaminated water can

have various bad health results. >> another hand? >> all right. [inaudible] >> i have references to that on the nert website. we still recommend getting underneath duck, cover and hold is what we recommend. what the state california recommends and what the red cross recommends. >> sir, thank you. >> thank you. >> in the majority of people injuries in earthquakes are injured by broken glass. the majority are not buildings pan caking on them in the united states.

thank you, sir. thank you. >> sir, thank you. we will let people approach you with their individual questions at the end. >> panelists, thank you so much for your participation today. [applause] we will post information from the panelists on to the website much if you want to know how to get a hold go to the nen neighborhood empowerment website and you will be able to do that. thank you.