parker and his team of the visionary architects, larry funk who is sitting over there. he is a hero. [applause] larrym, from the beginning you had a dream of what the new laguna honda should look like, and you stuck with the passion and dedication to make that dream a reality. the city hall family, the laguna honda staff, the department of health, the commission, the department of public works, the art commission, john thomas from the department of public works. i could go on forever. but the individuals who all made this the possibility are on the laguna honda honor roll. but i truly believe that the

greatest degree of thanks and goes to the people of san francisco, who from the start, from our early beginning of history, have said yes. we want a laguna honda. other communities across this country and even in the world do not have a public hospital devoted to rehabilitation and skilled nursing care. we do. and when we talk about putting that bond issue, that great big bond issue -- there were people who said i do not think we can do it. but i always knew we could. and the secret weapon was always the families of those for whom at laguna honda has cared for for so long over the years with the great quality of care that we have. and the voters did vote overwhelmingly to rebuild laguna

honda. so for those naysayers in other parts of the country who say, "maybe san francisco once knew how to do it," i say we still do. we have still got the passion, the dedication, the vision, and the team work to get the job done. and we have done it today. [applause] and it is my great pleasure now to actually call a man from speaker policies office. -- speaker pelosi's office. i got calls from her and from congresswoman feinstein. they have asked me to say that they are here in spirit, even though they have to stay in washington, poor things.

[laughter] this is on behalf of speaker policy. thank you, louise. speaker policy was heartbroken when she learned she would not be able to be in town for the celebration, but she did ask me to bring a few words from her. she asked me to say we did it. congratulations. thank you, louise. louise had been talking to the speaker for how many years before she was speaker? it is an exciting day. she asked me to share a few words with you. dear friends, this is indeed a historic day. the commemorate the opening of the new laguna honda hospital and rehabilitation center, which is the most modern, green, and technologically sophisticated hospital of its kind in the united states. thank you to dianne feinstein, who made it a priority, and to

the city attorney who championed and continues to champion this project. many thanks are owed two majors -- to mayors jordan, brown, and newsom, and thank you to mr. elsbernd. we should all acknowledge the leadership of the late john neely and the chief nursing officer who moved the hospital into the 20th century. thank you to the staff of laguna honda hospital who are creating a new care model of community and patient involvement. the hospital has long been recognized as a center of excellence. the new facility further advances recommendation. the design brings a small-town feel insecure community which can integrate the patients and

residents into the broader civic life of semblances go. the hospital has an impressive collection of art that will not only contribute to the healing environment but also provide a new destination for art lovers. the historic passage of comprehensive health care reform by college represents -- by congress strengthens medicare and ensure sustainability for years to come. it improves benefits for seniors and makes prescription drugs more affordable, and it recognizes the needs of those with disabilities by making significant investments in long- term care services. this is a great day not only for the patients and residents of for all san francisco. thank you for this opportunity to extend my deepest gratitude to the hard-working people who have made this new hospital and rehabilitation center possible. please accept my best wishes for a memorable celebration.

sincerely, nancy pelosi, speaker of the house. [applause] >> i want to acknowledge the assemblywoman who could not attend. her good wishes are extended. i also want to say as part of thinking about louise's role -- sell resilience reject sal sorelli mention sharing the campaign with louise and i. you really did it with us. labour has always been our friend in the department of public health. we do great things together. that was an amazing victory. thank you for that. the saddest day that i have ever had was the day john died.

it was very hard for me. i had never lost anybody who was actively working for me at the time. at one time i had to face the tremendous personal sadness that i felt that losing a friend of mine and i also had to recognize that like any leader of an organization and had to help the organization to get over its in the sense of processing its own feelings, staying true to its job while we were all in morning. laguna honda is a vibrant 24- hour seven day a week operation. you could not stop life to mourn for john. we also had to keep laguna honda running. but at the same time so many of us were bereft of having lost to john. and having to deal with that was

extremely challenging. i have a picture of john next to my desk. i will always remember him and his commitment. part of what i had to figure out on that day immediately was what was in charge of laguna right now. that is how things are. it was a sudden death. we were not at all prepared. but even at that moment, someone had to be in charge of laguna honda. you cannot have a hospital running without a license administrator in charge. i chose someone i have tremendous faith and, and also somebody that john had tremendous faith in. and i know that it was always intended. john had intended that succession. but it was not obviously going to be in the way it happened. it was going to be in a number of years. she would have had a chance to

mentor into that role. people would have gotten used to her. when he felt we were taking care of he would have moved on. that was his way. instead, she was suddenly catapulted into this job in a much more difficult circumstance than anyone imagined, at a time when everybody was morning. the building was not yet finished. there were a number of challenges. but she rose to all of them. and what she has in common with john is that she wakes up and sees what is in the best interest of the residence. that is what we do this for. it is on that that every decision should be changed. she keeps that foremost in her mind. she has done a fantastic job.

i am sure that in that laguna honda corner of heaven, and john is looking down very proudly at her. [applause] >> good afternoon, everyone. thank you for spending your saturday afternoon at laguna honda. at the new laguna honda. san francisco has much to be proud of. laguna honda has been providing compassionate care for san francisco hit safety net for over 150 years. we will continue this tradition for the next 150 years to come. second, the new laguna honda, as the most modern rehab and skilled nursing facility in the first certified leed hospital in california, we will deliver on being a model for other

facilities around the country and the world in long-term care and rehabilitation care. and most importantly, laguna honda is a community for healing and wellness. you will see this for yourselves as you speak to our staff. thank you, mayor knew some, -- may newsom, mayor brown, jackie speare, the former president of the health commission when prop. 8 past, the health commission, turner construction, derek miller, the arts commission, the staff of laguna honda, our labor partners, and the entire san francisco community for your support in ensuring laguna honda has a bright future. [applause]

i will end with a "from a resident of laguna honda. thank you to the citizens of san francisco for backing this wonderful dream you had, and thank you to the many residents who actively supported the dream. thank you. [applause] >> appropriately, the person who will have the final word on today's ceremony is our president of our resident counsel, elizabeth cutler. we are so proud you are here and we are looking forward to your comments.

>> i have to unfold my papers. please be patient with me. all of the patients know what i mean. thank you. i want to say is an honor to share this platform with so many accomplished people. i feel thrilled to be among you and to speak to this assembly today. more than that, it is a joy to represent the residents. i am thrilled that you have allowed me to be a voice for some of their feelings and concerns. and i want to tell you a bit about us as residents. we came from all different walks of life in the city. we have had jobs having to do with construction and bus

driving, and we have had white collar jobs, and we have been independent artists and writers. the full spectrum have come to laguna honda. and in our day we were great participants in all of the city life. difficult circumstances, sometimes crushingly difficult, have brought many of us here at last to laguna honda. not at last for some of us. despite all differences, we need the healing that laguna honda is famous for. some people who come will be rehabilitated and will leave sunday. others will need 24-hour care for the rest of their lives, and so they will look forward to spending time in the spending -- in this building for years to

come. it is exciting to have a new building. it is even more exciting to receive a new model of care, care that is resident centered, care that honors each person as an individual instead of a body in a bed. care that involves talking to us, and more important, listening to us, hearing our voices. so many have worked so hard, has you have been told -- as you have been told, to bring the state to pass. and now we have a dazzling new setting to present to you. when you leave today, you will be going home. but laguna honda residents will not be leaving. this is our home. and it is very important to us. we are already here. but please come back and visit us frequently. this wonderful new laguna honda

would not exist without you. i just want to add a personal note. my younger sister, emily, was a resident here for many more years than i have been. she was greatly loved. we lost her recently. i would like to dedicate this speech to her and remembered her, as many of the residents do, with great fondness and affection. thank you all. [applause] >> i would like to invite you all nowi that good enough? this is a participatory ribbon

cutting. it requires nothing more complicated than this. i will ask you to count down, not up. upon conclusion, we will applaud the great works of turner construction, the dedicated men and women who are still toiling inside to get this project completed, which begs the question when will the residents be moving in that? there is an easy answer -- soon. [laughter] [crowd chants a countdown] [applause]

go ahead in an orderly manner. >> started in 1990. the citizens of the marina district came to the fire department and asked for a

program to survive for 3 days. there is a 70 percent chance we will have a 6.5 earthquake. 71 large fires. 40 major rescue operations. [inaudible]. rescue operations there were 34 structure fires we need 275 engines to handle this. we have 41. you will be on your own and we should be prepared. we will go over the merge training program. part of the training program is helping you make the decisions that will save lives. in this situation this person carrying a pail of water to put out the fire will not put out the fire. how many people have used a fire extinguisher before. >> may be 10 percent of you. by the end of the week you will

be putting out a fire with a fire extinguisher. you don't want to learn out to house an extinguisher when they big fire is in front of you. when you turn off your natural gas and water. hazardous materials will be talked about next week. 35-40 percent of you. you will find out that all of you have hazardous material in your home. the third week is disaster medicine. you, going into a room spending 45 seconds on one person into 3 life saving techniques. by the fourth we we will teach

you as search and rescuers how to keep yourself safe by identifying safe and none safe building to go into. sometimes objects are too heavy for you to liftoff of a body. we will teach you privying which will use anything you have, wood or cement blocks so you is see that people can lift heavy objects off of people. now, you have to have a plan. every program needs to have a plan. we can't say, here are your skills. class 6, after half an hour we will split you into teams of 10 people each. putting out the fires. you will go into a dark room and doing a search. you will be treating people

with injuries on them. be doing privying. lifting heavy objects off of a doll and giving iv and turning off utilities. we are building you up to the hand's on scenario. >> what do you do? let's say you feel a tremor and it's going to shake, what are you going to do? all right. 40 people said -- >> where we going to go? >> under a table. >> [laughter]. >> going to be survival of the fitef. fittest. if you have a table go under the table. look above you, what's going to fall. what's going to hit your head. most of the chairs decent.

if you are in a movie theatre or stadium what do you do? the same thing. these chairs are not heavy dutiy but covering your head is most important. if it's an empty room go against the wall and cover your head. a lot of cut in disaster heads and arms will get cut. those you can control the bleeding where as the head injury is harder. cover your head, the most important thing to do. we cover, beaware. 15 seconds. in the marina people said it felt like a minute. if you are covering yourself under the table and it's shaking what will happen in 30 seconds? you look up, where's the table. hold on to the table.

if you are inside, stay in don't go from the known to the unknown. if you are downtown in an office building or shopping at macy's, do you run in the middle of the street? no. you stay where you are. how much time do you have? seconds. you have to make a decision within seconds. if you run to the street what will happen? >> get hit by a car. you have windows, glass to fall on you. high rise. if you know where you are, stay there than to go somewhere you don't know what's there. once it's shaking between 30 seconds to a minute and once

it's over, things will fall and tip over. give it time to move around. of course, if there is danger coming to you, you want to move. so, picture these buildings. against the wall. will i go behind this wall? lean against it, cover my head? no. the pictures frames. if they come off and hit me on the top of the head, more injuries. be aware of that target. look behind you before you lean against the wall. sometimes wrong place at the wrong time there is no way to get down this way. try to find a [inaudible] place if you can. get next to something that's sturdy that will block up

against you. how much time do you have? short. >> this picture, what's a good spot? round ones. >> make sure there are no windows on top of you. if you go to that one notices sky lights above. they will fall down and hit you. either table is fine. stay away from the windows you will be better. make sure you go between the windows and make sure the glass does not pop and cut you. >> elevators, what do you think? you don't get in elevator? no. you will be stuck there for awhile. if you go down the stair well.

if there's an earthquake and you are in a high rise building. ing -- no. if it hadn't collapsed in the disaster chances are it will stay up. outside, where's an open area? high rise building when glass breaks it floats it with hit 2 blocks away from where it falls. if you are outside, you want to look up and make sure nothing is coming toward you. there is 3-5 feet of glass on market street. top of that you are going to have office furniture and debris falling into the street. even if you are in a car if you are next to large, brick buildings and if collapsed on you there is no safe place to go. how about here.

the safety spot is second base. no doubt about it. you have 60,000 people want to go to second base. people get injured jumping chairs. go between the chairs, cover your head and get your head below the seat. there is a lot of crud down there. the chairs will break the fall. if you stop, someone behind you will hit you. so, slow down, pull to the side of the road. stay with the car until the shaking stops. you need protection for your head. if there are wires near your car, don't get out. don't park under or over an over pass under a bridge,

under trees, power lines and next to freeway side walls. you know what freeway side walls are. >> these are the spots you don't want to park. in the city there are a lot of spots like that. that's pretty common response -- my experience with driving. i was driving going hope. home i had to go 2 miles. it took 3 hours to drive 2 miles. it was my unwillingness to give up my car. i could have gotten out of my car and walked home. i'm driving i thought it would be easier if i had walked. on the freeway? this person out