celebrate an anniversary to take a minute not only to commemorate that but to next on the importance of how the community needs to step up and assist the paid professionals, if you will. the san francisco fire departments, our respective departments are adequately resourced for any given day for emergencies here in san francisco. as you know, though, that all goes out the window for a large-scale disaster be it man made or not. that's why we always talk about preparedness. the more prepared we are, the quicker we'll be able to respond and the more efficient the recovery is. that's important to partner witho agencies as well as with our community partners. i think our deputy and nancy ward representing region nine of fema and mike dayton, acting secretary for cal ema, very

experienced people to talk about the importance of preparedness, the response and then the recovery. and to follow up with a panel of experts, it will also be very interesting. i'd also like to pay particular acknowledgement to the department of emergency management for all they do for our city when it comes to putting all our pieces together and departments together. under mayor lee we've worked collectively and collaboratively and there are a number of department heads i would like to thank for your being here. just on saturday there were five neighborhoods. i didn't get to all five. but there were five who all held neighborhood emergency response drills representing over 60 neighborhoods, and the nert program which the fire department is so proud of was in response to loma prieta. about 21 years ago nert became a program, because what we saw

during loma prieta was that we had a very willing community but what we didn't have was a trained and well-prepared community. so we had them take courses to talk about utility shutoff and fire safety as well as first aid. and so we are also here to obviously sell the nert program to the community as well. and participate in today's discussion. with that, instead of having anne come back up, i'm proud to introduce the next speaker, also a native san from sis can and our police chief, chief sir. [applause] >> good morning. as the police chief said, i'm

sort of the new baby police chief. i was here 22 years ago as well. i was just up the street in narcotics at the time and we were actually making an arrest in buchanan and when our boss told us we were supposed to come back to the station immediately after the earthquake we thought we were going to get to watch the game. we had no idea being native san francisco ans, we commented quote-unquote, hey, that was a good one. so it was quite a -- an experience and sort of set the tone for what's come over the next 22 years. our strategy here in san francisco now with anne at the helm at d.e.m. and her predecessors and mayor lee and his predecessors and joanne and myself and our pred cesars as we prepare for every disaster that happens around the world

as if it happened here. so if you think of what's happened over the last 22 years beginning with loma prieta and arm geten and y2k, we'ved that world series three times. one we liked. we prepared for floods with katrina and all the problems that come with water and on and on and on. we even prepared for tsunamis in a city of hills. so we really want to be as prepared as we can be. we are committed and dedicated to being as prepared as any city in the country. and i think someone once defined preparedness as the amount of time it takes to get the necessary personnel and resources in place to recover from any calamity. and here in san francisco we are absolutely committed to having that period of time as short as possible. his time before becoming mayor,

mayor lee was actually the chair of the recovery body to engage public-private partnerships, get infrastructure to be more quickly restored, and i know the p.u.c. is absolutely light years in front of where they were years ago with regard to layers of re dunden as i to make sure we have water and we just had fleet week last year where the military assured us the dal is a nation process via reverse osmosis is capable of making sure we have water to drink here. with that said, we'll get on with the program and keep working hard to keep san francisco prepared. [applause] >> thank you chief sir, and hayes white, thank you both very much. we are filming today's sim pose yum, and it will be on resilient s.f.org, so if you

miss part of it or you just want to share it with friends, please go there. it should be up tomorrow. i also wanted to say i forgot to mention the american red cross who are here today. s.f. card. we have lots of community partners here today. salvation army. we just have so many partners in the community, and that's really what it's about when you're talking about the recovery and resilience as i effort to include the whole community and include our neighbors, our businesses and our non-profit agencies. so with that, it's my great pleasure to introduce mike dayton, who is acting secretary of cal e.m.a. here in california. we work very closely with cal e.m.a. and do so many partnership things.

we could not have the success we have in san francisco without such a supportive agency in sacramento. so mike? [applause] >> well, thank you, anne, for that kind introduction. i'd like to thank you, too, for your partnership, your creativity and your team, so i'd like to give you a round of applause for your hard work and your staff in pulling this all in together, today. [applause] >> so it really is an honor to be here today to commemorate the 20th anniversary of the loma prieta earthquake that broke lives, homes and businesses, the loma prieta earthquake changed the landscape of this beautiful city, but more importantly, it brought out the best in all of us. in the midst of chaos, uncertainty and even death, neighbors looked after one

another and helped each other turn off gas lines and shared water and food with each other and assisted the elderly and people with special needs. the fire department battled multiple fires on multiple fronts. the police department ensured order in the hardest-hit parts of the city. thousands of emergency responders from across the state provided assistance through our mutual aid system. the american red cross provided assistance and raised money to help the survivors. we mourn the losses in the whole community and the community came together to recover and rebuild. during the rerecover phase we looked for how we could be better prepared and promised those we lost that we would be better prepared. since the loma prieta earthquake we have made great

strides. we rebuilt the city stronger, and great strides in retro fits especially on the bay bridge and new buildings. and the catastrophic plan under nancy's leadership and the partnership with fema, we've enhanced some warnings and made a concerted effort to focus on personal preparedness and get message out residents really need to help take care of themselves and others. so i am pleased to be part of the legacy and want to thank all of you for your hard work, time and effort to help others. so thank you. [applause]

>> a little transition work here. jim? >> thank you. thank you mike for joining us today to commemorate the 22nd anniversary of the loma prieta earthquake. i'd also like to thank our community partners and those supporting our event. kqed served the people of north erin california and offer many different experiences and viewpoints, promote inclusiveness and respect human dignity. we are proud to have them as a partner today and in the preparedness. that the time i'd like to ask donald jauron, executive vice president to spruce our speaker for the day. in 2006 was the recipient for the award for excellence in professional the development please welcome to the podium, don dernum.

>> thank you. thank you for that. 22 years ago today i was in northern india, and days after this i followed the newspaper headlines following -- describing the earthquake in san francisco and it took several days before the scale and magnitude of that earthquake came to bear resemblens to what we know as the truth. i'm proud represent kqed. it's our obligation to be on the air with both television and radio if disaster should strike. 1989 we sent engineers to the tower where through creative and imaginative circuitry and satellite and cell phone sources we broadcasted needed

information throughout san francisco and the bay. for the future, we are building an emergency operation center at our radio transmission site where we'll create a live studio coordinated with others to share resources and space as needed. it has equipment to transmit from our sister station in zprement our local transition site is down. we invite all of you to help us plan so we can better prepare for the next disaster. you may have recently met kqed staff as they distributed more than 1,000 emergency kits. and the california seismic safety commission. it's worth knowing our kqed website has information and

prevention we're doing in schools. richard serino is the deputy administrator of fema. he was appointed in twine. in the two years since he's worked with the director to improve fema's capacity to prepare for, protect against, respond to and recover from and mitigate all hazards. his break through position after 35 years experience. he served as chief of boston e.m.s. and assistant director of the boston health commission. he has served as an interim manager. and for all of boston's major planned events including the boston marathon and the 2004 democratic national convention. no word yet of the boston red

sox world series. as a consultant, -- [laughter] >> as a consultant to the pentagon and the defense department he served on the 9/11 after action team to assess medical consequence medical policy and procedures. more recently, rich was on the ground at the site of the devastating tornadoes in the coast and joplin, missouri and rich, thank you for speaking with us and strengthening our communities today. [applause] >> good morning. >> what's this about the red sox? we've had two world series in the last 10 years. graduations -- congratulations on yours, but we're with you

unfortunately this year in the world series, observing. 22 years ago as you heard, i have been in d.c. in fema for the last two years, but 22 years ago i was in boston. and we usually don't get earthquakes in boston, and saw the images on tv. because there was another game some of us were watching. the response to the earthquake from the east coast about as far away from here as you can get was impressive. watching a lot of images on the and reading a lot about it was really impressive. but to me, what was more impressive is the work that happened after the response. not the emergency, the first

few days, the countless lives people saved. but the recovery. and how the recovery was done. we talk about whole community. that's something we've talked about. for two years, we had to call it whole community because when craig, the administrator and i go around talking about response and recovery, that it can't just be government. it can't be the federal government. although federal government brings lots of resources to bear. we can bring department of defenses, h.h.s. if necessary. we can also bring a big paycheck every once in a while. $9 million for loma prieta. we can do that. the state as part of the team

can bring a real lot. they do on response. they do on recovery. and to support the local government. and the local governments, to me, are key. because they are to support the survivors. that's what it's all about. supporting the survivors. my congressman from back in boston. not currently, but was for years, a guy by the name of tip o'neal. he used to say our politics are local. and i firmly believe that, but all disasters are local as well. and it's important to remember that. and it's important to remember that as each incident happens, people who are at the local level, the city level know that. sometimes just once in a while, some of the feds might forget that. but it's important to remind

people of that. so if you look and you have federal government with all sorts or local and state government. very impressive team. very impressive team. can do a lot. but by no means, the team. about this much is government. can do a lot, should do a lot. but needs to bring in the private sector. as we heard not a new concept near san francisco. wasn't a new concept in boston. but let me tell you for a lot of places that is a new concept. to bring in the private sector as a key member of the team. what they can bring to the table, what they have brought to the table and what they will bring to the table. i was a little surprised when i got to fema and the first major incident that i had the opportunity to experience tpwhuzz haiti and it was an unusual response to fema. we usually don't respond out of the country. and we did. and i was in the national

response coordination center. and craig is off at the white house doing stuff, so they had pow would you and said where is the private sector folks? it's, like, they are not here. what do you mean they are not here? they were not part of our team in the nrcc. i was shocked. it would be an understatement to say i was shocked. we fixed that in a few months where as now we have a private sector representative not only during time of disaster but full-time. we have a detail person there. somebody from target then rotated to somebody from big lots then to somebody with the building trades then one of the company's building management companies now we have somebody from verizon and they come and

spend three months working for fema then rotate every three months to another country but are in every one of our briefings and when we activate the people who used to be assign there had from the other companies, they now come back when we activate. so we had five private sector representatives that don't just represent their company but across the board. when we had a representative from target, she was able to get all of our businesses, 25 largest businesses, target, wal-mart, home depot, etc. and we put them on a g.i.s. map across the country to show us what stores are open and closed. why is that important for us to know? i'm not going to sit here and talk the whole time by the way. why is that important? we did this for the first time

with the last winter we had the storm that went from new mexico to new england and affected 100 million people in this country. so it's important to know which stores are open and closed narrow resources. 12k0 if the stores are open or closed, if they are going to be closed, are they closed for a day? in new england they were just closed for a day a lot of them because they had literally 60 feet of snow so they would shovel off the roof and be open the next day. in the midwest they were open for a -- they were closed for a week or two weeks. but why were they closed? this would give us the information. if they were closed because roads for blocked maybe we should prioritize opening those roads. if it was because they were without power, we should prioritize them getting power after the hospitals and safety

people because guess what, the wal-marts of the world, the stop and shop or supermarkets of the world, they feed people every day. they do it much better than we will ever. we should not be, as we have for years opening up points of distributions in parking lots of buildings, of supermarkets. we should be working with them hand in hand to know are they open or closed? and if they are closed, what do we do to open them? so they become part of a team and not everybody opening and operating in their own silos. by doing that we'll be able to take care of the public in general and more importantly, help serve the people who need it most. the people who are going to need our help more than anybody else. the people who don't have the opportunity to have 72 hours worth of food. the people who don't have the

opportunity to go to a hotel. the people who don't have access to transportation. so we can focus our efforts on those folks. that's what we as not only government as a responsible private sector and faith-based community and those need to do. so as we look at who else is a key part of that team, it's the faith-based community. it's the voluntary agencies, the red cross, the salvation army. earlier i was introduced to the gentleman from the salvation army and i was told what good work they do. ok. well, that's not a shock to me. it's like i go back to the good work they do in the middle of a fire in the middle of a cold night in new england 34 years ago where the first time i encountered in getting that hot

cup of soup or hot chocolate for myself, but more importantly, is they work to feed and house the people who were just burnt out of their home. not new. not a new concept. the red cross. for years i started as a volunteer for the red cross. ended up before i took this job as a volunteer chairman of the board of the red cross in massachusetts. had to give that up when i took this job. but an intragoodwill part of the community. in the last two years i had traveled across the country from aalaska to hawaii and the floods in new england.

to a hurricane in vermont. who ever knew vermont would get struck bay hurricane? and on the ground in joplin, missouri, 14 hours after the tornado went through there. and i was in tuscaloosa, alabama, smithville. mississippi. northern georgia, all affected by the tornadoes. and up in north dakota from the floods. and when i was flying over north dakota, had the opportunity with the general and a couple congressmen. and as we're flying over, and it was just cresting. in looking at the damages, the general is explaining how many homes and businesses were damaged. in sort of a side mentioned

we've really done a good job and haven't lost any lives and working hard, and we saved the school and did this and did that. later i went and talked to the mayor and governor and police, fire, e.m.s. folks and chiefs and command staffs and a lot of people that had been working on fighting the flood in north dakota for literally -- much longer, but this part of it for two weeks. and sometimes i think we miss things and we forget things. but for total devastation, they did not lose one life. that is incredible. if you can view the damage that happened there. and the reason that is, is because they prepared. they took the time. they were exhausted. but they saved lives.

devastating, it will take years to rebuild which but it makes a difference that they took time to prepare. it saved lives. here, what struck me a lot about reading about loma prieta was how the community came together. how people in the faith-based initiative community and non-profits and if public in general and private sector worked to get the community back together. to recover. i mentioned i was in joplin moreless right after it happened and ied that opportunity to go back just two weeks ago and to see that the devastation, which was seven miles long, 3/4 of a mile wide and nothing left standing except a little bit of the hospital.

all the debris is gone in four months. the high school opened on time in august. they rebuilt the high school. albeit in a mall in 55 days. that the high school is open and the kids went back to school. that was done a little bit -- fema wrote a check and brought some people in to help out, but it was the leadership and the dedication of the school superintendent, the city manager, the students, the parents. the community that helped raise some money, but more importantly, the community that got behind folks to help design as the secretary of education who actually said it was a state of the art high school that would put almost any high school in to shame that they

designed in 55 days. tells you something about taking years to design. 55 days they designed a state of the art high school. it's about communities coming together. in joplin, so much of it able to bring together the faith-based community. the southern baptist cooking food for 50,000 people that was then delivered by the red cross to a salvation army shelter that was served by men nice and cleaned up by muslims. with no government involvement. that's whole community. that's what it's going to take to recover from these. a lot of times people start thinking about recovery. people start thinking about it