Fleet Week disaster drill brings local, state and federal agencies together
When a disaster strikes, like the Loma Prieta Earthquake did nearly 35 years ago, you see boots on the ground and a massive coordinated response.
But in order for that to happen, all of the players involved need to be running the same playbook.
That's why more than 200 people from local, regional, state, and federal agencies, came together to participate in the Defense Support of Civil Authorities (DSCA) drill during Fleet Week.
That included Elijah Saunders, who works for the San Francisco Department of Public Health. This was his first time participating in a drill like this.
"As a city worker, you're what's called a disaster service worker, or a DSW. To me, that's always been pretty abstract. Like, I know we have this mandate as city workers to respond in the event of a disaster, but it's always been very hypothetical," he said.
57% of employees of the City and County of San Francisco live outside of San Francisco, per the Department of Emergency Management (DEM), such as Saunders. But in the event of a major disaster that disrupts transportation and damages infrastructure, they'd need to get into the city to help with the response out of the emergency operations center.
As practiced in the drill, they'd first meet at select muster points, and then board ferries into the city.
Upon their arrival, they'd then board buses that would shuttle them to the EOC.
Although it wasn't an intense drill, going through the motions of it for the first time helped make it feel more real, which Saunders felt was important.
"If you don't practice, how are you going be prepared?" he said. "You have these climate disasters which are happening much more frequently across the country and the world. I think it absolutely could happen within my lifetime and within the time that I work for the city."
Robert Smuts, the Deputy Director of the DEM, says running this particular drill was a big milestone for the DEM.
"We like to run live exercises to test our emergency plans. This exercise today is the largest exercise we've actually done in our department's history," he said. "You can do a lot doing a tabletop or just writing the plan, but there is no substitute for actually putting it into practice, testing your assumptions, and making sure that you've thought of everything."
Mary Ellen Carroll, the Executive Director of the DEM, says it's critical the various agencies involved with a disaster response have plans in place.
"We have not experienced a major disaster since 1989, and even the Loma Prieta Earthquake that happened that year – while it was bad – it was not the worst that we can expect," she said. "The movement of people after an earthquake and being able to get people who don't need to be in San Francisco out and people who need to be here in, has always been a question mark. We've never been able to fully do this and test what we thought would happen and test our plans the way we laid them out."
Over the course of the drill, Saunders appreciation for it grew.
"I would imagine that if this was real there'd be a lot of stress involved, there'd be a lot of anxiety. But, I think having a little bit of an idea of what to expect, as far as at least getting into the city, definitely helps," Saunders said. "My job is very different from preparing for emergencies. So, it's very nice to know there are people who are thinking about this, planning this type of stuff, and putting a lot of thought into the preparation for these types of scenarios."