I know that I have previously written about emergency preparedness, as has other council members, but I cannot stress enough the need for each individual and household to be self-sufficient for a minimum 5 day time period.
The local and State government in Louisiana has been telling its residents for YEARS that they needed to have at least a 5 day supply of food and water and needed to be self sufficient during that time period. If you look at the time it took to get real relief to those trapped in New Orleans, it was 5 days.
This is not because the government is disorganized or does not care, it is because the local government has to coordinate with the state government and then the state government has to coordinate with the federal government. You can imagine the chaos if all governments had their own plan of relief and all swamped the area at one time.
In our area the reality of an earthquake is certainly something that we should all be prepared for. I expect in the event of a major earthquake, our police and fire departments will be dealing with bridge issues, infrastructure issues and most likely water issues.
While Foster City has taken extraordinary steps to provide additional water supply to the City in an emergency, it is still incumbent on all of our residents to educate ourselves and prepare our families, homes and cars in case of an emergency.
The Foster City Fire Department has information available to the public on emergency preparedness and the American Red Cross also has information on their website.
Finally, the Office of Homeland Security also has excellent information on their website. Last, but not least, let me invite you to sign up and attend the next emergency preparedness workshop presented by the Foster City Fire Department on February 4, 2006. Call (650) 286-3350 for more information.
Finally, let me again congratulate the honorees of the Foster City Honors List this year. Last Monday we had a fabulous event honoring volunteers in our community. Most of these individuals have spent years serving Foster City. They are what continue to make Foster City a great place to live.
Congratulations to:
• Bill Chow
• Paul Delmonico
• Sam Felser
• Ron Ho
• Lance Huntley
• Mae Matos
• Gary Mogil
• Lucy Tan
• Mary True
Deborah Wilder can be reached at dwilder@fostercity.org.
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