In what has now become a regular fall event, teams from the campus and UCSF Medical Center will participate in a statewide disaster exercise on Wednesday, Nov. 15.
Coordinated with the California Emergency Medical Services Authority and the state Homeland Security Golden Guardian program, the disaster drill this year will replicate the devastating 1906 San Francisco earthquake that measured 7.9 on the Richter scale.
The 1906 earthquake caused damage in 19 central California counties, extending from San Juan Bautista to Cape Mendocino, and into the San Joaquin Valley. The United States Geological Survey (USGS) estimates that the scenario earthquake has a 21 percent probability of occurring before 2032.
A recurrence of the 1906 earthquake is not the worst-case scenario for damage, nor is it the most likely damaging earthquake to occur in either central or southern California. A recurrence of the 1868 Hayward/Rogers Creek earthquake, on a fault directly beneath the eastern edge of the San Francisco Bay, has an estimated probability of occurrence of greater than 27 percent within the next 30 years, according to the USGS. A Hayward/Rogers Creek earthquake would produce even greater damage, loss of life and injuries and economic losses than the proposed scenario.
The drill, which will start at 5:12 a.m., the time that the 1906 event occurred, will provide new opportunities to test the campus and medical center's emergency response. The start time will allow the University to test its real-time staff notification procedures, monitor the length of time it takes leaders and front-line responders to arrive on site, and practice setting up the Emergency Operations Center, the headquarters for responding to the incident.
This early start time also offers the opportunity for key night shift staff to participate in a disaster drill. This exercise also is designed to test a change of shift in the command center, so teams will be able to practice their work in documentation and hand-off to a new group.
Celeste Cook, associate director of Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness at the UCSF Police Department, has conducted training sessions for members of the Emergency Operations Center to familiarize staff with their roles and responsibilities.
"The greatest value to doing a disaster drill is the opportunity it creates to test our systems and assumptions," says Cook. "The planning process has already been invaluable for this exercise and we look forward to gaining more insight from the drill itself."
Training and review of roles and response requirements also have been provided to medical center managers and programs.
"Emergency preparedness drills are the best way to test any system's ability to safely respond to a disaster and to ensure continual improvement in these response systems," says Robert Hunn, medical center safety officer. "Health care institutions have a responsibility to ensure they have developed and tested their emergency management systems."
In addition to these shared goals of mobilizing from a cold start and testing emergency notification and communication systems, campus and medical center staff also will have unique drill objectives specific to their own programs. For example, the medical center will continue to test its capacity to care for a large influx of disaster victims by activating alternate care sites, deploying extra staff through its labor pool, assessing patients for evacuation, and identifying specialized resources and supplies needed to care for earthquake victims.
Clinical care of crush victims and specialized resources needed for their unique needs will be integrated into the scenario. Kathy Lenihan, chair of the Committee on Multi-casualty Incident Triage and Training, says, "Over the past few years of exercising increasingly complex drill scenarios, staff from MoffitrLong Hospital, Mount Zion, and Ambulatory Care Clinics are planning collaboratively, identifying innovative uses of clinical space and organizing efficient patient triage in order to meet surge capacity requirements."
Staff from the campus at large will continue to develop their ability to conduct building damage assessments, coordinate search and rescue efforts, maintain public safety, manage utility disruptions, communicate and coordinate with medical center and other campus programs, and identify issues related to hazardous debris management.
Estimates of Damage
If the 1906 earthquake were to occur today, these estimates of damage to critical facilities, commercial and residential structures, injuries and fatalities caused by the collapse of those structures, damage to lifelines and transportation infrastructure and economic loss suggest:
- • 35 fire stations damaged
- • 500 to 600 fires in the region, 100
of which are in San Francisco
- • 789,000 households without power
- • More than 1 million households without
water
- • 13,000 injuries requiring hospitalization
- • 3,332 deaths, including those trapped
in debris
- • 54 hospitals damaged, 27 extensively
or completely
- • 344 schools are damaged, 55 extensively
or completely
- • 77 police, fire and emergency operation
centers damaged, 19 are extensively or completely
- • 1,185 bridges damaged, 948 extensively
or completely
- • Extensive damage to roadways near the
fault and adjacent to the bay, sloughs and streams
- • 200,000 to 300,000 displaced households
- • 60,000 to 120,000 persons requiring
short-term shelter
- • 463,254 buildings damaged, 37,025 completely;
more than $120 billion in building losses
- • 25 million to 40 million tons of debris
generated
- • Direct and indirect losses exceeding
$150 billion
What You Can Do
- • Review your department's emergency
plan
- • Know phone numbers and radio stations
where you can receive UCSF emergency information
- · Campus Hotline: 415/502-4000
- · Medical Center Hotline: 415/885-5828 (STAT)
- · Backup Hotline: 1-800/873-8232
- · Radio broadcast announcements: KCBS - 740AM; KNBR - 680 AM; KGO
- 810AM
- · Contact Catherine Valle 415/476-3083 to request a wallet-sized card with important UCSF emergency information
- • Have a family disaster plan in place
and practice it
- • Have a flashlight, radio and extra
batteries
- • Have spare, sturdy walking shoes and
socks under each bed at home
- • Have an out-of-state contact that all
family members can reach for information
- • Have an emergency kit for each family
member
- • Have enough food and drinking water,
for each family member, for five days
- • When nearing expiration dates, rotate
food and drinking water by donating them to food drives at the end of the
year " Have a manual can opener
- • Include warm clothing, shoes, gloves
and caps
- · Keep the body, especially the head, at a comfortable temperature.
- · If possible, have water-resistant or waterproof outerwear
- • Have a disaster kit in each car
- • Get in the habit of filling the gas
tank while it is still half-full
- • Have cash set aside in a waterproof
baggie
- · Small denominations ($1, $5, $10, $20 bills; no larger than $20)
- · Quarters (a 3-1/4' prescription bottle holds $12.00)
One final note, the University Store on the Parnassus campus sells disaster preparedness kits by Earth Shakes Inc. for both departmental and individual use. The University Store has several sample kits on display at the Parnassus location. A limited supply of these kits is on hand for sale in the store. A web-based purchasing option for both UC departmental purchases using
low value PO numbers and for personal purchases
using credit cards has been developed with Earth Shakes.
