What's Shakin'? A Look Back at 2014
San Francisco Emergency Management's Year in Review
A Year in Photos - A Look Back at 2014
Ibahagi Ang Kaalaman: Last year the Philippines was hit by not one, but two, disasters in the span of 24 days. Our 9-1-1 Operations Manager Cecile Soto and Deputy Director Rob Dudgeon are briefed by Filipino emergency management officials.
Tsunami Ready: Dozens of emergency managers, community partners, and local, state, and federal officials participated in San Francisco’s three-day tsunami exercise in March. The goals of the exercise were to practice our City’s alert and warning procedures, response capabilities, and recovery operations before, during, and after a tsunami.
Telling Our Story in DC: Bay Area emergency managers met with officials from DHS and the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) to discuss how our UASI grant has helped us get ready for the next disaster.
Matthew Roybal, Dispatcher of the Year: Public Safety Dispatcher Matthew Roybal was calm and professional during the tragic Asiana plane crash. His actions were not only a credit to himself but also his fellow dispatchers. For these reasons, Matthew was selected by his peers as San Francisco’s Dispatcher of the Year.
Young 9-1-1 Heroes: The 9-1-1 Local Heroes Medal of Honor is awarded to young people who call 9-1-1 to help save a life or property, or to report a crime. The award is also presented to the 9-1-1 dispatcher who processed the call, and dispatched the appropriate emergency response help.
Teaming Up with Nextdoor: We partnered with Nextdoor, the private social network for neighborhoods. With Nextdoor, San Francisco residents can join private neighborhood websites that make it easy to connect with neighbors and communicate about crime and safety, local service recommendations, lost pets, and emergency plans. San Francisco will use Nextdoor to share emergency preparedness tips and help connect neighbors before San Francisco faces an emergency situation. San Francisco also can share emergency alerts to affected neighborhoods through Nextdoor.
The Great Earthquake Remembered: April 18th marked the 108th anniversary of the 1906 San Francisco Earthquake and Fire. Although very few of us have a first-hand memory of what remains one of California’s most significant catastrophes, every April many of us think about the what ifs with regard to earthquakes.
Mission Bay Fire: Like the portable fire hydrant pictured above, our 9-1-1 dispatchers and emergency managers brought together the fire fighters, police officers, parking control officers, animal control officers, and utility workers who responded to the 5-Alarm Mission Bay Fire.
EMS; Dedicated for Life: The 16th Annual EMSA Awards Ceremony, and awards were presented to outstanding individuals for their commitment to emergency medical care.
CAD Upgrade: We upgraded the City's 9-1-1 Computer Aided Dispatch System (CAD). Why? Because our current dispatch system is 14 years old and was no longer supported by the vendor.
Mobile ShakeAlerts: During the San Francisco Entrepreneurship in Residence Demo Day we joined the company Regroup to showcase a project linking the Shake Alert Earthquake Early Warning Systemto mobile phones.
City72: We were invited to the White House Innovation for Disaster Response and Recovery Demo Day where we were thrilled to announce the launch of City72, an open-source emergency preparedness platform modeled after our own SF72 that is designed specifically for local governments. The City72 platform includes a toolkit that provides cities with the technical guidance to create a customized City72 site for any city or region.
Napa Earthquake: In the early morning hours of August 24, San Francisco quickly worked to determine whether the Napa Earthquake had inflected damage to our City and our infrastructure. However, it quickly became apparent that our friends in Napa, Vallejo, and other surrounding communities had sustained significant damage. Almost immediately, Mayor Lee asked City Departments to stand ready provide mutual aid.
New School: We graduated two Post (Peace Officers and Standards Training) Academy classes to join us ranks of 9-1-1 professionals. POST Academy combines lectures, case studies, and tests with sit-alongs with veteran dispatchers as they answered emergency calls from the public or dispatched first responders to an incident.
Hazard Planning: San Francisco’s 2014 HMP also covers human-caused hazards, which include hazardous materials, energy shortages, terrorist events, and cyberterrorism. In addition, the 2014 HMP covers climate change (sea level rise, temperature rise, and precipitation changes). San Francisco’s HMP development was led by DEM’s Lead Planner, Amy Ramirez, and Edie Schaffer, Emergency Planner.
Volunteering Medical Relief in Haiti: Crystal Wright, EMT-P, and John Brown MD, volunteered their time in rural Leon, a town of some 8,000 people in the Grande Anse province of southwestern Haiti. The reason for their visit was to support a local dispensary staffed with a nurse, a pharmacist, a dentist and a tuberculosis program health aide. The medical operation, begun in 2000 by the Seattle King County Disaster Team (a member of the Disaster Medical Assistance Team program of the U.S. Health and Human Services Department) as a training mission for health care providers to learn how to provide quality care in an austere environment, now provides services to the clinic every four months with a multi-disciplinary team of nurses, physicians, paramedics, EMTs, laboratorians and pharmacists.
Fleet Week returned to the Bay: This year’s events will featured the return of the Blue Angels airshow and the commissioning of the Navy’s newest ship- the U.S.S. America.
Fleet Week helps local authorities and service members prepare for and respond to emergencies which may take place in the Bay Area and around the world.
San Francisco has a long history of naval service and maritime tradition. Residents and our men and women in uniform often worked together during the City’s and nation’s most trying times.
ShakeOut: Don't Freak Out! Shake Out! We joined students at Marina Middle School for the annual ShakeOut statewide earthquake drill.
Nightlife: US Coast Guard and Port of San Francisco divers inspected piers and searched for debris following a simulated earthquake.
LP25: The San Francisco Bay Area came together for the 25th anniversary of the largest earthquake to occur in the Bay Area since 1906 and remember those who lost their lives, honor those who came to aide, and learn how to be ready for the next major earthquake that could occur in our beloved San Francisco Bay Area.
World Champs: The San Francisco Giants cemented their dynasty with their 3rd World Series Championship in 5 years. EOC staff kept track of the festivities at the parade.
#hellastorm: We activated San Francisco's Emergency Operations Center and had additional 9-1-1 Dispatchers to manage the storm of the decade. EOC staff monitored field operations, assisted in the coordination of City resources, and provided public information. 9-1-1 dispatchers were on hand to manage to the potential increase in emergency call volume.
Happy Holidays!: 9-1-1 Dispatchers donated and collected more than 11 bags of toys for SFPD Operation DREAM. Over the years, Operation DREAM, a 501(c)3 non-profit organization, has provided many families special holiday moments of cheer through the joyous spirit of giving during the holiday season. In four days, dispatchers across all shifts organized and contributed to the toy drive.