The California Emergency Services Association is proud to announce the
2014 CESA State Awardees
Senator Nicholas C. Petris Award In honor of the memory of Senator Nicholas C. Petris and his great life work and contribution in support of emergency management. This award is presented to an organization or individual for outstanding service in the field of emergency management. This award is the highest level of recognition from the organization. Sidney Reade, Monterey County Office of Emergency Services Sidney Reade has been an emergency planner for the Office of Emergency Services in Monterey County since 2009. She has reshaped the preparedness planning vision for the Department through outreach, education and collaboration. She embraces just what whole community inclusiveness means, by targeting the most vulnerable communities and populations. Sidney has coordinated over 220 community outreach programs with emphasis on vulnerable populations.
Ms. Reade has created the access and functional needs program for the county and incorporated communities, and ensured that FAST teams are trained and equipped, and distributed access and functional needs shelter equipment to all American Red Cross mobile trailers.
She has serves as the coordinator for the Central Coast CERT program and ARES which has trained over 500 citizens as CERT members since its inception. She coordinated the Disaster Service Worker training requirements, and served as Chair for the Citizen Corp Council for 2 years.
Ms. Reade has been instrumental in integrating United Way Monterey County assets into the emergency planning and EOC operations, including developing the United Ways role in managing Emergency Volunteer Centers.
She served as primary planner for all UASI Regional Catastrophic Planning Grant planning efforts in the county. She has been champion for all of the Storm Ready and Tsunami Ready programs throughout the county.
Through her coordination, collaboration, organization and passion, her efforts have set forth the very foundation for community resiliency throughout Monterey County.
Gold Awards Awards issued from this category will be awarded to private sector organizations or public sector organizations or individuals who have shown exceptional efforts in the field of emergency management. City of Mill Valley Mill Valley is a city of 14,700 located in the Wildland-Urban Interface (WUI), where responding to a wildfire and evacuating the community during such an event a major challenge.
In an effort to educate our community about the threat and their responsibility for personal preparedness, and in an effort to test public safety response policies, we have been conducting annual evacuation exercises.
The City has conducted seven exercises. Five of these exercises targeted specific areas of the community as defined by our Mutual Threat Zone Response Plan. Historically we have pre-identified the exercise area, market the exercise to the community in that area and establish objectives to support public safety, community interface, CERT integration, EOC support, etc. The day of the exercise we activate the reverse 9-1-1 phone system, activate local sirens, place fire department resources in the exercise area, deploy law enforcement resources to simulate evacuation and traffic control, integrate CERT teams to support fire and law enforcement.
Residents are asked to participate by voluntarily evacuating to a pre-established collection point by car, foot, bike. We ask them to utilize alternate routes such as our citywide system of steps, lanes and paths. Historically we have obtained approximately 20% community participation. Another of these exercises occurred in our flood-prone area, and that exercise involved shelter-in- place, rather than evacuation. The 2014 exercise was a citywide event rather than a targeted area. One of the goals of this years exercise was to encourage residents to camp out in their back yards simulating being displaced by an earthquake. Residents were encouraged to use disaster supplies and previous training and practice before the actual event.
Recognizing that not everyone has a backyard conducive to camping we encouraged neighbors to partner and share their yards and resources. We also partnered with the Recreation Department and hosted a city-sponsored campout at our Community Center. A web site and marketing campaign was developed similar to the California Great Shakeout. We created a sign-up page for members of the community who were camping at home to register and for people to sign up to spend the night at the Community Center.
On Saturday J une 7, 2014 we hosted approximately 100 residents at our community center. CERT Teams, Fire, and Recreation staff also spent the night. A CERT rodeo of skills was set up including sidewalk CPR, utility shutoff, communications and medical triage. As part of the campout event we hosted a BBQ by our Volunteer Firefighters, had several camp games, a magician, fire rings with SMORS, and campfire song time.
The feedback from the residents was overwhelmingly positive. Not only did this event move the needle by increasing awareness of personal responsibility for preparedness, but the community of campers, ability to camp locally, be in a safe and friendly location all contributed to the overall success of this event. San Bernardino County Fire Department, Office of Emergency Services Development of a resource named the ROPE FOG: Responders Organized for Pass Emergencies (ROPE) Field Operations Guide (FOG). Designed for the coordination of Federal, State, County, Municipal and Private Sector emergency organizations responsible for restoring critical utility and transportation infrastructure in the Cajon Pass/Interstate 15 (I-15) corridor, the ROPE FOG is a 11 x 17 full color laminated spiral bound guide containing Interoperable communications guidance and templates, Cajon Pass maps, ICS forms and more. The ROPE FOG is the result of a two year planning process which involved over 100 representatives of all the stakeholder agencies and private sector partners. It was tested in September 2013 on a 200 acre fire in the Cajon pass where it was a valuable resource in the Command Post.
Raquel Vernola, City of Norwalk Raquel Vernola has been the Emergency Services Manager for the City of Norwalk since 2006. In that role she developed many preparedness and disaster training programs in her City. Three of those programs were identified as her most innovative: o Disaster Preparedness Youth Program, designed for grades 6 to 8 students in the City which includes a classroom workshop as well as role-play exercise and at-home activities. o Project SPIRIT School Preparedness Inter-Community Readiness Interagency Training: Designed to enhance the emergency response capabilities of elementary schools by assisting with planning activities, developing resources and training, and community education workshops and exercises. o Camp at Home: This is a post-earthquake recovery program that encourages stay-at- home community resilience, and neighbor-helping-neighbor collaboration.
San Ramon Valley Emergency Preparedness Citizens Corps Council (SRVEPCCC) Residential Care Facility Evacuation Training Program: Residential Care Facility Evacuation Training Six (6) Residents or less . This instruction video targets first responder and residential care facility administrators and staff. The video demonstrates the special circumstances and challenges that are present to evacuate residents and it gives staff the needed tools to take action during an emergency.
Special Recognition The Association Board creates Special Recognition Awards for unique contributions. Sharron Leaon, California Volunteers Sharron Leaon is recognized for her longtime support and dedication to CESA.
The California Emergency Services Association is proud to announce the 2014 CESA Inland Chapter Awardees
Butte County OES and PIO: OES Manager J ohn Gulserian, Office Assistant Cindy Dunsmoor and Casey Hatcher County PIO Butte County, in partnership with other County Departments and the private sector, worked together to provide drought materials and education about disaster preparedness for individuals and animals at three preparedness fairs. Numerous agencies were involved such as County Developmental Services, County Water Recourses and Conservation, Cal Fire/County Fire, Public Health, Paradise Irrigation District, South Feather Water and Power, Cal Water and from the private sector, Home Depot. As part of the outreach nearly 300 water conservation kits were given out to the public as part of the effort to teach about saving precious water. The California Emergency Services Association is proud to announce the 2014 CESA Southern Chapter Awardees
Silver Awards Silver Awards are presented to private or public sector organizations or individuals who have shown exceptional efforts in the field of emergency preparedness or in response to a specific event. San Diego County and Target Incentivize Preparedness: San Diego OES formed a partnership with Target to conduct campaigns encouraging residents to prepare for disasters by offering 2 person tents to those residents that took preparedness tips. Target provided 5,000 two-person tents as incentives for preparedness campaigns which included registering cell phones with the Countys emergency mass notification system; installing the SD Emergency smartphone application; and completing a Family Disaster Plan. Two separate campaigns in September 2013 and J anuary 2014 were an overwhelming success, realizing around a 700% increase in AlertSanDiego registrations and over a 400% increase in SD Emergency installs. Over 3,200 people claimed a tent and presented their completed Family Disaster Plan.
Claudine Jaenichen Chapman University: A Professor and design researcher at Chapman University in Orange County, Claudine researched and produced Tsunami information brochures especially designed for ten coastal cities in San Diego county. Each city-specific brochure included maps, evacuation routes, contacts and social media links and was made available at no cost to the County. The County would then pay to have the brochures printed and mailed to each resident and business within the impacted zones.
This Tsunami Inundation Zone Mailing Project was the first-ever County effort to proactively target the homes and businesses that would potentially be affected by a tsunami with local evacuation routes and information about how to prepare for and respond to tsunamis. Because of the efforts of Claudine J aenichen, the San Diego region is now significantly better equipped to prepare for, respond to and recover from a tsunami.
Special Recognition Certificates San Bernardino County Emergency Strategic Plan: The San Bernardino County Operational Area (OA) consists of 24 incorporated Cities/Towns and the County of San Bernardino, including the San Manuel Band of Mission Indians as an associate member. Due to the complexity and variety of its stakeholders the San Bernardino County OA was in need of a coordinated and strategic planning framework. Working with FEMA support, a series of planning workshops was held in 2013 and 2014, resulting in the creation of the Emergency Management Strategic Plan. The finished Plan allows for the coordination and alignment of Emergency Management planning efforts to achieve overall consistency across the OA, and promises a resilient future through partnerships committed to saving lives and reducing the impacts of disasters.
Carl Hankey Elementary School, Mission Viejo: Global Engage, an annual event where International Baccalaureate (IB) schools worldwide unite through a challenge, is a series of lessons woven around a globally significant common theme. Carl Hankey K-8 School, the only public (IB) candidate school in Southern Orange County, kicked off its Global Engage: Disaster Reduction challenge on Wednesday, Sept. 25, 2013. This was the first Global Engage event to be held in Orange County.
The California Emergency Services Association is proud to announce the 2014 CESA Coastal Chapter Awardees
Bill Singer Award Tami Bartolomei, OES Program Manager for Mendocino County
Coordination of the State's first county drought task force and working with a multitude of partners, support to MCSO following an officer killed on duty, support of CERT and obtaining supplies to support remote communities, delivering out-reach presentations, coordinating a disaster planning workshop and all in her first year.
John Fetz Award Dave J effries, J effries Public Safety Consulting, CESA Coastal Chapter President
Dave was elected onto the Coastal Chapter Board as President without prior experience serving on a CESA Board. He has worked tirelessly to keep the Coastal Chapter organized, encourage membership, and ensure successful quarterly work-shops. In addition, he serves as the State Association Treasurer and has set up a renewed structure for reviewing and organizing CESAs finances for smoother ongoing management.
Diamond Award Kim Cox, Emergency Services Manager, Contra Costa Health Services
Kim actually received two separate nominations. Both nominations focused on her efforts in leading the team with a focus on peoples with disabilities and the elderly, development of a Medical Needs Shelter Operations Manual, developing and conducting a table top exercise to test that manual, worked with durable medical equipment providers to support these efforts, and developed procedures and partnerships to support sheltering or sheltering in place of these vulnerable populations.
Silver Awards Cindy Henderson, Emergency Services Manager, Del Norte County Office of Emergency Services
While recognized generally for her whole community efforts and for being a strong force in emergency management in her area, she was specifically recognized for her efforts in leading her team through a full scale EOC exercise with We-bEOC integration for the Cascadia Zone exercise and in developing her communities towards resiliency. Not helping enough on the job, Cindy also works as a life flight EMT and maintenance of her own emergency management website.
Paula Doubleday, Board Member, Dominican Black Canyon Neighborhood Association
Paula was recognized for her neighborhood efforts in San Rafael. She is a trainer in CERT, Get Ready 5th Grade and Get Ready and has worked with her neighbors to develop resiliency through social media, websites, newsletters, lawn signs and banners while recruiting block captains, developing information sharing processes and developed simplified preparedness steps for her community.
Alameda County GIS in Disasters Initiative
This effort resulted in the integration of real time incident data into existing GIS layers prepopulated with hazard, geological, structural, infrastructure and demographic information that aid EOC Sections in visually observing and managing re-sponse and recovery efforts.