FAILED SAN FRANCISCO OFFICE OF EMERGENCY SERVICE (12/26/07)
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The recent 58,000 gallon bunker fuel spill in the San Francisco Bay revealed to some of us well versed with logistics and Emergency Service that the present San Francisco, Office of Emergency Services (OES) is incompetent to address any basic critical major disaster because of lack of expertise and leadership.
Mayor Gavin Newsom can talk the talk but when it come to walking the walk - he chose to abandon the post and travel to Hawaii with his significant other. Then he comes back and started back biting and casting aspersions against the United States Coast Guard. The SF Office of Emergency Services has surrounded itself with mostly White inept folks that have a habit to pat themselves on the back and so far have offered no methodology less concrete plan to help San Franciscans - in time of Emergency. The SF OES does not have the necessary equipment or the required tools to do any basic assessment. In the future if we have a situation linked to Radiological Contamination the SF OES is not prepared. Our first response agencies the SF Fire Department and our SF Police Department have no one trained in disasters where huge bunker or any oil spill occurs on land, the Ocean or the Bay. We have no helicopter or basic equipment to help evaluate any situation of the above mentioned nature. We have not learned from many past occurrences with the California State agencies NOT to put any faith in the slow communication and less plan of action coming from Sacramento. Our SF OES does not have anyone with past institution history and the Mayor and other SF City Department heads failed to address the focused issues but chose to use volunteers to do clean up beaches and other areas not related to the 58,000 bunker fuel clean up. Hazardous materials clean up training should NOT to be taken lightly and the 4 hour basic training in something we should not engage in - ever again. We should now training volunteers and given them the required 40 hour training and further sponsor volunteer with proved tenacity and endurance to get certified with expertise training in radiological, hazardous material, and other toxic spills. Specialized ships equipped to scoop up bunker and other fuel are not available and this shortage will come to haunt us in the future. The heavy Cargo traffic and the major Oil Refineries call for the best equipment in numbers to address any future oil spill calamities. The First People respect Mother Earth - the strangers love to pollute and then think about haphazard clean up. Much marine life suffered due to the present bunker fuel spill and the environment will suffer for years to come. It is critical that we monitor our environment and more with the Precautionary Principle in place. The Big One will put to test the SF OES once again and poorer sections of San Francisco such as Bayview Hunters Point will be left to fend for themselves. There is no diversity at the SF OES - so far they have been patting themselves on the back and left to these inept folks - much of San Francisco will be shafted. Our Unified Command needs much to be addressed and we must have a well trained and robust team of experts here in San Francisco ready to go and address any future emergency situation at a moment's notice. This time around the SF OES failed miserably and has no clue as to the logistics and expertise needed to address a huge bunker fuel calamity. It is critical that language be incorporated to demand leadership take charge - the behavior of the Mayor in this incident - deliration of duty borders on crime. The immature Mayor Gavin Newsom was given a pass this time but the second time around such deliration of duty should call for punishment nothing short of jail time. |
