COUNTYWIDE : McCarthy Inspects Quake Preparations

On a statewide swing to research earthquake preparedness, Lt. Gov. Leo T. McCarthy met with Orange County emergency officials Thursday to discuss the adequacy of their communications systems, field training and long-term care for disaster victims.

McCarthy said he has visited seven other local emergency response teams around California and he is planning to use the information to prepare legislation that will improve the state’s disaster preparedness.

“We’re not going to grade here,” he told about a dozen officials in Orange County’s underground emergency command center in Santa Ana. “We’re here as emergency officials trying to talk to each other about the needs that we have in protecting the public.”

McCarthy, a Democrat who is running for reelection, has focused on emergency preparedness since he was caught in the Bay Area earthquake last fall. With Gov. George Deukmejian in Germany at the time, McCarthy was the acting governor in the first critical hours of the state’s response.

“We appreciate down here in the trenches being able to talk directly to the state,” said Chris Boyd, the county emergency manager. “Sometimes going through normal channels, things get lost.”

One issue discussed at the meeting was the need for emergency teams to be able to communicate in several languages.

Marcia Thompson of the county’s General Services Agency said the emergency network of broadcast stations includes one Spanish-language television station in Orange County. But county officials acknowledged that they don’t have capabilities in many languages, especially in the Asian community.

Another official said the county is relying on a 1979 study of its linguistic profile to determine what languages are needed.

McCarthy said emergency teams in San Francisco found that 20% of the earthquake victims did not speak English or had physical problems that hampered communication.

He also said San Francisco’s experience proved that governments need to be better prepared for long-term care of earthquake victims.

Larry Leaman, director of Orange County’s Social Services Agency, said there are still victims of the San Francisco earthquake being housed in Alameda County shelters.

“I think the Bay Area quake was an eye-opener for many of us,” Leaman said. “It’s not a matter of providing housing for just a couple of nights.”

McCarthy said those left homeless after the San Francisco earthquake were not only the indigent. As in affluent Orange County, he warned that many families “are three paychecks away from bankruptcy” and could be devastated by an earthquake.

McCarthy also encouraged local officials to conduct surprise field tests of their disaster response networks. He said it is not necessarily a valid test if the hospitals and response teams are warned days ahead of time.