Weblogs – Page 8 – Lucien Canton CEM

Category: Weblogs

We’re all doomed! Oh, wait…maybe not.

Posted on May 29, 2018November 27, 2025 by Lucien Canton | Posted in Weblogs

We had a small temblor here in the San Francisco Bay Area a few weeks ago, a 3.5 magnitude earthquake (We joke that we use these low-magnitude earthquakes to stir our coffee). Nevertheless, it did raise a bit of concern. One commenter on Facebook posted that the earth was moving under the Kilauea volcano, that eruption was imminent, and that it would spawn a 100-foot tsunami in Hawaii, with a wall of water 100 feet high hitting California within 5 hours. He claimed the source was the USGS.

Over the years I’ve grown a bit weary of correcting a lot of the nonsense that passes for news on Facebook, but I made an exception in this case and double checked the USGS Volcano Hazards, Pacific Tsunami Warning Center, and the Hawaii Office of Civil Defense sites. As expected, there was no such warning and I posted a pithy message squelching the rumor.

The problem with this type of misinformation is that there is sometimes a kernel of truth at its core and people frequently confuse possibility and probability.

Is a mega-tsunami possible in Hawaii? There is evidence in the geological record that the Hawaiian Islands have suffered over 70 collapses over the past 20 million years that spawned large tsunamis. Kilauea is moving, with the last shift of 10 centimeters occurring in 2000. Scientists project that a collapse of Kilauea would spawn a tsunami like the one described by my nervous friend: 300-meter waves locally and 30-meter waves striking the West Coast. Fortunately, the probability of such an event occurring in the immediate future is low. Don't cancel your Hawaiian vacation.

How do we counter this type of misinformation? I wish I had a good answer. I think all we can do is to try to educate people on where to find accurate information and try to correct bad information when we find it. Unfortunately, people are quick to pass on misinformation without double checking it and don’t always pass on the corrections, so it’s a never ending and thankless task. But then, who ever said our job was easy?

Disasters Create Emotional Connections With Future Generations

Posted on April 26, 2018November 27, 2025 by Lucien Canton | Posted in Weblogs

Lotta's Fountain 1905

Catastrophic events leave their mark on a city for generations. I'm not talking about physical damage, although that may be part of it, but rather the memories ingrained on the psyche of the citizens. For us in San Francisco, THE disaster is the 1906 earthquake and fires that destroyed most of the city. The Loma Prieta earthquake in 1989 is remembered and is enshrined in the State's earthquake month in October but it pales in comparison with the feelings and emotional connection generated by it's predecessor.

Just how deep this emotional connection runs was demonstrated last week when my former boss and past Mayor of San Francisco, Willie Brown, suggested renaming Lotta's Fountain in honor of Mayor Ed Lee, who died in office last year. Mayor Lee was well liked and respected and prior to his election had been instrumental in restoring the fountain. The response to Brown's suggestion was a public uproar, the like of which has not been seen for a while here.

To understand the reason behind this vehement response, you need to know a bit of San Francisco history. Charlotte Crabtree, fondly known as "Lotta", was a singer and entertainer who got her start in San Francisco during the Gold Rush Era as a neighbor of the famous dancer and actress, Lola Montez. She went on to become the highest paid actress in America at the height of her fame in the 1880's. In 1875, she commissioned the fountain as a gift to the City of San Francisco. Following the 1906, earthquake, the fountain became a meeting point for survivors and, beginning in 1919, the site of an annual commemoration that continues to this day.

One would think that renaming the fountain was do big deal. The last earthquake survivors, who were actually in the womb at the time of the earthquake, died in 2015 and many newcomers to San Francisco have no idea of the significance of the fountain. But many who grew up here remember and came forward to protest the renaming. Brown very wisely back pedaled on the suggestion. It was a humbling lesson in how disasters can create emotional connections even after the passing of many years.

Wine Country Fires may lead to needed legislation.

Posted on January 29, 2018 by Lucien Canton | Posted in WeblogsLeave a Comment

We tend to think of disasters as the immediate response: the need for rescue, sheltering, emergency medical treatment and so forth. But this is just the initial part of a very long process. The true test is how a community recovers from an event, a process that can take years. Unfortunately, recovery issues don’t always receive the same attention as do response issues. It is heartening therefore to see the legislators in California focusing on both.

Major disasters inevitable spawn legislative debate. On rare occasions, that debate may result in constructive legislation. This may be the case in California where legislators are debating the response issue of emergency warning and notification and the recovery-related insurance issues following last year’s Wine Country fires.

One of the controversies that emerged from the fires was the decision by one county not activate a system that would have provided a wireless alert warning to a large segment of the population. The reasoning was that the warning would have gone beyond the evacuation area and could have impaired the evacuation and movement of fire fighting resources. Surrounding counties opted to use the system. Because the county that opted not to use the system had more deaths than the counties that did, there is considerable debate about the perceived problems with the system that were a factor in the decision-making process. The California legislature is considering the development of a statewide warning system that could be more precisely targeted by local jurisdictions than the existing one.

A second major issue is that of insurance replacement for lost or damaged items. Traditionally, insurance companies require a detailed inventory of lost items, to include the date purchased, serial numbers, and actual cost, something difficult to produce if your home is a smoking pile of rubble. The legislature is considering a proposal that would allow a homeowner to claim 80% of their allowable limit without producing an inventory or to submit an inventory for the full amount. This proposal has been around for a while but, as one would expect, is not popular with insurance companies. However, given the circumstances of the Wine Country fires, it may be an idea whose time has come.

As I mentioned, disasters often lead to debates of this type but not always to solutions. In this case, the State Office of Emergency Services has had a statewide notification system in place for years and is a participant in the Integrated Public Alert & Warning System (IPAWS), so a modified system that would meet local needs may be possible with sufficient funding. However, the much-needed insurance revisions will face stiff opposition. It will be interesting to see if the legislature has the ability to follow through on its promises.

Three Tips to Make Your Disaster Donations Count

Posted on August 31, 2017November 27, 2025 by Lucien Canton | Posted in Weblogs

Yesterday I logged onto a site from which I purchase regularly and was immediately presented with a pop-up that solicited donations for the victims of Hurricane Harvey. I’ve seen similar offers on other sites and on Facebook. This particular company is extremely reputable and I’ve no doubt that they will funnel all contributions to the intended recipients. Unfortunately, the same cannot be said of all such sites. This raises the question of how you can be sure that your donations will actually reach the people who truly need help.

Contrary to popular disaster myths, people are at their best in disasters. We have research that shows that people want to help others in disasters, even if they themselves are affected. You need look no further than the tremendous outpouring of money and goods that follow every major disaster. However, good intentions can sometimes cause more harm than good. Here’s how you can make sure that you are helping and not contributing to the problem:

Send money, not goods. Responder organizations don’t have the resources to sort, size and distribute goods such as shoes and clothing. The bulk of these types of donations end up in a landfill, many of which are already taxed by disaster debris. You’re better off donating to one of the many voluntary agencies working with the government in the response. The exception is if you are a company or organization that can ship in bulk. In this case, you can contact groups such as National VOAD or a FEMA Voluntary Agency Liaisons and Donations Specialist at a FEMA regional office to see if your goods and services are needed.
Don’t deliver goods directly to the disaster area. Loading a truck with supplies and heading to the scene of a disaster is tempting but it can put you at risk and make you one more problem for local responders. Access to disaster areas is often restricted to residents only for safety reasons and the temptation is to leave goods by the side of the road. Instead, consider volunteering with one of the many humanitarian agencies providing relief.
Make sure who is getting your money. Fraud is common after a disaster and you should be careful about to whom you give money. If you choose to not to give to national organizations such as the Red Cross, the Salvation Army or National VOAD, do your homework before giving money and watch for red flags such as only requiring cash or wire transfers or high-pressure tactics.

Any emergency manager can tell you horror stories about dealing with donated goods. I’ve seen fur coats sent to Hawaii, landfills closed as a result of the glut of donated goods, and disaster resources diverted to deal with donations that weren’t needed. Don’t be part of the problem!

San Francisco To Ban Flame-Retardant Chemicals

Posted on July 26, 2017November 27, 2025 by Lucien Canton | Posted in Weblogs

A San Francisco Supervisor has just introduced legislation to make San Francisco the first city in the US to ban flame-retardant chemicals from furniture and children’s products. It’s going to be an uphill battle.

Back in 1975 California passed a law requiring that manufacturers perform open flame tests on all their products. This quickly led to the use of chemical flame-retardants and, because of the size of California’s market, this quickly became the norm for products across the country. However, continued research has linked these flame retardants to attention problems, cancer, lowered IQ scores, hormone disruption, and reproductive disorders. They are also highly carcinogenic when exposed to flame. Blood tests on firefighters in San Francisco have shown high levels of dioxins, a carcinogenic compound released when flame-retardant chemicals catch fire. In addition, the rate of breast cancer in female firefighters in San Francisco are six times the national average for women 40 to 50 years old.

But the genie is out of the bottle and it’s going to be difficult to put it back in. For one thing, selling flame-retardant chemicals is highly profitable and the chemistry industry has vigorously resisted any attempts to scale back the law. California now requires products to be labeled if they contain flame-retardant chemicals and allows manufacturers to use flame-resistant fabrics and coverings in lieu of flame-retardant chemicals but legislators have been unable to ban flame-retardant chemicals outright.

The second issue is the one of public perception that banning flame retardant chemicals will somehow make them less safe. This is he line that the American Chemistry Council’s North American Flame Retardant Alliance is already using. They argue that removing the chemicals will remove a critical layer of fire protection. Convincing the average consumer that returning to the use of naturally flame-resistant fabrics and materials such as wool will be difficult.

To Everything There Is A Season

Posted on May 27, 2017November 27, 2025 by Lucien Canton | Posted in Weblogs

To everything, turn, turn, turn

There is a season, turn, turn, turn

And a time to every purpose under heaven

These lines were written by one of my favorite folksingers, Pete Seeger, and was a hit by the Byrds in the 60’s. Based on the Book of Ecclesiastes, the song is a reminder of the cyclical nature of life and how things follow logically from each other.

Unfortunately, this is not always a positive thing, particularly if you’re an emergency manager. For the past five years, we in California experienced a major drought. The heat damaged a lot of our vegetation, increasing the fire load in our forests and hills which in turn led to major wildfires throughout the state.

This winter, the drought broke with one of the wettest seasons on record, leading to localized flooding, the most serious being the overtopping of the Oroville dam that led to major evacuations downstream. Contributing to the severity of these floods was the lack of vegetation in burned areas to absorb and of the moisture. Most recently, major landslide caused by the denuding of a hillside by fire and drought led to the closure of Highway 1 for the foreseeable future and the isolation of several small communities along the Northern California Coast.

The cycle is not ended. The plentiful rainfall has, as one would expect, led to the explosive growth of our native vegetation. This is a time of beauty, with wildflowers blooming and our hills covered in green. But our rainy season is over; rain does not fall in California over the summer and fall months. Already our hills our starting to return to their usual shade of brown as the grasses die. The increased vegetation ultimately translates to an increased fire load. Weather predictions are for above average temperatures through June, leading to problematical fire loads in July. It’s going to be a busy fire season.

We sometimes joke that we only have two seasons in California: flood season and fire season. But we sometimes forget that the two are intricately intertwined. As emergency managers, we need to understand interrelationships such as these and consider them when we plan. In the words of another biblical folk song, “It wasn’t raining when Noah built the ark.”

Disaster Commemorations: Just What Are We Celebrating?

Posted on April 26, 2017November 27, 2025 by Lucien Canton | Posted in Weblogs1 Comment

April 18th is always a special day in San Francisco. It’s the anniversary of the 1906 earthquake and fires that in many ways mark the beginning of modern San Francisco. Our tradition has been to gather each year at Lotta’s Fountain at 5:12 AM, the time of the earthquake. Lotta’s Fountain, a gift from the singer Lotta Crabtree, was one of the sites where survivors would leave messages for each other trying to reunite with loved ones and hence a place of special significance.

The highlight of the brief ceremony was the chance to hear from survivors of the disaster. As the years went on, though, their numbers dwindled and the definition of “survivor” was stretched to include people who were still in their mothers’ wombs at the time of the earthquake. The last survivor died in January 2016 and there was concern that the ceremony might have died with him.

That, fortunately, was not the case. If anything, the celebration is morphing into something new. A crowd of some 300 or so were in attendance, many of them in costume and the atmosphere was ebullient. There was some suggestion that the event might be turning into minor street fair.

What is it about our fascination with past disasters? What are we commemorating? There’s no easy answer to these questions because events like these operate on so many levels. In our case, we remember the 3,000 dead in the disaster who for many years were denied recognition for economic reasons. We remind ourselves of how easy it is to destroy a city if we ignore obvious warnings and do not prepare. We acknowledge how far we have come in preparedness since 1906. Truth be told, many of us are just there for the fun – to drink bloody Mary’s and to mingle with people of similar interests. And, of course, to sing that great old song, "San Francisco"

I think that the 1906 commemoration, and events like it in other major cities, is not really about the disaster. I think it’s more a celebration of what came after. In each case, the cities that rose from the ashes were better and stronger. In his book, The Culture of Calamity, Kevin Rozario argues that catastrophic events have been instrumental in shaping the American commitment to progress and have frequently lead to positive change. There's a reason our city's seal bears a phoenix rising from flames. While these commemorations may seem to look to the past, they are really a celebration of the human spirit and our drive to rebuild and renew in the face of overwhelming calamity.

Social Isolation Can Kill

Posted on March 29, 2017November 27, 2025 by Lucien Canton | Posted in Weblogs

In a crisis, the provision of emergency services is a balancing act at the best of times. Our goal is to provide the best services we can to the most people given limited resources and severe time constraints. However, that goal implies that there may be people whom we are unable to help. But as the 2011 lawsuit against the city of Los Angeles affirmed, we have an obligation to provide access to our services to all citizens. This is at the core of planning for people with special needs.

One of those groups frequently overlooked are those who are socially isolated. This may include people such as the homeless, people who do not speak English, the elderly and others who have limited or no contact with their neighbors and the community. These are people who may not be reached by our normal means of communicating information such as boil water orders, evacuation warnings, or severe weather warnings. They may lack access to televisions, radios, smart phones, etc. and either not hear or not understand the message. They may a not have neighbors, friends, or relatives who could help them in a crisis.

In his study of the Chicago heat wave of 1995, Heat Wave: A Social Autopsy of Disaster in Chicago, sociologist Eric Klineberg studied two communities with identical demographics and demonstrated how social isolation was the principal factor leading to the deaths experienced by one of the communities. Many of the dead were older citizens who were afraid to leave their apartments, didn’t know where to go for help, or had no one to check on them.

A similar situation occurred recently in the evacuation of three counties in California is anticipation of the failure of the Oroville Dam spillway. The mandatory evacuation order never reached homeless camps along the Feather River, many of which were not evacuated until the next day. Those who managed to evacuate in a timelier fashion had no information about where to go or what to expect. Fortunately, the spillway did not fail and no lives were lost.

Social isolation is not a problem emergency managers can solve as it has its roots in societal failure. Nor can we solve it “on the fly” in a time of crisis; there’s not time and resources are limited. But we can rethink how we communicate critical disaster information before the event and go beyond press releases and social media. We can invite the participation of organizations that work with these populations as we formulate our emergency communications plans and make use of their resources when we need to reach out to the socially isolated.

Facebook’s Community Check Ap Raises Issues for Emergency Managers

Posted on February 23, 2017November 27, 2025 by Lucien Canton | Posted in WeblogsLeave a Comment

Social media has shown itself to be a powerful tool for community organizing after a disaster. We saw an example of it in the London riots of 2011 when hundreds of people turn out to clean up the damage. We saw other examples recently in Hurricane Sandy.

Facebook is now offering a new tool to make it easier for people to help each other in the wake of disaster. The new feature, called Community Check, is an update to Facebook’s existing Safety Check program. Safety Check was developed in 2014 to allow those potentially affected by a disaster to let friends know that they are okay. When Facebook becomes aware of a crisis, it monitors traffic in the area and, if sufficient volume is noted, activates Safety Check. The program queries people in the affected area and asks if the wish to post that they are okay.

Community Check works as part of Safety Check. People in the affected area can post needs or available resources that can then be searched by category. Once the person finds a match, they can message the other party and match needs to resources. The program is being rolled out in a few countries (including the US) over the next few months.

The concept of people helping people is not new and every emergency manager acknowledges that more people are helped by their neighbors than by first responders. Programs like Community Check merely make that process more efficient. However, it also raises some concerns that we need to consider.

What expectations might we see raised in the future? Will programs like Community Check generate the demand that public agencies monitor social media and respond to requests for aid?
Should we integrate programs like this into our planning and logistics systems and, if so, how? We are good a moving bulk goods to points of distribution but do not have the resources to move individual items directly to the end user. Does this offer a possible way to fill that gap?
Considering the potential for misuse of social media systems, who is responsible if something bad happens? Do local governments have a liability exposure by integrating with these systems?
What will be the effect of programs like Community Check on our issues with donations management?

Our emergency planning has long been based on the false belief that the most efficient way to provide disaster relief is through strong central control. Social media is a constant reminder that we are merely one voice in a discussion involving many community actors. As programs like Community Check demonstrate, people aren’t just going to sit around waiting for rescue; they’re going to be proactive and we need to decide how we can best support their efforts.

This Too Shall Pass

Posted on January 25, 2017November 27, 2025 by Lucien Canton | Posted in Weblogs

By Martin Falbisoner – Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=28253642

There’s an old fable that speaks of a king who summoned his wise men and tasked them to gather all the world’s wisdom in one place. After many years, they created a magnificent library housing the sum of all knowledge. The king the challenged them to reduce all this accumulated wisdom to a single book. Many more years passed but eventually the wise men returned to the king with a single volume containing the essence of all knowledge. The king sent them away with a new task: to distill all the world’s wisdom into a single sentence. After much deliberation, the wise men returned to the king and gave him this single sentence, “This too shall pass.”

As I see the concern and fear among my friends over the current political situation, I’m reminded of this phrase and the need to keep things in perspective. In my lifetime, I have experienced many critical events: the battle for civil rights, the Vietnam war protests, the Free Speech Movement, the domestic and international terrorism of the 70’s, to name but a few. As an emergency manager, I have seen the how natural disasters can devastate entire communities. As an amateur historian, I’ve studied the effects of wars and plagues, political unrests, economic collapse, and climate change. Yet somehow, we manage to survive and get on with our lives.

However, don’t think I’m suggesting complacency. I’m a firm believer in the quote by John Stuart Mill that, “Bad men need nothing more to compass their ends, than that good men should look on and do nothing.” I encourage you to act but make it count. Here are some things you can do:

Educate yourself on how our system of government works. We no longer teach civics in school and it’s shameful that we require more knowledge of our governmental system from immigrants seeking citizenship than we do from our own citizens.
Write your elected officials. But really take the time to write. Post card mailings and cut-and-paste emails do not carry as much weight as a personal letter. The same hold true for letters and calls to local Congressional offices rather than to their Washington DC offices.
Cultivate and educate Congressional staffers. Your representative may meet with you but he or she has a busy schedule and must be conversant with an enormous range of issues. Congressional representatives rely on their staff to analyze issues and propose legislative positions. Put your money where your mouth is.
Donate to organizations that are actively working for the change you support. Volunteer your time if you can. Stop spreading the fear. You’re wasting your time retweeting or Facebook posting bad information. If you must do so, read the actual article and not just the headline before posting. Do some fact checking on your own.

So to my many friends who are experiencing stress over the recent political change, take a deep breath and get a little perspective. This is not the end of the world. This too shall pass.