Two years before the attacks on New York City’s Twin Towers brought the threat of terrorism home to ordinary Americans, the City of San José had begun planning for emergencies on a similar scale.
Back in 1997, San José was asked to participate in a federal terrorism preparedness program. Six years later and thanks to the efforts of Frances Edwards-Winslow, San José’s emergency services director, this northern California city is ready for nearly any disaster. In fact, San José’s terrorism response plan is now presented as a model for other cities across the nation.
San José’s police department, the fire department, the school district and the citizens of the city all have been trained to work together in the event of a disaster. Also key are millions of dollars in federal and city funding combined that has been spent over the last six years on training and even on caches of antibiotics and other specialized equipment.
Under the Office of Safety in Schools, San José and some surrounding school districts in Santa Clara County have plans in place to deal with a widescale crisis. Buildings and classrooms are equipped with intrusion alarms that stay operational even when other systems might be down.
To test these procedures and technologies, the Office of Safety in Schools has twice coordinated large-scale exercises where parents, students, teachers, the police department, fire department and other groups all participate in a shooting scenario to train and evaluate how to respond in a school shooting or terrorist attack.
But when it comes to the safety of an entire city, even ordinary residents must play a part. To date, more than 1,300 residents of San José have already become effective assets in an emergency through “San José Prepared!,” the city’s Community Emergency Response Training (CERT) program.
The innovative community education effort, developed and produced by the Office of Emergency Services, has taught hundreds of citizens what to do if parts of the city should get cut off during an earthquake, flood or other disaster.
For more information on “San José Prepared!” and the other programs mentioned in this story, please visit the websites listed above.