October 7, 2004

San Jose’s Office of Emergency Services lauded at national level

Coordinates successful San Jose Prepared! Program

Editor’s Note: The following is the 12th article in an ongoing series about the city’s departments and appointed officials. Next week: San Jose Fire Chief Jeffrey L. Clet.

By Sheila Sanchez
Staff Writer

San Jose’s Emergency Operations Center (EOC) resembles the scene of a movie about disasters plastered with various posters and photographs of every possible catastrophe that could strike the city.

Civil unrest, dam failure, earthquakes, floods, hazardous material accidents, insect pest infestations, power failures, heat waves, transportation accidents, biological, chemical and nuclear warfare and terrorism are some of the adversities depicted on its walls.

San Jose’s Office of Emergency Services Director Frances L. Edwards shows a map of the feared San Andreas Fault system in Northern California. Photo by Sheila Sanchez

The woman wearing the crisis expert hat is Frances L. Edwards, who has been director of San Jose’s Office of Emergency Services (OES) for more than 12 years, reporting directly to San Jose City Manager Del D. Borgsdorf, the top city executive.

“I enjoy everything about my job,” said the 40-something Edwards. “I’m extremely fortunate to work in an organization where our elected officials are very supportive of emergency management. It’s a rare gift because in many communities that is not the case.”

The OES develops and maintains the 200-plus-page citywide emergency operations plan, approved by the San Jose City Council in August. It also coordinates disaster response with the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and the state Office of Emergency Services and maintains and activates the EOC, a central command post vital during emergency situations.

In addition, the OES monitors federal and state legislation that directly impacts the provision of emergency services to the community. In conjunction with the city’s Office of Intergovernmental Relations, the OES develops recommendations on legislative policy and positions for city council adoption, monitoring legislative or regulatory actions to ensure that city concerns are addressed.

The OES is also an active participant in the Santa Clara County Emergency Managers Association (EMA) and serves as staff to the city’s representative on the Santa Clara County Emergency Planning Committee (EPC). FEMA’s Emergency Management Assistance funds are allocated to Santa Clara County cities through the EPC on the advice of the EMA.

The OES also provides disaster planning and recovery assistance to city departments and delivers state-mandated Standardized Emergency Management System (SEMS) classes to city employees, EOC staff and elected officials. The system relies on a series of proven strategies that allow emergency personnel to respond to disaster situations with a clear and consistent organizational structure.

The OES also coordinates terrorism response-related activities of various departments and delivers terrorism awareness training to city employees.

The OES sponsors the San Jose Radio Amateurs in Civil Emergency Service (RACES) program that uses a group of more than 100 volunteer ham radio operators to augment the city’s communications capabilities during emergencies. It is an official data collector for the National Weather Service and sponsors a “weather spotters” group.

For security reasons, Edwards wants the OES location kept confidential. Suffice it to say it’s somewhere in downtown, strategically sharing office space with the city’s police and fire dispatch center and the San Jose Police Department’s Bureau of Field Operations with a budget of $220,000 and a staff of three people, including Edwards.

Opened in 1990, the EOC features more than a dozen computers, GIS mapping capabilities, an overhead projector and a large screen to view television and computer images. It can also retrieve pictures from the city’s traffic cameras to monitor road conditions in case of a calamity.

Not entirely outdated, it needs additional technology to keep up with the emergency demands of a city of almost 1 million people as it was built when San Jose’s population was around 600,000. It also needs more space. Edwards hopes to qualify for FEMA grants in the future to have state-of-the art telecommunications capabilities that provide flexibility, sustainability, security, survivability and interoperability.

In the meantime, the center’s planning and intelligence, management and emergency public information sections use other conference rooms in the building. When an emergency occurs, the center is activated and becomes the place where crisis experts convene to help the city face the unknown.

Emergency specialists have recognized the city for having one of the best terrorism response plans in the country.

Under Edwards’ leadership, the city has also completed plans for seven of eight federally identified disasters and continues to coordinate with the Santa Clara Valley Water District and the SJPD to update the dam failure plan.

The city has also spent about $1.4 million on everything from antibiotics and antidotes to training classes on treating large numbers of casualties in case of a weapons of mass destruction attack. “I think preparedness isn’t a station, but a journey,” she said of the efforts.

Edwards is the director of the city’s Metropolitan Medical Task Force (MMTF), a federal terrorism response unit that includes police, fire, medical, coroner, mental health and OES personnel. She’s also the point of contact person for the Urban Area Security Initiative (UASI) for the city, which funnels federal dollars to assist with region wide planning and coordination for all hazards, with an emphasis of terrorism. The region includes the city, Santa Clara County and the three southern counties of San Benito, Monterrey and Santa Cruz.

Edwards believes residents are a critical link to community disaster preparedness. Through the San Jose Prepared! Program—a part of the national Community Emergency Response Team—the OES strives to bring emergency preparedness and planning capacity into every city neighborhood. During fiscal year 2003-04, it’s estimated that 33 percent of the city’s neighborhoods, including 52 percent of the 19 Strong Neighborhood Initiative neighborhoods, have San Jose Prepared! teams.

“People can take constructive efforts to enhance their own safety and we encourage them to be our partners in surveillance in the community,” she said.

San Jose began a version of the OES in the 1950s, under the Office of Civil Defense, during the Cold War when the threat of radiological warfare was high. The city’s original emergency operations center was built on Mission Street and was a bunker-style building designed to withstand the blast of an atomic bomb with air scrubbers and water storage. Vital documents were stored there and it featured an amateur radio communications system.
In 1988, the city outgrew the old EOC and began to plan the building where the center is now located.

“It was a tremendous improvement because of all the wonderful technology that was built into this building,” said Edwards.

A year later, the devastating Loma Prieta earthquake was managed out of the old EOC as the new building was under construction. At that time, a study conducted by city officials was presented to the city council which recommended removing the OES from the city’s fire department and into the city manager’s office. “They recognized that emergency management is much like budget management. It’s an executive function that involves every department equally across the city,” Edwards explained.

In 1991, Edwards’ position was created and she was chosen for the job. Being under the city manager’s office allows Edwards full cooperation and coordination from city officials to serve the community when disasters happen.

Prior to 1991, Edwards worked as the director of emergency services in Irvine. She moved to San Jose for family reasons.

The mother of two said the most difficult part of her job is balancing priorities because emergency management work is extremely broad. She manages federal grants. She helps teach participants in the San Jose Prepared program and she’s also a member of the city’s senior staff, which requires her participation in budget planning and other citywide activities.

About the threat of domestic terrorism and living in a post-9/11 world, she said, “It’s challenging and it’s something that we’re constantly aware of. I probably spend the majority of my personal time as well as my work time reading and studying to be better prepared.”

Edwards’ worst disaster fear for the city is severe flooding, which occurred in the county in the winter of 1982. So severe was that rainstorm that the state governor at the time issued a state of emergency declaration and the president issued a declaration of a major disaster for public assistance.

The rainstorm buffeted the northwest and southern parts of the county damaging more than 600 homes, 89 businesses and costing more than $14 million in damages. The devastation primarily affected the northerly portions of San Jose, including Alviso. The banks overflowed along the lower reaches of Coyote Creek and Guadalupe River.

“The public doesn’t realize it, but flooding happens frequently, with little notice because of short-water courses making flooding difficult to anticipate until a short time before it happens,” she said.

To be prepared, the OES works closely with the Alviso Water Taskforce and relies heavily on its San Jose Prepared! volunteers. “We typically have no notion that we’re going to have floods until maybe half an hour before it happens.”

The city’s winter storm season, which begins Dec. 15, becomes a challenge for the OES. In the fall, Edwards makes sure her staff is trained by having table top exercises at the EOC creating different scenarios and working with community emergency response team members who activate their neighborhood phone trees if necessary.

Edwards has worked in the field of emergency management for 18 years and has a doctoral degree in public administration. She’s a certified trainer in many Department of Defense weapons of mass destruction and terrorism courses.

For more information on the Office of Emergency Services, call (408) 277-4595 or log onto www.sanjoseca.gov/oes. For more information about San Jose Prepared! call (408) 277-4598 or log onto www.sjprepared@ci.sj.ca.us.