District 5 Neighborhood Disaster Plan

The Office of Emergency Services and Homeland Security, along with the Mayor’s Office on Neighborhood Services and representatives from Supervisorial District 5, are in the process of developing a Neighborhood Disaster Plan that will serve as a template to help neighborhoods within District 5 prepare to achieve a level of self-sufficiency in a disaster. Hayes Valley is one of the zones or neighborhoods in District 5 that this plan will target.

A Plan Specific to Our Neighborhood

The plan strongly encourages local residents to become actively involved in the San Francisco Fire Department’s NERT Program (Neighborhood Emergency Response Team) as a cornerstone to a prepared neighborhood. However, this Community Disaster Plan goes beyond the NERT program and establishes guidelines for how the District as a whole can devise a local response to disaster that complements the City and County of San Francisco larger (citywide) Emergency Operations Plan. When individuals and their neighborhoods are prepared to mutually assist each other immediately after a disaster, lives can be saved, property can be spared and emergency services can focus on responding to the most devastated areas.

The plan will address some of the following issues or neighborhood concerns:

• To outline how the neighborhood can organize an Emergency Preparedness Committee
• To identify disaster needs that might be unique to that community and how the neighborhood can work together to address those needs (this will involve identifying key assets in that community - facilities, organizations, personnel, etc.)
• To discuss roles that the neighborhood might play in helping the City to meet disaster needs in their community (feeding, sheltering, first aid, damage assessment, support for elderly and disabled persons, etc.)
• To provide information for how local residents can work together to improve their individual preparedness and capacity to shelter safely in place for 72-hours post disaster.

There will be a series of meetings and workgroups held to develop the plan. The first meeting was held on Wednesday, November 9 at the Office of Emergency Services, 1011 Turk Street. Representatives from HVNA were among those attending. Future meetings will be announced and added to the HVNA Calendar.