This story from the Sacramento News and Review of January 12th is disheartening, but sadly seems to fit the perceptions of most folks, that public leadership is really not doing much about the potential flooding that will occur here.
Some CSUS students uncovered the apparent truth behind the press releases.
Here are excerpts.
SN&R January 12, 2006 Essay
The runaround
For all the talk of flood preparedness, CSUS grad students find a failure to communicate
By the students of Sociology 238 and Professor Kevin Wehr.
We were astonished to read SN&R’s recent feature story reporting that city and county officials claimed that “the city is well-protected by a net of agencies working closely and cooperatively.”
As dedicated environmental- sociology students, we collectively decided to investigate Sacramento’s flood preparedness on our own after the Katrina debacle. We contacted local agencies to obtain evacuation plans and guidelines; information on flood risk and environmental impacts; and information on overall city and county readiness, including their ability to cooperate--which clearly was New Orleans officials’ fatal flaw.
If our local Sacramento agencies really believe they are “working closely and cooperatively,” then these agencies need schooling in “cooperation.”
After weeks of phone calls, e-mails, on-site visits, Web searches and attending those much-heralded public forums, we’ve concluded that the left hand has no idea what the right hand is doing. Sacramento is literally going to drown in bureaucracy and the “good job, Brownie” undercurrent being used to appease public concern and bolster confidence. This is as worrisome as the risk of an actual disaster.
After several weeks of effort, the authors have yet to find out what exactly Sacramento’s disaster plan is, what it looks like, where it is, if the public can access it, and who is in charge of it. One student’s phone call to the Sacramento Area Flood Control Agency (SAFCA) to get the city’s “evacuation plan” was redirected to “your local fire or sheriff’s department, as they are the first responder.” SAFCA insisted that because it wasn’t a first responder, it had no information on evacuation plans. What? The flood agency has no information on evacuation plans? OK, we’ll follow the bureaucratic trail: Subsequent calls by students to local fire and sheriff’s offices resulted in numerous other redirects. One student’s request for the plan resulted in the Office of Emergency Services sending a booklet on personal preparedness with no mention of the city’s plan. Our investigations concluded that: (1) The city’s “multihazard plan” is not available to the public for fear of terrorist use; (2) the plan is currently under revision, and the existing two bound volumes are available at libraries for the public to review; (3) the plan was updated in the spring of this year--but no one knows where it is; and (4) there is a three-volume set of the plan from the 1970s, which is available at the library.
Not to be deterred, some of us decided to visit our local first responder: the fire station. The very polite fireman said that evacuation plans for the city are not the fire department’s responsibility; it only assists with rescues. He said the police department handles evacuation plans. Inquiries to the police and the sheriff both were met with non-responses. Perhaps they are busy dealing with jailhouse-abuse allegations.
