Local volunteers gathered at Napa’s First United Methodist Church on Tuesday for a disaster drill training coordinated by Community Action Napa Valley.
During the training, volunteers simulated setting up an emergency volunteer center following the aftermath of a 7.5 magnitude earthquake along the Rodgers Creek fault.
About a dozen people worked as emergency volunteer center coordinators, and another half dozen played the role of citizens coming in off the street wanting to volunteer.
Each “citizen” was asked to fill out a disaster service worker registration form before being interviewed on what skills they could offer during the disaster. The skills needed during such an emergency were wide-ranging — from knowing first aid or being bilingual to being able to do data entry or debris removal. The coordinators would then match those skills with volunteer opportunities with various agencies, such as the Red Cross or the Napa Valley Food Bank.
Wayne Lipps, who has worked as a general contractor for 30 years, was a volunteer citizen who was offering help with any work involving manual labor.
During Tuesday’s training, Lipps recalled helping people trapped in buildings during the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake. Lipps had been working with a crew on the second floor of a building in San Francisco when the earthquake struck.
Lipps said he had heard about Napa’s disaster drill training during a neighborhood block party.
“I thought this would be a good thing to volunteer for because I might be able to help,” he said.
Within about an hour and a half, the coordinators were able to establish reception and assignment tables and process the paperwork for almost all of the volunteers.
At the end of the training, Kevin Twohey, Napa County’s emergency services coordinator, addressed all of the participants on what went right, what went wrong and how operations could be improved.
“You did a great job,” Twohey said. “You were strangers less than two hours ago, but you came in here and you made it work.”
Some areas for improvement included having better data tracking of volunteers and cutting down on the lag time between receiving a volunteer assignment and getting out the door.
Two of the biggest challenges during a disaster are communication and lack of manpower, Twohey said. Public safety workers will already be committed in other roles, which is why an emergency volunteer center is a “critical piece” in the county’s response, he said.
Katie Meehan-Rubin, the program director for Community Action Napa Valley’s volunteer center, said the ultimate goal is to have 15 to 20 volunteers in each of Napa County’s towns, so that each city — from American Canyon to Calistoga — can quickly establish an emergency volunteer center in the event of a disaster.
The last time the Volunteer Center of Napa Valley had to activate during an actual emergency was during the flooding in 2005 and 2006, Meehan-Rubin said. The volunteer center deployed more than 350 volunteers over a 10-day period, she said.
Julie DeSoto, who worked as one of the volunteer coordinators, said she thought Tuesday’s drill went “really well,” but admitted that responding to an actual disaster would be a much more emotional experience.
During such an event, DeSoto said she would do whatever the volunteer center asked of her.
“We all have to chip in and help those who can’t help themselves sometimes,” she said.
For DeSoto, one of the benefits in participating in the disaster drill was getting peace of mind.
“It’s less scary when you know someone’s come up with a really good plan,” she said.