It’s just before 9 a.m. on Saturday, and 83-year-old Richmond resident Francie Koehler is calm as she darts around her May Valley home, collecting various essentials — her purse, car keys, a bottle of water.
“What else, what else?” She says to herself as her dog, Oreo, circles around her feet.
Koehler glances at her phone, which now displays the time, 9:02 a.m., along with a text alert. “THIS IS A TEST,” it reads. “The RICHMOND EVACUATION DRILL begins now.”
Leashing up Oreo, she heads out the door to join nearly 300 East Richmond residents who signed up to participate in a large-scale emergency evacuation drill organized by District 4 city council member Soheila Bana.
The drill, which aimed to simulate the experience of having to flee a major public emergency such as a wildfire, included residents of the May Valley, El Sobrante Hills, Greenbriar, Carriage Hills North/South and Castro Heights neighborhoods — areas that are particularly at risk of a wildland fire due to their proximity to acres of hilly wooded remote spaces.
The drill was the third in three years. Bana, in partnership with Richard Diaz, the city’s manager of the Office of Emergency Services, and Aaron Osorio, Richmond’s fire chief, brought together multiple agencies, including CON Fire, Community Emergency Response Training (CERT) volunteers, EBMUD, and the West Contra Costa County Fire Safe Council to simulate emergency response protocols and educate the public on disaster preparedness.
“In the past, when we’ve done these, they were more focused on the community side of it,” Osorio said. “This is probably the most in-depth one we’ve done…We wanted to kind of knock the cobwebs off as we go into a peak fire season.”
California’s wildfire season begins in June and continues through late November. In the East Bay hills, neighborhoods are particularly vulnerable due to a combination of factors, including winds, warmer temperatures, and proximity to undeveloped land, areas known as the wildland urban interface.
“We know that if we have a large-scale wildfire, it’s most likely going to be in that area,” said Osorio.
Earlier this spring, California recorded its second-worst snowpack on record, a potentially troubling signal ahead for fire season, according to a CalMatters report, which said this could herald an early fire season in the mountains.
Last year, the state updated its fire risk maps to remove Point Richmond and designate increased hazards in East Richmond neighborhoods. Homes in May Valley, Carriage Hills, Greenbriar, Castro Heights and unincorporated El Sobrante abut undeveloped areas with wild vegetation, including Sobrante Ridge, Kennedy Grove, and Wildcat Canyon, parks that are managed by the East Bay Regional Parks District (EBRPD).
The parks district works to mitigate the fire risk by reducing flammable material by burning it or removing it and by getting rid of invasive species, but wildfire prevention is still a collective effort, fire and parks officials say.
5 emergency evacuation tips
- Have a go-bag containing essentials you or your pets can’t live without, such as: water, non-perishable snacks, a first aid kit, medication, a change of clothes, a hand-written list of important phone numbers, extra device chargers and a power bank.
- Download important documents such as your homeowner’s insurance information and pet vaccination records.
- Have a transportation plan in mind. If you drive, does your car always have gas? Can you offer a neighbor who doesn’t drive a lift?
- Know where your local evacuation zone is or take note of other public buildings where you could take refuge in. Make sure your family members know where to go.
- Sign up for Richmond Nixle alerts and the county’s alert system so you will be notified that an evacuation is taking place.
For more resources, visit Contra Costa Fire.
“Our parks are adjacent to thousands of individual homes,” said EBRPD General Manager Max Korten at a recent public workshop. “As we do this work to reduce fires in our park, we’re relying on our neighbors to do that work outside their homes.”
That is one of the reasons Bana feels it was imperative to have this drill.
“We need to educate people,” she said. “This is about raising public awareness.”
Bana has been particularly concerned with disaster preparedness during her term. In response to concerns about illegal fireworks, she formed an ad hoc committee to collaborate with the fire department and other agencies, and she heads the West Contra Costa County Fire Safe Council, a nonprofit dedicated to wildfire education and prevention countywide.
According to Bana, the drill was to give residents a chance to practice how to evacuate their homes during an emergency and for the various agencies to practice their responses.
“[We are] making sure interagency collaboration is at its best, and to tell people about other emergency preparedness, like CERT, emergency communication, and to increase enrollment in (community alert systems) Nixle and CWS,” she said.
Nixle is used by cities to communicate time-sensitive information, via text or email. Residents must register to receive alerts.
CWS, on the other hand, is a countywide emergency alert system. Alerts can be issued only after a county official, a police officer, fire chief, or the county health officer, has made a request. And Bana said it’s not always a quick process.
“The city manager in Orinda was saying that, based on their experience, it takes 26 minutes to actually activate it,” she said.
During last year’s East Richmond drill, the CWS alert was delayed several minutes. This year, however, the notification came on time.
“It went well,” Diaz told Richmondside. “For the community, this is extremely important… they learn the importance of understanding what their evacuation zone is, and how to find it. And just to get that familiarization with emergency alerts coming to their phone, are they registered, is there something wrong with their phone?” he said.
It took just 10 minutes for Koehler to drive from her home to the parking lot of Hilltop mall, the designated evacuation point for residents of May Valley. It didn’t take long because the drill didn’t involve every single resident. In a real emergency, where thousands might be trying to evacuate simultaneously, the drive would likely take much longer.
“If everybody’s to evacuate at once there will be horrible traffic, right?” Bana said.
From Koehler’s home to Hilltop mall, Google Maps displayed three possible routes. In an emergency, it is easy to picture a traffic jam. The Fire Safe Council has developed a traffic simulation to forecast driving times based on a resident’s address. According to the simulation, if Koechler were to leave just 10 minutes later than her neighbor, her evacuation time would triple.
“Another issue is there are many elderly people, disabled (and) without transportation,” Bana said. “How are they going to evacuate?”
As a solution, Bana suggests the city could coordinate with the Center for Elders’ Independence in El Sobrante, which has shuttles that could transport residents with mobility challenges.
“Maybe there can be a buddy system for everyone who is disabled, elderly and/or low vision,” said one elderly participant, who only gave her first name, Susan. “A phone call would have helped me because my age and low vision was a factor in my not seeing the (evacuation) email.”
East Richmond residents see Oakland hills, Los Angeles fires as lessons
For many East Richmond residents, the wildfire danger is a growing concern.
“People are very aware of the fire risk,” said Marian Williams, Koehler’s neighbor and a member of the Fire Safe Council. “The whole city of Richmond is really in danger, at risk of any kind of emergency.”
In the week leading up to the drill, Williams went door-to-door distributing flyers, which is how Koehler first heard that it was happening.
“I didn’t know anything about it until Marian came to my door,” she said.
Koehler, who’s lived in May Valley since 1984, hadn’t considered fire a major threat until last year, when the Palisades and Altadena neighborhoods of Los Angeles were devastated in a historic blaze.
“I wasn’t concerned about wildfire risk until what happened in L.A., and that made everyone pay attention,” she said.
According to Khari Helae, assistant fire chief at EBRPD, the 1991 firestorm in the Oakland hills, known as the Tunnel Fire, which killed 25 people and destroyed thousands of homes, was a wake-up call for all of the East Bay.
“It shifted our focus to prevention,” Helae said at the park district’s public workshop, held May 27 to update the community. “Now we have 24 members of the fire department dedicated to just fuel reduction alone.”
Williams, who has lived in May Valley since 2000, believes drills are important for building community.
“We need to be strong and resilient and I think [this drill] is a great way to do that,” she said. “We can’t rely on first responders alone, they are too thinly staffed. We have to be prepared and we have to be strong.”
The fire departments, OES, and city council will use what they learned from this year’s event to determine how to move forward with public education. Bana hopes to one day have a larger, more comprehensive drill that integrates the city of Richmond and Contra Costa County.
When Koehler arrived at the evacuation zone she was greeted by CERT volunteers handing out snacks and bottles of water. Each participating agency had a tent set up where participants could learn about various aspects of emergency preparedness and wildfire prevention: what to include in a go-bag or first aid kit; tips for preparing their home and yards; and maps with evacuation zones and gathering points of interest such as community centers and parks.
She spoke with fire officials who were available to answer questions about fire safety. And there was a place for residents to sign up for home inspections, which Koehler did. She is concerned about some Monterey pines she has growing in her backyard.
By the end of the morning, Koehler left the event with a stack of informational packets and a plan to create a go-bag.
“I’m glad I did it,” Koehler said. “I’m just more informed. I have some resources now that I didn’t have. That’s what it boils down to.”
Great article. Richmond City Council Member, Soheila Bana and Richmond OES Director, Richard Diaz should get special recognition for their leadership in planning and conducting this extensive evacuation exercise.