As we helplessly, hopelessly watch our family, friends and neighbors to the north grapple with the devastating wildfires consuming parts of Los Angeles we go through the checklist of things we’re supposed to do in the event it happens here.
Disaster preparedness experts advise each person in a household have a go-bag ready, a collection of necessary items an individual would need in the event they are displaced from their home for an extended period of time.
Included in the go-bag, they say, should be important documents such as identification, insurance documents and prescriptions as well as clothing, medication, food, and water. The bag should be kept near the front door or anywhere quickly and easily accessible in the event of an evacuation.
Cars should have plenty of gasoline and an escape route—or two, or three— from the immediate area should be known ahead of time.
Questions come to mind of course. What if mom and dad are at work and the kids are at school? Or, if the kids are at home alone?
What of the neighbor who lives alone and does not have immediate family in the area? Or reliable transportation to escape at a moment’s notice? Who will be responsible for their safety?
And pets, how will pets be handled and cared for in the aftermath of a catastrophe?
Perhaps most alarmingly of all we should ask, and what of the unsheltered? Who will account for and care for them when fire tears through our canyons and neighborhoods?
That question seems particularly relevant as we approach the annual Point in Time census that tallies the number of unhoused people living among us, many times in canyons, riverbeds and parks.
Last year there were 503 unsheltered people living in Chula Vista and 174 unhoused men, women and children in National City, up from 318 and 159 respectively.
South County has been fortunate to escape the devastating affects of wildfire seen in the eastern portion of the county in years past.
But as the January 2023 floods demonstrated , with natural disasters it’s not if but when they will visit us. Hopefully we’ll be prepared.
