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How Muir Could Be Set Up as a Disaster Shelter
by Paul Friedman, Red Cross Disaster Volunteer (and Computer Teacher at Muir)
Should an earthquake such as the one described in my Scenario page strike our area, Muir would be well-suited to serve as a Red Cross Disaster Shelter. We have the resources to provide for the residents in our immediate area. However, just planning the resources is not in itself enough. We need to actively plan how we will use our assets. My experiences as a Volunteer Shelter Manager for the Red Cross may provide some useful guidelines for we should use up our facilities in the event of a mass disaster.
In doing so, we need to make some assumptions. First, we need to pick a "reasonable" disaster scenario to base our plans on. We can't possibly deal with ever possible way a disaster might play out, short of turning this web page into a textbook on disaster planning. I think the earthquake described on my Scenario page is a reasonable one to play for. Earthquakes of this magnitude have happened repeatedly within the last 20 years. A larger quake is heroically possible, but not likely. Heavy rain would greatly complicate setting up a shelter, but fortunately our area is blessing with mild weather. Only a few days each year would we have to deal with extreme weather conditions. We can plan for these less likely eventualities, but the main thrust of our planning should go to preparing for more likely possibilities. If something worse happens, we'll deal with it as best we can.
The Quake Happens
Okay, assume a 7.4 magnitude earthquake has happened. The school goes through it's regular disaster procedures. The students are marched out to the field. Over the next few hours, some of the students will leave on their own, despite the best efforts of the staff. Many parents will come looking for the children, and take them home. Once the campus is mostly clearly, most staff members will want to go home as well to check on their own families. It's possible we may not be able to begin shelter operations until the day following the earthquake. People will just have to cope on their own until then.
As noted in the scenario, however, many houses in the area will suffer damage serious enough the residents will unwilling to stay in them. Lacking anywhere else to go, people will gradually drift back to the campus, looking for disaster services. At this point, the staff who have remained behind need to be prepared to accommodate community members who come to Muir. (As noted on an earlier web page, the LAUSD has entered into a formal agreement with the Red Cross to provide disaster services in the event of an earthquake.)
The following steps (loosely in this order) need to be carried out to Muir as a shelter (teams should be delegated to accomplish different portions of the list of tasks simultaneously). These steps are based on what supplies are known to be already be available in the Disaster Supplies Cargo Container on the PE Field, and elsewhere:
Setup the Handball Courts as an Administration Area
The Handball Courts are a good spot to set up the Administration Area. They are centrally located and unlikely to collapse, even in the worse earthquake. They have fences and gates to control access. They are conveniently divided into "rooms" which can be covered with large sheets of plastic that can provide limited protection from sun and rain, without posing a danger in the event of after-shocks.
The "rooms" are 20'x20' which can be neatly covered with the 20'-wide, black plastic in storage. (Secure the ends of the plastic to the outer walls with lengths of ductape.)
Sanitation
Sanitation is an essential, yet often overlooked necessity in setting up a shelter.
The restrooms in the Student Store building should be functional. The building is only one-story and, with luck, will survive undamaged. Based on my experience with earthquakes, city water will probably continue flow although its quality will be suspect. Thus, the toilets in this building should be working. Have the plant manager unlock these restrooms.
However, if they are not, two of the Handball Court partitions can be set as "restrooms." There are ten plastic buckets with toilet-seat lids in storage, as well as portable toilet chemicals to keep the smell tolerable. Don't forget to set out toilet paper. The restrooms can be given minimal privacy my stretching ropes across the open sides of the restroom areas, and hanging plastic tarps from the ropes. Eventually we hope to get cardboard "privacy stalls" from LAUSD. People can also use the area as "dressing rooms" if you drag in a couple of benches for people to sit on.
Using bucket toilets is, of course, a desperation measure. Immediately call National Site Services, or one of the other site service companies listed under Sanitation on my list of disaster equipment suppliers. They can bring portable toilets, which can be installed along the north fence (as far as possible from the Administration Area but reasonable close to the Covered Eating Area).
Also place dumpsters against the north fence. Place one against the east fence of the Administration Area. Set out trash cans at each gate of the Administration Area. Place more trash cans among the sleeping tents as they are set up. The more trash cans you set up, the less trash you will have to pick up every day. If you can't get enough trash cans from Home Depot, call used-barrel suppliers.
Registration Table
Set up two open-sided 10'x20' tents along the north wall of the Administration area. These will be the Registration Table and the Food Service Table.
Set up two tables under the tents and put out chairs.
Set out the stationery supplies on the Registration Table. In the box with the gray box with the stationery supplies you'll find a stack of Red Cross Shelter Registration forms. Put these out.
Get poster paper from the Reprographics Room to make signs. Masking tape and markers are in the stationery box. The handball court wall is smooth enough to post public announcements on. Post an "Information" sign behind the Registration Desk.
Use pieces of rope to hang the sheet of white board on the fence behind the Registration Desk. This can also be used to post announcements. Leave out dri-wipe markers, the spray bottle of water, and a cleaning rag.
If smoke from fires is a problem, put out the box of paper face masks.
Volunteer Desk
There are two kinds of shelters: one where a handful of Red Cross workers run themselves ragged trying to service the needs of the shelter occupants; the other where the shelter occupants organize themselves as a working community to provide for their own needs. The latter makes for a much happier and better-run shelter. The problem is that disaster victims are usually extremely passive. People generally are quite willing to help in running the shelter, but only if you specifically ask them.
Therefore the people to man the Registration Desk must be trained to, as they take the registration papers from people, to ask, "Would you be willing to help out running the shelter?" This is your chance to get the manpower you need to set up the camp. Remember most Muir staff members will have gone home.
The people at the registration desk should be ready with a list of things that need to be done. Try to organize people into small work-groups. Pass out name badges if you have them and get people to print their first names on the badges so you can tell who's who.
Set up Greeting Desks
Call the Red Cross and notify them we are setting up a disaster shelter. Request a shelter manager and nurse.
Place a table and chairs near the gate at the northeast corner of the basketball field.
Place another set of tables and chairs at the gate by the library.
Poster a sign on the front door directing people to the sides of the campus.
Put an A-frame sign up in front of the school with sides facing traffic. The signs should have "Disaster Shelter" written on the them (in English and Spanish), along with large Red Cross symbols. (Large sheets of poster paper are available in the Reprographics Room for making signs.)
Hang similar signs on the fences by the Greeting Desks.
Staff the Greeting Desks. Set up a schedule of who is to relieve the Greeters. The Greeters will need to be relieved every three hours until morning of the second day. (Who will take over after that can be planned later.)
The Greeters will direct people to the Handball Courts where we will set up an Administration Area.
Setting Up the Tents
Once the toilets and registration desk are set up, you open the gates and have the staff at the Greeting Desks direct people to the Registration Desk.
Muir has over 80 tents in storage, about half of them 10'x10' open-sided tents, and the other half 8'x8' regular camping tents. Give one to the first group of volunteers you organize. Designate a spot on the grass field and ask them to set up the tent. The grass field is preferable to the blacktop because it is more comfortable to lie on for the people who don't have sleeping pads, and also this leaves the blacktop available for PE classes. School officials will want to reopen the school as soon as possible. If the shelter is out of the way, the school can reopen and conduct regular activities, even if the shelter has to stay in operation for several weeks.
Some people will want to take tents back to their homes. By all means, let them do so. The more people willing to stay at their own homes, the smaller the crowd we have to deal with. Off course, we'll never get the tents back, but this should not be a great concern. For cost reasons, I only purchased light-weight equipment. When in actual use, they're only going to last a few weeks, anyway. With luck, this will only be a once-in-a-lifetime event! Tell the people who take tents they may return to the shelter for meals.
Most of the tents have written instructions. In any case, the set-up is usually fairly obvious. Let the volunteers work it out for themselves. It'll keep them busy and they'll usually figure it out in the end. If more than one family is represented, the team can take more than one tent, but do try to limit people to one tent per family as we only have a limited supply of tents. Each family who sets up a tent may consider the tent to be "theirs," first-come, first-served. It's the only reasonable equitable way to decide who gets the tents.
Do the same with the next group of volunteers you gather. Try to arrange the tents in blocks of ten (see diagram) with 10'-wide "streets" between the blocks so when the shelter is full, people can still move around. Lots of luck. In my experience people in shelters quickly drag around the things in their sleeping area to stake out family "territories." There is nothing you can do about these except as diplomatically as possible try to get people to keep the "avenues" clear. If you've seen pictures of Red Cross shelters with cots lined up in nice neat rows, either the picture was of a drill or the shelter was very recently opened. Every working shelter I've ever been in has been a crazy-quilt of cots and personal possessions arranged loosely in "islands."
Electric Power
Being substantially cheaper than cots, the majority of the "beds" in our disaster storage are inflatable beds. Manually inflating this many inflatable beds would be quite a chore (although we do have some hand pumps). We need electric power to power the electric air pumps. Power is almost guaranteed to be out for the first two or three days. I consider having the power out to practically be the definition of "disaster"––once the power comes back on, things have moved into the "recovery" phase.
Since the generator is mildly noisy and emits exhaust fumes, it should be as far as possible from the Registration Desk. To keep electric losses down to a reasonable amount, extension cords running off it should be no more than 100' or so. That puts the generator in the southwest corner of the Administration Area (but inside the fence). The plant manager keeps five-ten gallons of gasoline in the school garage. This should be enough to get things started. You must add oil to the generator before starting it!
Gasoline stations in the area will not be open because their pumps need electricity. So immediately send someone outside the disaster area with the red gasoline cans in storage to get more. At the same time, send someone out to fill the two bulk propane tanks.
Lighting
When the generator is running, charge up the rechargeable floodlights.
Set up the halogen floodlights on top of the Disaster Supplies Cargo Container to illuminate the grass field.
Pass out battery lanterns (and batteries) to families, one per family as they register. When these run out, you can pass out flashlights, again one per family. Save enough flashlights for staff use.
Until the person who was sent out to fill the propane tanks returns, there are a dozen disposable propane tanks in the plant manager's garage. Bring them over to the Administration Area.
Use the disposable tanks to set up propane lanterns.
There are 20 12-hour light sticks in the disaster supplies. These can be used to provide minimal "night lights" around the disaster shelter on the first night. You might want to hang up one light stick at each "intersection" in the tent area to guide people around at night.
Set up battery lanterns in the restrooms.
When the person sent out to fill the bulk propane tanks returns, set them out by the ends of the information desk area. Put a gauge and a three-foot tall "distribution tree" on each tank. Put a propane lantern on top of each distribution tree.
In the disaster supplies are numerous 25' extension cords, three-way plugs, aluminum clamp-lamps, and energy-saver bulbs. Run the extension cords out from the generator clockwise and counterclockwise around the administration area. At the end of each extension cord, put a three-way plug, and "daisy-chain" the extension cords around the perimeter of the Administration Area and down the center. Yes, this is against fire department regulations, but it is necessary to spread outlets around the area.
Attach the clamp lamps to the fence tops. Drop the cords from the lamps down to where the three-way plugs are. The clamp-lamp cords are not long enough to reach the ground, but we can use short lengths of rope to raise the extension cords about halfway up the fence.
Plug in the short power strips to the three-way plugs to get additional power outlets.
Distribute the air beds, sleeping bags and blankets
Set up the air compressors near the Supplies Cargo Container. When groups have their tents set up, they can return to get an air bed (one per family due to the limited supply). More than one person can sleep on an air bed. Groups needing more than that can take the light-weight air mattresses.
Information
The north end of the Handball Courts should be reserved as an "Information Board" to post public announcements. There is plenty of poster paper on rolls in the Reprographics Room. There are makers in the gray stationery supplies box.
Post signs announcing Shelter Policies:
Hang the white board on the fence behind the registration desk. Leave out a spray water board, dri-wipe markers, and a towel. Use this board for frequently changing information.
Have a "Public Announcements" board on the south side of the Handball Court area. Leave out a supply of Post-Its. Tape up signs marked " Missing Persons, Housing, Services Offered, Jobs, Pets, Transportation"
Set up a TV (on an AV cart) between the Food Service Table and the Registration Table. This position faces north and should allow the TV screen to be visible even during the day.
When time permits, set up a second TV against the east fence of the Handball Courts. Tune the second TV to a Spanish language news broadcast.
Set up the portable PA system from the Assistant Principals Office next to the Registration Table.
There are boxes of small radios in the disaster supplies and in Room 216. Pass these out, one per family as people register.
See if the Los Angeles Times and La Opinion, the local Spanish-language newspaper, will donate a daily supply of newspapers.
One big change since the last time we've had a major earthquake is the wide prevalence of cell phones. Cell service may or may not be available, depending on the severity of the quake. I don't know how long battery backup power will last at local cell phone towers. There is box of cell phone chargers for various makes of cell phones in the disaster supplies.
When power returns, computers will be very useful to have. People can get information and send e-mail messages. Set up computers from one of mobile carts from the computer lab around the outside of the "Conference Room." Put a wireless router in the window of the Boys PE Office. It should have enough range to allow the laptops to have Internet access.
Food Service
Safe drinking water is more of a critical need than food. As hard as it is for people in our over-fed society to comprehend, you can go for weeks without food. In hot weather, however, people will become dangerously dehydrated within a four or five days. No one is going to starve to death in just a few days.
Nonetheless, we should make an attempt to feed people. Though we don't have enough supplies to put on a mass feeding operation, simply putting out a supply of whatever food and drinks we have will be psychologically reassuring until Red Cross mass feeding operations can be started.
Put out water bottles.
If the weather is very hot, send someone to a local ice company to get supplies of ice. Again, this is not critical, but having cold drinks helps people psychologically.
Mix fruit punch mix into cooler.
Setup coffee maker.
Put out whatever snack foods are available. Weber-Millbrook Bakery Outlet on Slauson should be a good place to get snacks.
Put up a sign asking people to save their plastic cups, as we only have a limited supply.
Call for catering truck. (See my list of disaster equipment suppliers.) There is a company that dispatches catering trucks just down the street on Slauson. Ask them to send over a truck. Make it clear we're not asking them to give out free food, just sell stuff for their regular prices. A catering truck parked next to the covered eating area would give people one more place to go for food.
After the first 24 hours, people will expect to be fed something more substantial. We can't simply assume the Cafeteria will be available for use. It will probably be several days before it, along with the rest of the campus buildings will be cleared for occupancy. Electric power will be probably be out for the first 48-72 hours. The earthquake will have knocked off the emergency gas cut-off. LAUSD regulations will preclude non-LAUSD staff from entering the cafeteria kitchens.
The patio behind the Faculty Cafeteria is the likely candidate for a food-preparation area. It has no roof, and so will still be usable after the earthquake. On the other hand, it is isolated from the main shelter area, so access can be controlled. It's close to the kitchen supplies, running water, and to the dumpsters. We can set up a propane barbeque grill and tables in this area, and conduct limited food preparation operations until the cafeteria kitchen is again useable.
When cafeteria can be reopened, schedule breakfast from 7 AM to 8 AM; lunch just before and after regular school lunch; and dinner 5:30-6:30 PM. With these hours the school can serve regular school lunches, and still serve the disaster victims. (The coffee/snack table next to the Administration Area can remain open 24 hours.)
Showers
Establish hours for use of showers. Men shower in Boys Gym. Women shower in Girls gym. Shower times might be 6 AM–8 AM and 6 PM–9 PM. These hours would leave the showers free for PE classes, when they resume.
Post the hours on the Information Board and outside the showers.
Arrange for towel service. If LAUSD can't provide, use outside linen service.
Set out soap and several bottles of shampoo.
Security
The regular police will be too busy to assist at the shelter site. We might be able to get the School Police to send an extra officer.
Security will not be a major issue. The grossly exaggerated the amount of violence in New Orleans following Hurricane Katrina. Things are usually pretty quiet in disaster shelters. However, there will probably be some minor looting of stores and damaged homes in the area.
The people who have to run the shelter will feel more secure if there is at least one uniformed guard at all times hanging out around the Administration Area, especially late at night. We should call a local security guard company and have them post a person at our school around the clock (three shifts) for a couple of weeks. Eventually the National Guard will provide people for this function.
Set Up Nurses Station
Contrary to popular belief, shelters rarely have to deal with serious medical problems. People who are injured go to the nearest hospital, not disaster shelters. People with medical problems not serious enough to warrant hospital treatment can be directed to the Hubert Humphrey Health Clinic on Slauson.
The shelter nurse will, however, have to deal with the usual number of stomach aches and cuts and bruises. One partition of the Handball Courts should be set up as the Nurses Station. As with the Food Service Table, having the appearance of an organized medical operation, however limited, is psychologically reassuring to the shelter occupants.
The Red Cross will provide nurses to man the station. (These nurses are a Red Cross requirement for opening a shelter.) The nurses are invariable well-trained and provide services with few problems.
There is a limited amount of medical basic medical supplies in Disaster Storage. Inflate four of the twin-size air beds and lay them out as a Sick Bay. There are linens for four beds in the Disaster Supplies. As with the "restrooms," provide the nurse with some privacy by hanging tapes off of ropes across the entranceway. Pull in a bench or some chairs for a "waiting area." A table with a exercise mat on it and a sheet over it can be an "examination table."
The nurses can also be in charge of seeing to the needs of infants. There are both disposable and cloth diapers in the disaster supplies, safety pins, as well as laundry detergent and gloves for washing the diapers. If possible, designate one of the custodian's wash basins (inside the custodian's closets) for this purpose. Otherwise you can use one of the white plastic buckets. Bring in a supply of dry or canned infant formula as soon as possible.
Clothing
Contrary to popular belief, clothing is not usually needed in a disaster situation. During a crisis people seem to feel a need to empty their closets of unwanted clothing and dump them on whatever charity will accept them. Disaster victims do not want or need your cast-offs. Would you like to wade through piles of unwashed, unsorted, unstylish, unlabeled used clothes in hopes of finding something that might fit you? Tons of used clothing was sent to New Orleans where it was heaped into piles of quickly rotting debris that had to be bulldozed into landfills. The way to donate clothes and have them actually do some good to donate them to the Goodwill during non-emergency times. The Goodwill can wash and sort the clothes, put them on hangers and sell them in their thrift shops to raise money. (Just try to explain this to the people who come to Red Cross offices during a crisis trying to drop off their old clothes, vehemently insisting the clothes must go to directly to disaster victims, and not be sold.)
When people show up trying to dump their bags of used clothes, direct them to the Goodwill. Goodwill can wash and sort them, and put the clothes up for sale in their thrift shops. During a disaster, the Goodwill gives vouchers to the Red Cross to hand out. People can take the vouchers to the thrift shops and get stuff if they need it.
If by chance, someone does need something to wear, their are a couple of boxes of sweatsuits in the disaster supplies.
Pets
Pets are not allowed in Red Cross shelters by Red Cross policy. At some point we some rental portable fences and set up an outside area for pets. Until we have an area set up, people should be told to leave their pets tied up at home with food and water available.
Auxiliary Generator
When time and resources permit, we can set up a second generator in the southwest corner of the grass field (or possibly outside the fence on the bungalow side). This generator could power another television, halogen flood lamps mounted on a bungalow roof, and strings of clamp lamps extending west and north.
Weather as a Complicating Factor
My basic scenario assumes good weather. Fortunately, this is a reasonable assumption in Southern California with its temperate climate. The weather, however, does not always cooperate. Extremely hot or cold weather, high winds, and/or rain could make it difficult to conduct shelter operations. We must give some thought to how we would conduct operations in less-than-ideal conditions.
If an earthquake occurs while it is raining heavily, we will need to bring people into the Boys and Girls Gyms, despite whatever reservations we might have about the buildings conditions. Otherwise, people would be in greater danger from hypothermia than from earthquake after-shocks. In times of intermittent or very light rain it should still be possible to operate outdoors. The partitions of the Handball courts can be quickly be covered with plastic from the rolls of 20'-wide black plastic in Disaster Storage. Tape the ends of the plastic to the outer walls of the handball courts. If you elevate the ends of the plastic farthest from the center of the courts a few inches, you'll create a slight "droop" which will let rain roll off the plastic towards the outside.
If you need a larger covered Administration Area, you can attach the yellow "dog-bone" tarp-holders to one end of the roll of plastic. Attach ropes to the tarp-holders. Throw the ropes over the center of the handball courts from west to east. Use the ropes to pull the tarp over the top of the raised center wall of the handball courts to create a "tent" over the courts. Cut off the tarp and tie off the ends of the ropes to the fence. This will create a large sheltered tent to conduct operations in. This would be useful in very hot weather if you wanted a large, shady area to work in.
In clear weather I would suggest setting up the tents on the grass field rather than the black top area. It's more comfortable to lie on for people without sleeping mats, and it leaves the black-top area open for regular PE use. However, it rain threatens and we elect not to shelter people indoors, the grass field will quickly become a muddy bog. This might also occur if we have to shelter people for an extended period. The weather might be clear when the camp is set up, but turn rainy later. If this happens, used shipping pallets make for good elevated walkways through the camp. We used this tactic successfully in Watsonville, California following the Loma Prieta Earthquake of 1989.
There are several hundred umbrellas, raincoats, and ponchos in the disaster supplies. Some are stored in the Cargo Container. Others are stored in Room 216. There are also several boxes of towels in Room 216.
Organizing Work Groups
Once the shelter is up and running, certain tasks need to be carried out on a regular basis. The people in the shelter need to organize themselves into work groups to get things done. At the nightly information meetings, ask for volunteers to join the various groups to get things done.
Cooking. If the cafeteria staff is available to prepare and serve meals, fine. There may be times such as the weekends when they will not be available. People need to be recruited to prepare meals on an ongoing basis.
Sanitation. Never popular, but somebody has to do these things. The school custodial staff already has its hands full keeping the school itself clean. The shelter occupants will need to pitch in to take care of such jobs as:
Shutting Down the Shelter
Over the course of several weeks, the shelter population will dwindle as people find more permanent (and comfortable) lodgings. At some point we will close down the shelter.
The electric generators need to be stored "dry." If gasoline is left in the generators for long periods, it will eventually coat the fuel lines and carburetors with vanish, clogging them beyond repair. Turn each generator over and empty out the gas tank into a pan. Replace the cap and wipe up any spilled gasoline. Run the generator until it stops.
Will It Work?
Do I think this plan will go as described? Almost certainly not. As General Patton once put it, "Plans only last until the first shot is fired." But having a plan like this in writing gives us something to discuss. When (not if) the Big Quake hits, everything will turn into chaos. If you give people a general direction to head for,though, and then let them loose, they'll usually devise innovative solutions for the problems they encounter. Don't worry, professional assistance from the Red Cross and National Guard will arrive eventually. We just have to meet the needs of our community for a few days.
Participation in this website is completely voluntary. If you don't wish your name or photo used, contact the webmaster and they will be removed immediately.
If you have questions, comments, or additions to this web site, contact Paul Friedman, Computer Teacher (paulfriedman7@yahoo.com).
