In a flash:
That’s Coffey Park. One neighborhood in Santa Rosa that along with several others in Napa, Sonoma, Mendocino, and Lake Counties that were in the path of multiple wildfires in early October 2017. The latest Tubbs Fire estimate is that 4,658 homes were destroyed.
The most damaging period of the wildfires began at 1:00 am and raged through 4:30 am on October 9. Firefighters and police could do no more in those hours than sound alarms to get the people out of the areas under imminent danger. Thirty-five to forty are known not to have made it out in those early morning hours. (A week later more than 34,000 people remained under evacuation)
Almost all gone before daybreak on October 9.
As the fires raged on that day and for the next two weeks, the emergency response management and resources — local, mutual-aid from surrounding cities and counties, and the state (principally CalFire) — kicked into high gear during the first hours and higher gear over the next few days. By that first evening, shelter, food, and water had materialized in sufficient size to care for all the evacuees. If they had a way of obtaining the information.
Internet, cable TV, and cell phone coverage mostly went down that first morning. The primary information source became local am radio. How fortunate we were that a media conglomerate (ie Bain Capital, etc.) has yet to take over this community’s airwaves. Otherwise, a computer from some distant location would have continued piping in the same crap they do everyday.
KSRO and KZST are locally owned and employ local on-air talent. People that could immediately shift from their standard format to become information dissemination and clearing houses.* (I’m giving props to KZST personnel that stayed on the job but equipment losses were too heavy for them to function as well as KSRO did.) Heather Black and Steve Jaxon along with their producers deserve special mention.
That was the primary means for local officials and officeholders to communicate with the people. They too were on the job in those early hours. Under the circumstances, all of them were good enough, some were better than good enough, and two stood out as phenomenally good public employees.
Not to overlook or dismiss those that also did a fine job, what follows is my scoring of many officials under an emergency situation.
Good Enough:
Jerry Brown, Governor of California
Sonoma County Supervisors
Hank Schreeder, Santa Rosa Chief of Police
Chris Coursey, Mayor of Santa Rosa
Jill Ravitch, Sonoma County District Attorney
Better than good:
Tony Gossner, Santa Rosa Fire Department Chief
Cal Fire spokespersons
Exceptional:
Rob Giordano, Sonoma County Sheriff
Mike McGuire, California State Senate, 2nd District
Girodano is a long-term employee of the Sonoma Sheriff’s Department. In August 2017 the Board of Supervisors appointed him interim Sheriff. He has no intention to run for Sheriff in the election next year. What made him great is that actively collected every shred of information he could possibly get and communicated all of it as quickly and thoroughly as possible. IOW, he satisfied all the criteria for a leader.
On October 18, Sonoma Sheriff Rips Immigration Official’s Statement On Arson Arrest.
The sheriff of a county devastated by some of the worst wildfires the region has seen has issued a scathing statement after a statement from federal immigration officials.
Sonoma County Sheriff Rob Giordano called the Immigration and Customs Enforcement statement “inaccurate [and] inflammatory.”
Tough enough to take on Trump’s ICE Acting Director AND Sheriff Refutes Breitbart Report Linking Wine Country Fires To Illegal Immigrant. Pow-Pow.
My assessment of Girodano’s performance during the disaster isn’t unique. A very good chance that he may find himself drafted to run for Sheriff.
McGuire was out in the field and on the road assessing the situation from early Monday morning. Area wise, SD02 is huge and includes much of the area impacted by the fires. (His colleague Bill Dodd SD03 represents other impacted areas. Have to assume that he too was on the job but I have no recollection of hearing from him.)
McGuire demonstrated that he really knows his district. Who’s who, what’s what, and how to go on from here. The 2015 Valley Fire was in his district and recovering from that is an ongoing effort. He’s an authentic, roll-up his sleeves politician. Not a privileged, Ivy League entitled politician in the biz to feather his own nest. He’s climbing a political ladder one rung at a time and learning his stuff. Impressive and refreshing. So unlike so many House Reps, Senators, Governors, and that thing in the White House.
The Sis, who doesn’t live in McGuire’s district and isn’t particularly political, is ready to knock on doors for McGuire when he runs for a statewide office. Next year the challenge will be to boost him up from his 2014 vote share of 70% in his re-election, assuming that anyone will bother to run against him.
(There’s more, much more, about the responses to this disaster that rightly should be shared. As heartbreaking as the destruction was, the response from every quarter was excellent. The disaster wasn’t compounded by a disastrous response which is more the norm. It was so good that we avoided having Trump come here and try to exploit the disaster for his own reputation.)
*By comparison, the local public radio station was worthless. Some of the NPR high priced talent may helicopter in and put together a very important story on it someday when it’s convenient and easy to do. Public broadcasting in the US is nothing like what was promised when initially funded out of the public purse.
