It’s been 34 years since the Loma Prieta earthquake changed San Francisco and the Bay Area forever. And you probably know about some of the things the earthquake destroyed, you might not know about the things it helped create. NERT, or the Neighborhood Emergency Response Team, started as a way to prepare for natural disasters, but it's got some problems that are man-made.
“Flares are just like extinguishers. They’re really, really important to have and use, but by the time you want to use it, you are stuck on the side of the road, and it is very dark, and you're gonna pull it out of your emergency kit, and you're gonna be like, ‘How do I use this?’”
At the end of November, more than 50 people met at San Francisco Fire Station #7, just off of Folsom St. in the Mission.
"Strike! And you're striking it away."
*hiss of the flare*
That’s the sound of a flare being lit.
"Oh, so easy! Right? And then you're going to take this part here."
"Got it."
"Okay. Alright. Good. One, one person done."
They’re here for the Fire Department’s monthly Neighborhood Emergency Response Team or “NERT” training.
“So, cannot walk broken leg. That’s the one that we moved over here. Cannot walk, nauseated, breathing CAT refill follows command, all normal.”
Today, they’re learning how to use fire extinguishers and flares, how to turn off gas lines, how to triage a building for emergency responders, and how to crib.
“We’re lifting, lifting, lifting, lifting, lifting, lifting, lifting, lifting, lifting, lifting, lifting. Stick that wedge block in there!”
Cribbing is when you create a temporary structure to support or lift a heavy load. It can be used in search and rescue missions to free people who are trapped under rubble.
“Just keep it right there, ok lifting, lifting, lifting…”
At the end of the training, Chief Erika Hoo arrives to speak for the graduation ceremony:
“We can't thank each and every one of you for taking the time to complete this program. Because when the next disaster hits, and it's not a matter of if, it's going to be when, we will need your help.”
Everyone passes, either getting certified or re-certified. They get NERT ID cards, hard hats, some tough-looking gloves, bright green NERT vests, and a t-shirt. Everyone shakes hands, gets their stuff, and then we all go outside to take a picture. The mood is joyous when everyone says goodbye. Which is almost ironic, considering what everyone is here for.
“Good evening, I’m Dave McElhatton. And I’m Wendy Tokuda.”
“The roof and the second floor came down on her.”
“The quake sucked up the city’s roughly $6 million reserve fund.”
“CalTrans knew for years the freeway was vulnerable to quake damage.”
“In the East Bay, the i-880 collapsed.”
In 1989, the Loma Prieta earthquake devastated the Bay Area. Freeways and buildings collapsed, 63 people died, and almost 4,000 were injured.
“Thousands of Marina residents displaced from their homes.”
“And officials are saying the number of people needing help is growing…”
The Marina, which is built on top of landfill, was hit particularly hard by the earthquake. Some Marina residents found themselves performing search and rescue missions, and helping to put out fires.
"I remember it all vividly, fifteen year old high school student."
This is Captain Brandon Tom. He was a student at San Francisco’s Lowell High School when the Loma Prieta earthquake hit.
"I was at Stonestown and I watched the signs shake and the cars lose control and the waves in the ground."
Now, 34 years later, he’s captain of the NERT program for the San Francisco Fire Department.
"Regular citizens were in the street directing traffic, helping traffic go by. And then you saw on the news that people were helping put out fires. I didn't learn, you know, how important that was until later."
After the earthquake, people living in the Marina asked the SF Fire Department to start a disaster training class, and NERT was born.
NERT is a free, six-week training program. It’s not as intense as training is for emergency responders, but it does teach some basic and crucial skills. It’s supposed to empower regular citizens to help out the fire department when the next earthquake hits.
"As all the studies have say, that's not the big one. There's going to be a bigger one that's going to occur," says Captain Tom.
So how does NERT factor into the city’s disaster plan? Let’s say a magnitude 8 earthquake hits. Buildings collapse, freeways are closed, there’s no BART, or electricity. The Fire Department would divide the city into ten “battalions” or mini-cities, and treat those battalions separately.
“So, each battalion will take inventory of what they need, the resources, and deploy as they see fit. And within each battalion, the NERT trained volunteers will show up at a staging area and assist the fire department as the battalion chief directs them.”
Staging areas are just agreed upon meeting places: high schools, community centers, parking lots, etc.
"If one battalion is fine versus the others, we can shift resources."
So that’s the way things are supposed to go: NERT teams would tackle different neighborhoods, basically being the eyes and ears of the Fire Department. But Captain Tom says even this won’t be enough.
“Even with all this prep, we're still not going to be prepared. There's still things that are going to happen that we can't stop.”
And there’s another problem: there aren’t nearly enough NERT certified people in the city as there should be.
According to Captain Tom, ideally five percent of SF’s population would be NERT certified. That comes out to about 40,000 people, but right now, there are maybe 10,000 NERT certified people in SF. And where those people live is unevenly distributed. Higher-income neighborhoods are far more likely to have NERT members.
"The further out neighborhoods like the Bayview Hunters Point area, the Visitacion Valley area, the Cow Palace area, I don't think anybody from that demographic has come to training."
Captain Tom says it’s his job to do outreach to neighborhoods that have less NERT members, but it’s been hard to get people to come to trainings. There are language barriers, socio-economic gaps, and scheduling issues.
"You know, some of these areas may have people working two or three jobs, so it's hard to hit that demographic."
The SF Fire Department has identified 105 neighborhoods in the city. Right now, only 36 of them have a NERT coordinator.
"It's scary, yeah."
And at the rate training is going, SF won’t reach their goal of having 40,000 NERT certified residents for at least another 20 years.
"We don't have enough funding to hit that capacity. We are very, very small budget of the city budget. But we're expected to, you know, take care of the whole city."
In the 2022-2023 SF city budget, NERT got around $340,000 out of the Fire Department’s almost $500 million budget. That’s less than 0.1 percent.
"Every year that there's financial difficulties, NERT is always one of the first programs that looks to get cut."
Captain Tom wants to be realistic. He doesn’t expect to train 30,000 SF residents overnight. Right now, his goal is just to get more NERT coordinators into neighborhoods. He said if 30 more neighborhoods had a NERT coordinator, the city would be in much better shape. But it’s not clear how long that’s going to take.
In the meantime, NERT trainings happen monthly in San Francisco, and they’re completely free. You can find out more about NERT and see their training schedule at sf-fire.org/nert
This story was made to be heard, click the play button above to listen.
This story aired in the December 21, 2023 episode of Crosscurrents.
