If we've learned anything from the natural disaster that we have seen affect millions in Haiti, we know that disaster can happen anywhere.

“It's only a matter of time before we're faced with a natural disaster emergency in this neighborhood,” said David Gustafson, Co-Chair of TNDC's Emergency Preparedness Committee. “We have to prepare ourselves to respond in an organized and effective manner.”

As owner and manager of 30 buildings housing over 3,500 residents and an employer of nearly 300 staff members, TNDC will need to take a large role in the event of a major disaster in the Tenderloin. TNDC’s Emergency Preparedness Committee—an inter-departmental group of passionate and concerned staff—have taken the initiative to identify and assess major issues that will affect that organization’s ability to respond, implement an Emergency Response Plan to be followed in the case of a major disaster, and incorporate staff training plans including Neighborhood Emergency Response Trainings (NERT), High Rise Director Certifications, Red Cross trainings, Critical Stress Management, and a Hazardous Material Certification.

Inspired by the Emergency Preparedness Committee's efforts to get staff involved in emergency response, one TNDC building has made trail-blazing efforts to implement an Emergency Response Plan that involves residents as well.

Nicole Grays, Manager of TNDC's Alexander Residence, was certified as a Neighborhood Emergency Responder as a result of the Emergency Preparedness Committee’s efforts. But when she brought the skills she learned back to the building she managed—a building of more than two hundred residents—she was concerned about the staff to resident ratio. “I realized how many residents are at the building and how relatively few there are of us—we absolutely need to get the residents involved if we expect to be able to secure the building in the case of an emergency.”

Her concerns were shared by the rest of the Alexander staff, which includes five NERT-certified and four CPR-certified employees. A goal was clear—motivate residents to work directly with staff to create an Emergency Response Plan for the building. “Getting residents inspired to get involved was an inter-departmental team effort,” Nicole said. “Property management staff, social workers, community organizers, and senior activities coordinators all got involved and worked together to figure out how we were going to pull this off.”

The first phase of the program involved a series of resident floor meetings to discuss what would happen in the event of a fire, earthquake, or other natural disaster and what needs to be done to prepare. “It was a great turnout and most residents wanted to get involved,” said Nicole. Walk-throughs of the building alerted residents to emergency exits and other building features necessary to be familiar with during a disaster. “I was surprised to find out that many residents actually didn’t know there are three exits to our building—they thought there was just one. It just shows how necessary these efforts are.”

Staff collected information on residents with mobility, vision, and hearing impairments and developed a working list that will be used in an emergency situation to ensure all residents get the help they need to evacuate. “We determined a buddy system so that residents will help their impaired buddy make it to safety,” Nicole explained.

The second phase of Alexander's resident involvement efforts involved four resident trainings that took place in 2009. These trainings familiarized residents with evacuation procedures, proper use of fire extinguishers, how to identify potential safety hazards and report them immediately for correction to building staff, and necessary safety skills like CPR, taught by the Red Cross. TNDC Social Workers and Activities Coordinators assisted in translating all four trainings into Chinese and Tagalog to be accessible for the building's monolingual population.

“At one training, residents were shown a film of a burning room to highlight the short time—only seven minutes—it takes for the fire to engulf the entire room,” said Nicole. “We also shared real-life experiences in emergency situations and the outcome to demonstrate what happens when you are ill-prepared.”

“We can't emphasize enough how important it is to organize before the disaster strikes,” said David. Volunteer Floor Captains—residents on each floor assigned to take responsibility for organizing their neighbors in the case of an emergency or evacuation—have agreed to be responsible for directing occupants to exits and finding alternatives if the situation is unsafe, reporting vital information about resident security to a TNDC staff Safety Director or the fire department, and determining if there are any missing residents during evacuation. “This organized system of Floor Captains is a great way to have tenants feel like they have a responsibility, which makes them more invested in the process. Tenants take pride in having a leadership role.”

“You never know when an emergency will happen,” said Marvis Phillips, a resident of the Alexander who took the initiative to be trained as a Neighborhood Emergency Responder. “How you prepare yourself physically, mentally, and emotionally will determine how well you survive. I will keep training, because you can never get enough training as far as I am concerned.”

“Our goal for 2010 is to encourage residents to take responsibility and a leadership role in emergency preparedness and create their own plans for how to respond in case of an emergency,” said Nicole.
“In the future, we hope to start a committee of residents who regularly meet to address these emergency preparedness issues.”

As a result the Alexander's efforts in 2009, residents are more aware of emergency preparedness and more willing to participate. The lessons learned by these pioneering efforts will be used to extend emergency preparedness efforts involving residents to TNDC's other 29 buildings as we makes strides towards our goal of becoming a Disaster Resilient Organization.