Browsing through the Official Web site for the city of malibu, I looked into the Emergency News/Preparedness section and found “Breaking Emergency News” which lists two items: “SBA assistance for losses from storms last February” and “Dead bird found in Mar Vista.” Shaken by these revelations and by another earthquake today, I looked for updates on the progress of our tsunami alert system in the preparedness section of our city’s web site. I saw “tsunami aid for South Asia” and a disclaimer that the earthquake pages are “computer generated and may not have receiver human review.” This gave me a warm, fuzzy feeling.
For something that’s supposedly been a priority for our city for years, there’s not a word about the progress of our alert system. Malibu is a city of fires, slides and quakes located on the Pacific Rim with completely exposed beaches, beach homes and apartments. Every year millions of people frequent our beaches with no idea that a killer tsunami could be on its way and with no way to be warned.
Crescent City, with a population of 7,500, has a tsunami siren alert system but our city seems paralyzed on the issue.
As for emergency preparedness, we don’t have the infrastructure to give us the means to prepare, and what’s this Chili Cook-Off nonsense about raising $25 million to buy vacant land just so we can keep it vacant. The $25 million would go a long way toward paying for an alert system. And what’s this drivel about “No Chain Stores in Malibu.” Chains have the buying power to stock emergency supplies we need. With the rainy season coming up it’s hard to even find a can of Henry’s in this town to fix our leaking roofs.
Let the Malibu Bay Company sell the cook-off land to private enterprise so we can have lumber, hardware, masonry and electrical retail outlets. We need to give us a way to prepare and maintain our property. This mid-Malibu site right down the street from City Hall could be our emergency preparedness center complete with supplies, medical facilities, emergency communications and a heliport.
Jack Singleton