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You are here: Home / Home Top List / HMB Battalion Chief Cosgrave’s 5th Coronavirus Message

HMB Battalion Chief Cosgrave’s 5th Coronavirus Message

April 19, 2020 by Michelle Leave a Comment

Thank you, Coastsiders!

Firefighters, Medics, Sheriffs, and Harbor Patrol are the usual suspects when you think of first responders and of course we continue to serve, but COVID-19 has evoked a much broader citizen response as so many of you have taken individual actions big and small to help our community stay safe, healthy, and resilient.  Coastside generosity, ingenuity, kindness, and compassion are evident everywhere – giving us hope, supporting public health, and literally putting food on local tables. We thank you!

In addition to contacting your neighbors to check-in on their well-being, I am impressed with how CERTs and CERTs-in-Training are using their own initiative, professional expertise, and commitment to serve the greater good. You are making a positive difference throughout the Coastside community and beyond.

Respect and gratitude to our Coastside CERT medical professionals who are serving on the front lines of Coronavirus response and maintaining medical care for all patients in a stressful climate of potential infection.  Thank you to our doctors, nurse practitioners, physicians’ assistants, nurses, radiology specialists, toxicologists, medical IT & records personnel, mental health and trauma counselors, social workers, medical building engineers, and retired medical CERTs of all sorts who have volunteered to step back in to help – all Coastside residents showing courage and stamina as they go to work to do their part during this pandemic.

To the CERTs providing leadership as Half Moon Bay City Councilmembers, Midcoast Community Councilmember, Community Emergency Action Program Chair, Coastside Buzz originator, and the publisher of the Half Moon Bay Review – Thank you all for providing clear, useful information and connections to critical resources during this public emergency.

From home, CERTs have been leading and contributing generously to local COVID-19 fundraising relief efforts, preparing and delivering meals to seniors, supporting food distribution efforts, 3D printing ventilator splitters, making masks, shields, and more masks.  You are lifting spirits with painted rocks, inspirational photography, trailside messages, music, organizing applause for caregivers and howls of community gratitude – I’m talkin’ to you, El Granada!

While under the shelter in place order, we are grateful to our Coastside Neighborhood, Zone, and Block Leads (Captains) and Data Managers for coordinating the phone/email/texts/Zoom outreach to your neighbors.  1,300 thanks to you!  You are helping to relieve isolation, especially among seniors, and sharing useful information about evolving local resource availability.  Your feedback has kept me in touch with grassroots needs and enabled me to connect people with appropriate resources.  Ham radio leaders are working hard on their Amateur Radio Emergency Service (ARES) plan in preparation for a disaster when Coastside telecommunications might not be working as well as during this emergency.  You have done exactly what we trained to do – respond calmly in an emergency, assist your family and your neighbors as needed, stay informed, be resourceful problem solvers, communicate clearly with first responders, and stay in your neighborhoods – this time in the interest of public health.  Well done. Now, together, we prepare to move forward into the next phase.

 


 

Traveling Back
It always seems to me that when traveling (for work or vacation), the trip back home takes forever and is the most tedious and frustrating part of the trip!  Even when on the most enjoyable vacation and looking forward to getting back into the normal routine, a flight delay or missed connection always seems to have more impact.

This trip has definitely not been a vacation but I have finished my taxes, refinanced my mortgage at a lower rate and I’m 2 months into a prepared meal plan and lost 25 pounds… (I heard that! Be nice!) I’m also learning to cook with an air fryer/ pressure cooker/sous vide device that I got as a gift…. so I put 5 pounds back on! I hope you have all been able to find ways to advance during trying times.

But now there is talk of “starting back up” or “getting back to business” so it feels like we are starting to travel back.  We do not have our travel plans in hand yet. We do not know how long will it take or how many stops along the way.  But there is always something special about returning home.  When we get home we kind of take inventory of what changed while we were gone. (If any of your plants died, that is on you this time!)

We will continue to have health orders that we are required to follow but most of your new routine is yet to be determined by YOU.  Your risk tolerance and exposure protective needs will be weighed against the activities you engage in.

Another risk we should all consider are the opportunists that take advantage of every vulnerability.  Watch for telemarketers, texts, and emails using this situation to obtain identity information or sell you scams.

California’s Stay at Home order is “until further notice” and will be revisited the first week of May.  Some states have extended their Stay at Home order to May 15th – 20th while others are planning on starting their transition May 1st… We are in a wait-and-see mode.

When the order is lifted, or modified, we will still be taking the preventative steps to avoid exposure or exposing others to the Coronavirus and it will continue to threaten us.  Testing and tracking will continue to improve, treatments are moving forward with constant evaluations, but a vaccine is still not within reach.

 


Last week I informed you that “gravity sucks!”  That was in regard to you falling and needing help. This week we will continue to blame gravity but this time for what will fall on you in an earthquake.
Here is a FEMA Checklist: https://www.fema.gov/media-library-data/1510153676317-82124ab3b0a31ea239f60acc8d46c2ba/FEMA_B-526_Earthquake_Safety_Checklist_110217_508.pdf

 

Securing your space: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MGqfvhtbmOQ&t=6s&list=PLR7GhNEQT6T_lJUKX-UpSQPMloBmxKMKQ&index=1

Those who came to the CERT Skills Refresher (Rodeo) & BBQ last summer were able to see the effects of gravity with the earthquake shake trailer and got information on securing your space.

 

Here is a link to hazards near you: https://myhazards.caloes.ca.gov/
Like you really need more hazards right now.

 

This will be a review for those who have been through the CERT Basic Training including the 41 Spring CERT 2020 students whose Day 3 of training had to be postponed by the need to prevent the spread of COVID-19.  We will be finishing Day 3 with the last 2 modules, final drill and graduation as soon as we can offer scheduling options. Summer CERT is still tentatively set for July 15, 18 & 19. We will also be setting new dates for those on the waitlist as soon as we can.

Stay healthy and safe…. And thank you again for all you are doing to keep our community calm, together, and strong.

 

Fire Battalion Chief David Cosgrave
San Mateo County Battalion 10
Serving Coastside Fire Protection District
CAL FIRE
San Mateo/Santa Cruz Unit Battalion 10-A
Cell (650) 740-7247
or call the
On-Duty Coastside Battalion Chief (877) 298-1712

 

 

 

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Filed Under: Coastside Disaster Preparedness, Coastside Fire Protection District, Home Top List, Podcasts, Public Agencies

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Coastside CERT

We are an emergency preparedness volunteer organization focused on creating a ready and resilient community along the San Francisco Bay Area coast from the southern side of the Tom Lantos Tunnel (Devil’s Slide) to Tunitas Creek Road.

Emergency Prep Resources

The average Coastsider may not be aware of the many emergency preparation resources available to us! Here’s a list of many of those resources.

KHMB LOGO AM-FMKHMB AM 1710 and FM 100.9

KHMB Radio AM 1710 and FM 100.9 is our local Emergency Radio Station. You would still want to tune in to KCBS for Bay Area wide emergency news.  Make sure you have a radio!
Go to: KHMB or KHMBRadio.com to tune in.

CEC logo-jCEC – Coastside Emergency Corp

From Waddell Creek to Devil’s Slide and up to Skyline are 4 Branches of emergency prepared coastside citizens that are forming. They include many emergency disciplines.
Go to: CEC Portal

CERTCERT Teams – Community Emergency Response Team

Trainings are offered a couple of times per year up and down the coast CERT volunteers are forming Neighborhood Watches to help their neighbors get prepared.
Go to: FEMA page on CERT

ceap

CEAP

Charise McHugh of the Half Moon bay Chamber of Commerce has worked for several years to organize businesses on the coastside in an emergency via the Coastside Emergency Action Plan). If you are a business and have not already participated, please contact the Chamber. In an emergency we need to know where our resources are and how to deploy materiel, and how to get refunded by FEMA.
Go to: HMB Chamber Page on CEAP

smc

SMC Alert

It is a free alert system that will come to your cell phone, your tablet or computer, or all three. There is no charge, although your carrier may charge for texts. This is the best way to stay on top of traffic accidents.
Go to: SMCAlert.info to sign up

mrcMRC – Medical Reserve Corps

Doctors and nurses work together to become the backbone of an emergency medical situation. Coastside Emergency Experts will tell you that the Coastside will be on its own in a major earthquake disaster for 5-7 days. And we no longer have a Medical Reserve Corps on the Coastside! Contact mdragony@coastsidebuzz.com if you are interested in creating a new chapter.

hamHAM Radio

ARES—Amateur Radio Emergency Service—of Half Moon Bay
Go to: their website

red crossRed Cross

We have several Red Cross trailers on the Coast. Take a Red Cross class so you can help in one the shelters during a disaster.
Go to: Sign up for a class or Contact Local Red Cross volunteer Jim Holley

nextdoorNextDoor

Have you signed up with Next Door? Next Door is a great social media tool that will help you stay up to date with what is going on in your neighborhood and other neighborhoods on the Coast.
Go to: NextDoor.com to sign up.


michelleMichelle Dragony, founder of CoastsideBUZZ.com, is also a civilian CERT trainer working with Dave Cosgrave, Cal Fire Battalion Chief of Half Moon Bay, and Ari Delay, Cal Fire Battalion Chief of La Honda. Email here at mdragony@coastsidebuzz.com if you have any questions.

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