Have we mentioned communications? Being able to access reliable information is at the core of any emergency preparedness scheme. Only then can you know when it might be wiser to evacuate or feasible to stay.

This is not an easy problem to solve. In times past, the public media have been notoriously inaccurate. In the 1993 fire, locations named as aflame were not and sometimes were said to be miles from their true locations. This not a criticism of the media--they do what they can with what they have--but it is a cautionary note, and a prime reason why T-CEP exists.

T-CEP tries to deal with this issue in two main ways--via the Hotline and the Disaster Response Team HAM radio network. The Hotline number is 310/455-3000. It is shared between the Topanga Town Council and T-CEP. In normal times it connects to an answering machine. In the event of some local problem, such as a temporary road closure, there will be announcements on the machine, but normally there will be no one to answer the phone. In a major emergency, however, the T-CEP Hotline Team staffs four incoming phone lines in our Emergency Operations Center (EOC) to receive information from residents and to answer questions with the most recent reliable information available to us.

Topanga boasts two main radio networks--the T-CEP Disaster Response Team (DRT) net which is used to gather and coordinate information among all T-CEP elements, and the Arson Watch. They are technically different, but they connect to the EOC where radio operators are able to communicate throughout the Canyon. DRT and Arson Watch radio operators cooperate in an emergency to make sure both nets are open. Depending on the situation, Arson Watch and DRT mobile teams may be out and about the area checking for damage, helping control traffic and verifying information reported to the EOC by other means.

In this way T-CEP is able to quickly establish a sense of what the situation is and to relay this information to official agencies as well as concerned residents who will be calling the Hotline.

At the same time, information gathered and verified at the EOC is relayed to the relevant emergency authorities, whether the Sheriff, California Highway Patrol, Fire Department, Caltrans, County Public Works or whoever may be in a position to respond with help. T-CEP has spent much time and effort establishing and maintaining these links to the larger world of disaster responders. Residents need to incorporate in their emergency plans how they will connect with T-CEP information. The Hotline number, again, is 310/455-3000. In the '96 wildfire and the El Niño storms of '97 and '98 the EOC was active, and handled as many as 700 phone calls in an 18-hour period.

One way you can keep informed and help T-CEP keep up-to-date is by volunteering to become a local correspondent, taking some training with the DRT so you know how it works, and acquiring a radio capable of communicating with the T-CEP Emergency Operations Center. In this way you can act as your neighborhood's eyes and ears with T-CEP.