Important Web Sites Santa Cruz County Office of Emergency Services Santa Cruz County Road Closures Fire tracking site for Western States Santa Cruz County Horsemen's Association Disaster Planning Guides for Horse Owners HSUS Disaster Preparedness for Horses Disaster Action Guidelines For Horse Owners AAEP Emergency Resources for Horse Owners Volunteer |
Santa Cruz County Equine Evacuation Unit EquineEvac.org equineevac (at) yahoo.com If your property is under a mandatory or advisory evacuation order, and you need to have your horses evacuated call Santa Cruz County Animal Services: 454-7303 #1 If they are not available call 911 to activate our unit. The "reverse 911" system calls people in the event of an evacuation need. Land lines in affected areas are automatically registered, cell phones are not. You can register your cell phone number through the Santa Cruz Consolidated Emergency Communications Center at www.sccecc.org There's a link on the home page and its easy. New Member Training Final New Member Training for 2008 Saturday, October 4, 2008 The training meeting will start promptly at 9 a.m. and will end at 12:30. It will be held at the Felton Presbyterian Church, 6090 Hwy 9 across from Rite Aid in south Felton. You must have finished the online Incident Command System course, ICS 100, available at http://emilms.fema.gov/ICS100G/index.htm and present your completion certificate as your "ticket" to the class. There are five lessons with each taking 20 minutes to one hour to complete. If you do not have computer access, the course can be printed for you from the fifth Summary Lesson. Horse trailers are not required for this class. Contact Steve Richmond at muckerstwo@aol.com to register for the class. No phone calls please. Registration ends on October 1.
How to Start Your Own Equine Evacuation Unit We will be offering a session on "How to Start Your Own Equine Evacuation Unit" if you live outside of Santa Cruz County, and are interested in starting your own unit, on August 20th at 7:00 pm. We will be meeting at the Santa Cruz County Horsemen's Association Clubhouse on Graham Hill Rd. in Santa Cruz, close by the Simms Road offramp from Hwy 17. This will be a very informal meeting, with our members providing information as to how our unit started and what has worked or not worked for us as an organization. Advance sign up is not required. For more information email : Santa Cruz County E Q U I N E E V A C U A T I O N U N I T The Santa Cruz County Office of Emergency Services authorizes a volunteer Equine Evacuation and Assistance Unit. All members are registered by the Santa Cruz County Office of Emergency Services as Disaster Service Workers. Equine Evacuation provides horse trailers, drivers, horse handlers and personnel to evacuate horses in disasters and as authorized by the Santa Cruz County Office of Emergency Services, and any city or county police, sheriff or fire department. Requests for out of county mutual aid must be authorized by the Director of Santa Cruz County Emergency Services. Following request for service by the designated agency, the Equine Evacuation Admin. representative will contact the appropriate Trailer Team Leader(s) or Evac. and Support Personnel. On scene, the Equine Evacuation Task Force Leader will report to the Liaison Officer if that position has been filled. Otherwise the Task Force Leader (or designee) will report to the Incident Commander. Liaison Officer or Incident Command will prioritize and direct evacuation efforts. Staging area for evacuation trailers and other aspects of the evacuation effort may be handled by Animal Services or Equine Evacuation personnel depending on the scope of the operation. Coordination for boarding, food and veterinary support (long and short term) will be handled where appropriate by the Office of Emergency Services, American Red Cross and Animal Services. F A C T S H E E T July 2008 Established in 1998 211 Registered OES Trained Disaster Workers with horse trailers and trucks available for emergency use when activated by the County Office of Emergency Services 15 Radio Operator Evac Members (Hams) 9 Trailer Teams All Disaster Workers have received Office of Emergency Services Training regarding SEMS-Standardized Emergency Management System and ICS-Incident Command System. Evac members have attended workshops on loading unwilling horses, trailer safety and maintenance and had opportunity to have a free trailer inspection by a local trailer repair expert. Team members have been given two training sessions on emergency first aid for horses and tips on what to do if the vet can’t get there. Team members have been given an emergency supply list of items for their trailers. Horse I.D. sheets have been provided. Trailer maintenance and check off list are supplied by Jerry Dowdy of The Blacksmith Shop. Trailer Team Leaders meet periodically to plan strategies. They are encouraged to keep in regular touch with team members in their own local areas. We have been activated for one flooding situation and three fires, during our largest activation we successfully evacuated over 240 horses at the Summit Fire in May 2008 The OES Director, Paul Horvat, 458-7109 (212-3677), will authorize call outs for any size emergency in which we are required. If you can not reach him call 911. Clearance must be made through his office. Trailer team members can chose NOT to be involved with every emergency. Trailer Team Leaders: *Designates OES Emergency Call Out Numbers
Membership Guidelines To be a member of our Equine Evacuation Unit, you must be a Santa Cruz County resident or live in very close proximity who is an experienced horse handler, who owns horse a trailer/ (or has access to one) or who will be riding along as the helper/navigator and wants to become part of the several Equine Evacuation Unit trailer teams in the county. Our members respond to emergencies under the direction of Animals Services and their Trailer Team Leaders, and must be able to respond quickly to an emergency evacuation situation and handle horses (or other animals) in stressful and at times dangerous situations. Team members must be physically able to work with horses and other large animals and mentally and emotionally able to work in very stressful and at times dangerous environments. Team members must follow the direction of team leaders and other unit administration or County Animal Services, and must wait until they have been officially activated by SC County OES and their team leaders prior to responding as an official Equine Evacuation DSW. Prior to any action or statement which might significantly affect or obligate the unit, volunteers should seek prior consultation and approval from appropriate staff. These actions may include, but are not limited to, public statements to the press, coalition or lobbying efforts with other organizations, or any agreements involving contractual or other financial obligations. The Santa Cruz County Equine Evacuation Unit accepts the service of all volunteers with the understanding that such service is at the sole discretion of the unit leadership team. Volunteers agree that the Santa Cruz County Equine Evacuation Unit may at any time, for whatever reason, decide to terminate the volunteer’s relationship with the unit. The volunteer may at any time, for whatever reason, decide to sever the volunteer’s relationship with the Santa Cruz County Equine Evacuation Unit.
"These fires are one of the great dangers of California. I have seen from Monterey as many as three at the same time, by day a cloud of smoke, by night a red coal of conflagration in the distance. A little thing will start them, and, if the wind be favorable, they gallop over miles of country faster than a horse." The year was 1879. The writer was Robert Louis Stevenson. |
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