San Diego: Are we prepared? Not yet

In the five years since the Sept. 11 attacks, the San Diego region has received about $122 million in grants for homeland security and spent part of it on thousands of gas masks and hazard suits, and more than 100 mock terror drills.

But even with the infusion of federal dollars, officials acknowledge that preparing for the worst is such a monumental task that San Diego County is just like most places -- ill-prepared for a large-scale terrorist attack or natural disaster.

"This has been a pretty hard learning curve for everybody," San Diego Mayor Jerry Sanders said. "Not only are you thinking about threat assessment for normal things like fire, flood and earthquake, but you're also thinking about terrorist incidents, and the more you uncover, the more you have to look at. It's like an onion."

Among the most urgent problems:

* There are no firm plans for evacuating and housing hundreds of thousands of people after a large-scale disaster; there are no agreements with public and private transportation companies for moving residents out of a disaster zone; there are no outreach plans to help the county's estimated 457,000 poor, elderly or disabled flee to safety. Evacuation is complicated by the county's boundaries -- the ocean on the west, the international border on the south and belts of mountains and deserts to the east.

Also, local government officials have left all sheltering and feeding responsibilities in the county to the American Red Cross, a volunteer organization supported by private donations. The Red Cross in San Diego has multiple agreements with schools to house evacuees, but it has no deals with larger venues. Red Cross officials said they are prepared to open about 12 shelters for a total of 6,000 to 7,000 people without additional help.

"The city does not have adequate plans, resources or mutual-aid agreements in place to support the evacuation of the entire city in a timely manner," San Diego officials responsible for homeland security said in a self-evaluation in January.

Officials intend to have a comprehensive plan within a year.

* Although millions of dollars in improvements have been made, a communication network linking police, firefighters and medics throughout the county during emergencies is six to seven years and $150 million away.

* The region has been bumped off the list of urban areas eligible to receive lucrative federal grants for homeland security -- a source of $41.7 million to date for the area. The loss is potentially devastating to the county if officials are unable to persuade the Department of Homeland Security differently, a decision that is due in October.

* There is still confusion among some politicians about who would be in charge, and whether the military would help, during a disaster involving multiple jurisdictions and dozens of federal, state and local agencies.

* The city and county have had five chiefs for homeland security in three years -- two in the county and three in the city. Some officials have said the turnover has meant a lack of continuity.

* Many people have become complacent since the Sept. 11 attacks, failing to heed government appeals to make basic preparations for a disaster, such as having enough food and water on hand to last at least 72 hours.

* Almost every law enforcement agency in the county either has lost officers since Sept. 11, 2001, or shown only slight gains that have not kept pace with population growth.

"What people have a tendency to forget is, to begin with the staffing in this region is subpar to other regions," said former San Diego Fire Chief Jeff Bowman, who was so frustrated by the lack of money to address problems that he left the department in June. "Then when you add a major event to what's typical in this region, you've just exacerbated the problem."

* The financial debacle in the city of San Diego, which owes its pension fund $1.43 billion, could be ruinous in the event of a disaster, some officials said.