Disaster Preparedness

The Brightline Podcast: Season 2, Episode 7

In this episode, we explore the efforts of San Francisco's Chinatown to address the gaps in emergency and disaster preparedness, particularly for isolated monolingual seniors. Learn about the strong intergenerational support and communication network that local community organizations have set up for disaster preparedness.

Transcript:

Michael Liao: Disaster preparedness, just like so many other health issues, needs to be happening at the local level, needs to be grassroots, needs to be from the ground up.

Aubrey: This is The Brightline Podcast from Brightline Defense. We explore environmental justice issues, or EJ issues, in the Bay Area and California, highlighting the work of community-based organizations, including our own. My name’s Aubrey, and today we're heading back to San Francisco Chinatown, where community connection is the first line of defense against fires, earthquakes, and more. 

Michael Liao: So we see ourselves as a community convener that brings stakeholders together. 

My name is Michael Liao. I'm the Director of Programs at NICOS Chinese Health Coalition.

Aubrey: NICOS was founded back in 1985. That’s when a group of direct health and social service organizations came together and realized that they were all trying to do the same thing: enhance the health and wellbeing of the community.

Michael Liao: And they realized that it would be more efficient and effective to create one voice to represent Chinese American health issues. 

Aubrey: Then, just a few years later, the Loma Prieta earthquake struck California's Central Coast, sending shockwaves into San Francisco. 

Archival: …yesterday’s devastating earthquake. Building’s collapsed, roads and bridges buckled, and there’s still…

Aubrey: Chinatown escaped the worst of the damage, but the event revealed some systemic gaps in the neighborhood's disaster preparedness. 

Michael Liao:  Emergency response messages were primarily in English. There was a lot of confusion for a lot of the seniors that lived in Chinatown about what to do, whether they should shelter in place or evacuate. There was just a lot of recognition that not only did Chinatown suffer disproportionately, but also that the city lacked responses that were both linguistically and culturally specific and appropriate. 

Aubrey: If you've listened to our previous episodes, you'll know that Chinatown is a unique community in a lot of ways. The neighborhood is home to many monolingual residents who don’t speak English, and an aging immigrant population. Many of them live in dense Single Room Occupancy Hotels, or SROS. 

Wallace: A lot of folks who live in Chinatown are actually Chinese immigrants, who have never experienced earthquakes in their life.

Aubrey: This is Wallace Fung. He's the senior program coordinator at CYC Community Youth Center. One of the programs Wallace oversees is called the Seismic Safety Outreach Program which organizes disaster preparedness workshops for the Chinatown community. 

Wallace: Cuz a lot of immigrants that actually live in Chinatown are from southern part of China where earthquake is not a thing. So we basically show them some photos, videos of earthquake that happened in the past and the damages that it can potentially bring to the community.

Aubrey: Often the first challenge is getting residents to take the threat of disaster seriously.

Wallace: When they first hear about, you know, earthquake, or when we show them some photos, at first, most of their reaction would be like, oh, it's not gonna happen anytime soon.

Aubrey: But Wallace has some strategies to help build understanding of risk for Chinese immigrants. 

Wallace: In northern part of China, it's actually a pretty common thing. So, we show photos of the earthquakes that actually happen in China in the past. That way, for folks, especially folks who live in Chinatown community can relate more and they feel like, “oh, see, this is my homeland. This is my people. And they're suffering.”

People would start realizing that, oh, earthquake can actually happen anytime, anywhere. 

Aubrey: Wallace says that working adults who take the workshops are the first to understand the risk.

Wallace: Because they really wanna take care of their kids. 

Aubrey: But seniors, who are most at risk, are often harder to reach.

Wallace: When the participants are mainly seniors, they tend to be less attentive, because in the case of fire or earthquake, they feel like they're not capable of doing what young people can do. 

Aubrey: One of the best ways to prepare for a disaster is to make a go-bag full of essential items. But many seniors can't carry the weight of a fully stocked go-bag. Or they may not have room to store it if they're living in an SRO. But on top of all of that, the biggest danger is the fact that many seniors are isolated from their community.

Wallace: One of the most difficult conversations I had...there was one participant who asked me if there is an earthquake in San Francisco, where would he be able to go when he had no family?

And it's tough, cuz you know when, when we teach, people like to make a plan, right? We tell them to have a meeting spot with a family and friends. But sometimes some, some older folks, some seniors, just don't have any family members here in the United States. 

If there's no one here to assist him to give him a hand, then how is he able to access to all the resources available in the community? That's why we need more volunteers who can actually walk around a neighborhood like NERT to provide assistance if anything happens. 

Aubrey: NERT. That's the name of the program that Wallace just mentioned. It stands for Neighborhood Emergency Response Team. NERT is a training program for community volunteers that gives them the knowledge and skills to assist emergency responders from the city. In Chinatown, multilingual volunteers, including members of NERT, are crucial in spreading information to community members who don't speak English, like the man Wallace met at the workshop.

Wallace: They can. You know, get more knowledge that way they can pass them on to the neighbors, to older folks who might not, you know, have a chance to attend this type of workshop.

Aubrey: So, what happens when the disaster actually strikes? Michael, and the Disaster Preparedness Committee at NICOS, have worked to develop a strong communication network that stays online even when phone lines and power are down.

Michael Liao: So that system is primarily us sending out an email blast or doing a texting group. Or, you know, we also have redundant, hand radios located throughout San Francisco Chinatown that we can use if other means of communication are unavailable. And then we also have plans in place for human runners to run messages from key organizations, to one another.

Aubrey: The Disaster Preparedness Committee has thought a lot about earthquakes. But that's not the only type of disaster they're preparing for.

Michael Liao: Over time, we really came to realize that there are a lot more day to day events that on the likelihood scale were a lot more likely to happen, and although may not be as impactful as a major earthquake, and not as sensational, still could have the potential to disrupt a lot of the critical infrastructure in Chinatown. 

Aubrey: Disasters like fires in SRO hotels.

Michael Liao: You know, folks had such overcrowding, fires were fairly common and can be very devastating. It could displace hundreds of folks at a time, if not more. 

Aubrey: It's a familiar story for elders who have lived in the neighborhood for decades, like Wing Hoo Leung.

Wing Hoo Leung [translation]: I have lived in Chinatown from 1996 until 2020, over 20 years. I was living on Clay Street when I came here and moved to Jasper Street. People care for each other because, as I said, everything is easy to access without the language barrier. 

Aubrey: Mr. Leung remembers one close call in his old SRO.

Wing Hoo Leung [translation]: As fire safety, it is crucial for us seniors. I remember when I lived in Jasper Street and a family who forgot to turn off their stove and caused a fire. Luckily my grandson was there and called the emergency line to have firefighters solve the problem. The family really appreciated what my grandson did, and we still have a good relationship today. Fire can cost us our homes, and it’s sad for people like us seniors without any help. 

Aubrey: That kind of intergenerational support between Mr. Leung's grandson and the other SRO tenants is actually a critical part of Chinatown's disaster preparedness plans. Organizations like NICOS and CYC have worked hard to improve communication systems and awareness in the community. But Wallace has found that seniors still struggle to engage with workshops and learn how to use technology. That's where the youth come in.

Wallace: The youth should be involved in this because the seniors, they really like talking to younger people and when they see teenagers they tend to be more interested in listening to what they have to say. They just seem to be having more fun.

Aubrey: CYC also runs other workshops, similar to the one on Seismic Safety. They include a tablet class, where youth leaders teach seniors how to use their technology. 

Carson: My name is Carson. I am currently in the 12th grade and I go to Wallenburg High School.

Aubrey: Carson is the president of Wallenburg's Youth for Community Engagement, a CYC program in San Francisco public schools. Its goal is to help new immigrants gain confidence and communication skills. Carson has been leading a tablet workshop for seniors living in Chinatown.

Carson: When we don't understand something, we will just, like, stumble our way through and, like, click on random things to actually learn it. But I think for the seniors, they're just too afraid of, like, breaking their phone, or like going to the next page when they don't, like, fully understand how things work.

Aubrey: In the Tablet workshops, Carson gives a presentation while his vice president runs the slides. Each of the club's officers stand near the seniors to help them if they miss a step, or run into problems. In the case of an emergency, these technology skills can be life saving.

Carson: There's a digital divide in Chinatown. When people don't have their cell phones, the information is being delayed to them when there's something crazy going on. So they have, like, less time to prepare for the disaster.

Aubrey: The skills in these workshops are important. But it is also clear that there's more to it than learning which buttons to press. Being able to reach seniors, and connect with them, is key in building a prepared community, and fostering youth leadership. 

Carson: It kind of reminds me of my grandmother, which, she was living with me in China for five years before I came to the United States. So, I think it kind of motivated me to just continue volunteering, helping out the seniors because it would really mean a lot to them and their family just to get in touch. Right? So that relationship like stays there and never goes away.

Aubrey: For all of the challenges that Chinatown faces, it’s widely considered to be one of the most prepared communities in San Francisco. That’s thanks to the effort of organizations including NICOS and CYC who have helped build a more connected and informed neighborhood. But organizers like Michael know that there’s still a lot more work to be done. 

Michael Liao: I hope looking ahead that there will be more resources, and that organizations could get more funding and resources to continue to do the work that we do, to continue to lead these conversations that are really needed. And to be able to continue to strategize and come up with culturally and linguistically specific interventions that fit the community in the neighborhood. 

I think our model has been something that the city is looking into, and replicating in other neighborhoods, and it really shows that the city is starting to recognize disaster preparedness, just like so many other health issues, needs to be happening at the local level, needs to be grassroots, needs to be from the ground up. So we hope that that's the trend that will continue in terms of programming and funding. That's what we look forward to.

Aubrey: This episode was written and produced by me, Aubrey Calaway and our assistant producer Will Entwisle. Original music by Maya Glicksman Thank you to Eddie Ahn, Sarah Xu Cecilia Mejia, Jacky Li, Rachel Hung, and Jerry Xu for production support. And thanks to Michael Liao, Wallace Fung, Wing Hoo Leung, and Carson Ma for sharing their stories. This podcast is funded by the Environmental Justice Small Grants from the California EPA.

For more information about Brightline, you can visit our website at BrightlineDefense.org or on social media @brightlinedefense. You can also find a transcript of this episode on our Medium Blog.

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