The Department of Homeland Security has awarded the San Diego Unified Port District $731,250 in grants as part of the Port Grant Security Program, a competitive federal grant that provides port authorities, state and regional agencies with funds to improve port security. The Port of San Diego will use these funds to improve harbor surveillance, harborwide communications and chemical contamination detection devices.
San Diego County applied for the grant awards after assessing the vulnerabilities in the Port’s infrastructure and security, according to John MacIntyre, manager of the office of homeland security for the port district. Under the program’s guidelines, the 102 eligible ports nationwide were required to propose a maximum of six fundable projects and cover 25 percent of the costs themselves.
Therefore, “we had to figure out what [San Diego] could afford,” MacIntyre explained, and then compile a list of needs the grant program could support. San Diego received 90 percent of the funds requested during this grant period.
Nonetheless, “this does not mean we have terrorists running loose in San Diego,” MacIntyre said. He added that San Diego’s terror risk is at a level three on a one-to-five scale, with one representing the highest risk and five the lowest. The majority of national ports share the level-three status, he said.
“One should not read into [the grant award] that we have a higher risk than anywhere else,” MacIntyre said.The Port of San Diego is currently refining its disaster preparedness guidelines by comparing plans with both the city and county and participating in Coast Guard-sponsored exercises, during which the officials key to preventing and responding to disasters in San Diego talk through potential scenarios.
“Our guidelines [address] how to respond to various levels of emergency, from a building fire to a major earthquake to a terrorist incident.” MacIntyre said.
Overall, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security has allocated $202 million toward the Port Grant Security Program for the year 2007. Of the money offered to San Diego, $487,500 will go directly to the San Diego Unified Port District and $243,750 toward the Port District Police Department. The grant will help the maritime police division fulfill the Coast Guard’s law-enforcement provisions, which require the Port to maintain security within the cruise terminal, Marine terminal and National City terminal.
San Diego County also recently received a $100,000 grant from California Volunteers to develop and enhance its countywide disaster preparedness programs. Of the 38 separate governmental, community and nonprofit organizations to apply for this grant, the San Diego County Office of Emergency Services won one of the largest awards, according to Marta Bortner, communications manager for California Volunteers.
The award, originally funded by the Department of Homeland Security, will allow the San Diego County Office of Emergency Services to fund a variety of crisis training programs. Among these programs is a county shelter team, which “will train people on how to provide medical services to shelters in case of disaster.” Bortner said. The grant will also help San Diego to improve disaster-planning education for residents who do not speak English, said Holly Porter, public information specialist at the county’s Office of Emergency Services.
“Right now we have a prepareness wheel “¦ a cardboard, informational wheel that people can attach to their refrigerators,” Porter said. According to Porter, the wheel provides instructions on how to respond to specific emergencies from earthquakes and tsunamis to a terrorist attack or a flu pandemic.
“We will use the grant money to print those instructions in different languages,” she said.
San Diego residents interested in receiving a disaster preparedness wheel may contact the County Office of Emergency Services at (858) 565-5592.
Through its grant program, California Volunteers aims to generate the training, equipment and transportation necessary to help California communities protect themselves from natural disasters. In its most recent awarding period, California Volunteers awarded 15 grants and a total of $1 million to cities and organizations across the state.
For more information on California Volunteers, visit www.californiavolunteers.org. For more information on the San Diego Unified Port District, visit www.portofsandiego.org.