Open Mike: A Look Inside the County of San Mateo
San Mateo County Executive Mike Callagy and his guests explore the inner workings of our county government and the things that make living here so rewarding.
Open Mike: A Look Inside the County of San Mateo
Emergency Management: Ready Together. Stronger Together.
Mike catches up with Dr. Shruti Dhapodkar, Director of Emergency Management. They discuss planning, readiness and response in case of emergencies and disasters.
Welcome to Open Mic, a look inside the County of San Mateo with your host, County Executive Mike Callagy. Hi, everyone. Welcome to our second edition of Open Mic. Thank you for all of you who viewed our last edition and commented. We've got some really great feedback, so please feel free to give us feedback after viewing this segment, too. And we are lucky, lucky, lucky to have an equally dynamic, entertaining, and someone just full of information with us here today. And that is Shruti Tabodkar from our directorial Director of Department of Emergency Management. Shruti, welcome to Open Mic. Thank you, Mike.
SPEAKER_01:I'm so excited to be here.
SPEAKER_00:It's great to have you here. So excited for the guests to hear all the information that you have. And like Nicholas, you've taken somewhat of a circuitous route to get here. You are a medical doctor, and here you are leading the Department of Emergency Management. So tell us a little bit about your route in getting here to this level.
SPEAKER_01:Well, when I was five years old, Mike, I decided I wanted to be a doctor. And I kind of stayed on that path, even though pretty much everyone in my family was like, you may get bored. Because you like to solve problems. You like challenges. You like to innovate. You like systems. And so what happened was I went through and got my degree in medicine. I practiced for a couple of years. And then I had to do some soul searching about what I wanted to do next in life because what I was doing was definitely helping people, but I wanted to help people at a global level. So I took a year off and I basically decided to look through different types of governments. So federal government, state government, county government, and city government. And then I was like, county government is where it is at. So I started as an intern in health, in the Department of Health, as emergency management for emergency management. At that interview, I basically said, I don't know anything about emergency management, but I do know a thing or two about hospitals and skilled
SPEAKER_00:nursing facilities. Yes, you do, yeah.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, so that's how my career started. And then as I dealt with a lot of medical health emergencies that dealt with with quite a variety of things, including pandemic. It really cemented for me that emergency management was where I wanted to be. It was a very natural bridge for me. I did go to the Naval Postgraduate School during the pandemic and after the pandemic.
SPEAKER_00:You and I have that in common. What a great program down there at the Naval Postgraduate School and somewhat local here in Monterey County.
SPEAKER_01:Absolutely. So that's how I've come to become the director Director of Emergency Management here.
SPEAKER_00:Well, that is amazing. You know, I just learned some new things about you. That's terrific. You know, I got to see you in action during the pandemic. That's when I first really became aware of you. And I was amazed at how dynamic you were in the EOC and then the Department Operations Center for Health. Clearly, there's a passion that drives you. Tell us a little bit about that. What is that? Why are you so driven in regard to to emergency management?
SPEAKER_01:The word passion actually means to endure. To me, my passion really lies with the people. To endure with them, but how do we make things better for them? Because we can, and we don't need to, as you say, we don't need to be status quo. We need to do better for our people and our community. throughout my career, whether it's been medicine, public health, or technology, it's been about the people I serve. That's what gives me joy and fulfills me. At the end of the day, I can say I did something better for my community.
SPEAKER_00:That passion clearly comes out in everything that you do. I'm just so proud of the work that you do. Tell us a little bit about the pandemic. That weighed heavy on all of us. And it's something that, quite frankly, none of us could have expected in our careers. It was something that really came on suddenly and something that was really a low risk, you know, from everything that we trained for. We expect earthquakes and fire and all those type of things. But a worldwide pandemic, Shruti, tell us what that, how it affected you during that time.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, I think the pandemic affected a us all very differently. Some people were at home having to deal with kids that were not able to go to school and then people like me who were working in the EOC or were out there in whether it was testing or vaccination clinics. It was definitely a different experience for all of us. For me, what the pandemic highlighted is that we live in a world where Anything is possible. Emergency management actually comes from the civil defense times, which is very unique. The civil defense times was really for one disaster every few years. We now see flooding all the time. We see, not pandemics, but epidemics quite a bit. We see emerging diseases all the time. And so, We have to be just as agile as our disasters. And that is what the pandemic taught me was that we can't be status quo.
SPEAKER_02:And
SPEAKER_01:we need to be data-driven, we need to be able to forecast, and we need to be spearheading data-driven decisions in the field of emergency management.
SPEAKER_00:Right, and we've got to be at our best when things are at their worst. And it's something I always tell you, you know, in getting prepared for the next disaster. You know, so many innovative, really cutting-edge things were accomplished during the pandemic. So much to be proud of in a very, very difficult time because I felt like we were racing against lives, that we were trying to save lives and every minute counted. What are you most proud of, of the work that the county did during that time? What comes to mind for you? I
SPEAKER_01:think one of the best stories is the COVID hospital. So the COVID hospital, you know, my team and other other teams in the EOC were calling to figure out staffing, you know, hotel space, everything. On that Friday, we signed the contract and on Monday it was active.
SPEAKER_00:That was amazing. That was amazing. And tell the folks really what occurred there. I mean, and how this was so innovative and so important and early on, this was very early on in the pandemic.
SPEAKER_01:This was very early on in the pandemic. And the idea was that the COVID hospital would be a place for them to basically have medical care that is more like a step down. And what that did was that it took pressure off of our skilled nursing facilities, and it took pressure off of our healthcare systems, which basically meant it saved lives. Because if those were overwhelmed, those systems were overwhelmed, then you have the workers then getting COVID, then you would have system failures. And so that COVID hospital saved so many lives just by having a safe place for people to go. And what was so incredible about that is the entire county came together to make that happen. Whether it was the person from DPW that was delivering the barricades or the person from EMS that was organizing everything or the person from ISD making sure we had iPads There were people, there were startups and other libraries, for example, printed for us face shields because we didn't have any. And so, that to me was such a special moment to just get everyone on the same page to build that future together where we did save lives.
SPEAKER_00:I mean, that was an incredible time. there was no playbook, there was no rules, but you all did some amazing things. And we hope that we never have to relive that, but we've got some experience in that. And really a lot of that experience is translatable to everyday emergencies. So let's talk about that a little bit. So Department of Emergency Management, you guys do so much, but people say, really, Department of Emergency Management, what is that? Is that like a police department or a fire department? What is it? Tell the audience exactly what you guys do.
SPEAKER_01:To make it very simple, we prepare for before, during, and after emergencies. And what that means is that we make sure everything is coordinated. So between law enforcement, health, fire, public works, that coordination is what we do. So if you think about it from a healthcare perspective, and you think about a person being in a car crash, They come to the emergency room and that's really your first responders bringing your patient to the emergency room or the disaster to the emergency room. We are basically the ICU for the county. What we do is we coordinate all the doctors, all the nurses, everyone to make sure that you get the best care possible on your worst day.
SPEAKER_00:Wow, that's great. I was so impressed when you came to me and you were fairly new. And you had this whole org chart that was developed with all these new positions. And you were saying, Mike, this is really what this county needs to be successful in preparation for an emergency and during an emergency. And I was so impressed because it was so well thought out. And you were saying, hey, Mike, I can get grants for this position and that position. And we were able to do that. So you have created an incredible team, very diverse team. Two questions. here. One, tell us a little bit about the team and what does it take to be one of those team members? What skills do you look for? What do they have to possess to join Shruti's team at the Department of Emergency Management?
SPEAKER_01:Well, Mike, it's really not my team. It's the county's team. We work for every single person that lives here in the county. And the people that work there, that has to be their number one priority. And then we're designed differently and we've done that on purpose because we believe that emergencies need all angles you know so we have people that used to work with volunteer organizations we have people that used to work at FEMA we have we have a person that used to be in the Pentagon you know we have a retired fire chief we're also get now getting a retired police chief All
SPEAKER_00:bring different skills.
SPEAKER_01:All bring different skills.
SPEAKER_00:That makes for a cohesive team.
SPEAKER_01:It makes for a cohesive team. And all these people have lived experiences. We have a climatologist and a geologist on staff who's been evacuated quite a few times. We have people that have experienced disaster from the other side. So they can bring that experience in as well so we can then better prepare our communities to be ready for a disaster.
SPEAKER_00:Wow, that's incredible. And I got to tell you, talking about disasters, the one that keeps me up at night is the thought of a massive earthquake. And we know that that is a real possibility in this region. We all remember, and I'm sure you do too, in 89, the Loma Prieta earthquake, how quickly it struck. And 63 people died during that earthquake in the Bay Area. 12,000 were displaced. And it can happen just like that. It's something, like I said before, when those situations strike, when we're in the worst situations, we have to be at our best. Tell me, how are we preparing as not only a county, but a community to address something like that? And I know that we've developed some resiliency centers. We've invested. The board has done a great job in investing money at the Cow Palace, where we could not only house people, but really create meals, thousands and thousands of meals in a day. We're doing the same thing at the event center here in San Mateo. The board has invested in these resiliency centers in anticipation of the potential for a mass evacuation or people being displaced during an event. And we've already used some of these facilities, certainly during CZU. Talk a little bit about the preparedness and what people need to do and focus on in order to be prepared and be able to live through an event like that.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, so Mike, I think you're spot on. During a disaster, anything is possible. And so we as the county, we as first responders, limited resources. So everyone needs to be prepared at least for 72 hours, ideally for a week. And people think, oh, this is a hard task, which is why many people don't prepare. But it's really as easy as packing a suitcase to go on vacation. It's making sure you have some of your clothing, your medication, if you wear eyeglasses, some of those crucial things. But it is also, in addition, packing things like extra cash in small denominations, making sure you have photocopies of your paperwork, like your insurance paperwork, a video of your home. So when there is a recovery effort and there's monies allotted to that, that people are ready for the recovery. Because sometimes it takes six to eight months to just find all those documents or evidence. And you may not be able to get that when your house has been destroyed.
SPEAKER_00:Sure, sure. I mean, I can remember and you You hit on so many good points there. I can remember during the 1989 Loma Parida earthquake, I was on my way to school, I was going to law school at the time, I was a police officer, and I remember driving down 101, and the earthquake hits, and everybody pulls over, and I thought I had a flat tire, and I'm going, oh, everyone's letting me pull over. Well, the radios went dead, and I went right to the police department, and the police radios were down, and we went out on patrol, and I saw the devastation firsthand. So how do we prepare families for that, and what should families be doing to create a location or a way to contact each other and know that they're safe? How do families, what would be the advice that you would give to families?
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, it's an easy discussion. That's basically what happens if we can't connect with you, right? Where do we meet up, or who do we call out of state? And the reason we specifically say out of state is because the channels here, phone network, maybe down, so you may be able to get a text message across to somewhere other than in the Bay Area. Ideally, other than in California. So, make a plan, and the plan really needs to be, where are you gonna meet up if something happens? Maybe that's your local Starbucks, maybe it's your local library, and who you're gonna call or text, right? Maybe it's your grandmother or aunt that's living in New York. And let them know, and then you kind of have to play phone tag. It's the old-fashioned way of doing things.
SPEAKER_00:So the bottom line is have a plan and do it now. Don't wait and maybe even revisit that plan every year, especially with kids, quiz them. What is our plan and how do we communicate and how do we make sure that we're safe? Talk a little bit about, for us, Disaster Preparedness Day. It was a huge hit. And you guys did such an incredible job. I know the board supports this. And every year it seems to get better. And I want to encourage the public to go out, even if you were there this year, go out every single year and get your family used to going out there and the kids used to going out there. Because there's so many things that you, and so much new information you get every year. But you get those supplies too, those giveaways, those goodies that you get for showing up. Talk a little bit about that and why people should come back every year and why is it such a great reminder?
SPEAKER_01:Mike, I think Disaster Preparedness Day has gotten better and better specifically because of our outreach coordinator. She thinks so differently and one of the things that she's trying to do is make it more engaging. So one of the things we saw this year was that we had people stay for two to three hours. Usually people stay, you know, 30 minutes, they get their goodies and leave. People continue to stay and it's It's because the content was so good and put together. You sure
SPEAKER_00:it wasn't the free hot dogs?
SPEAKER_01:I don't think it was the free hot
SPEAKER_00:dogs, Mike.
SPEAKER_01:Maybe, maybe. But I'm vegetarian.
SPEAKER_00:It must have been the content then. That's great. But I'm glad that people are going out there and doing that. What do you think the highlight was of that day there?
SPEAKER_01:I think the highlight really was the kids. Getting kids interested in emergency preparedness early because that builds a culture of resiliency. And when I talk about emergencies, I don't just talk about big natural disaster. You know, people could have personal disasters, right? They could have a house fire or they may get evicted. Those are personal emergencies. And so how do you build a culture of resiliency here in San Mateo County that really starts with our kids?
SPEAKER_00:Right, right. Let's talk about some of the other emergencies and natural disasters that we face in this county. And quite frankly, I think that you've been around for all of them. I mean, we talked about the pandemic. We talked about the earthquake in 89. Wildfires, CZU. Talk a little bit about the prevention that we're undergoing now and the preparation for other wildfires. Because that was something that I think was a real surprise a devastating wildfire like that, the worst in San Mateo County history, along with tsunamis and tsunami warnings that we've had. And our first, I believe our first, tornado warning. I mean, who would have thought a tornado in San Mateo County? So we're not in Kansas, but it's amazing to have all of these in the world that we live in, in San Mateo County. So what are we doing to prepare for those?
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, for wildfires, Wildfire specifically, Mike, it's not just us. It's a lot of our partners such as Parks, RCD. We also have Firewise Communities, Fire Safe Communities. We have Cal Fire, County Fire, all the fire agencies here in San Mateo County. Vegetation management is number one, right? It's making sure that we do that vegetation management by getting rid of the fuel that causes these fires
SPEAKER_00:and I know the board has invested heavily in that and they are so dedicated in fact that's one of the goals that we have that the board recently set during our board retreat
SPEAKER_01:yeah one of the things I don't know if you've seen that picture of the miracle house in Lahaina
SPEAKER_00:oh yes right it's
SPEAKER_01:that one house that
SPEAKER_00:survived right
SPEAKER_01:that can be seen in every single fire there are miracle houses and actually they're not miracles Mike. They are scientifically proven, you know, ways that you can protect your house. And that is the zero to five rule, which is home hardening. Right. So making sure that you don't have fuel around your house that can burn, making sure you have a roof that doesn't burn easily. And so we have seen throughout many fires, whether it's L.A. fire or the Maui fires or Paradise, houses have been left that have done that have done the home hardening piece of it. So there's two parts of this. How does the community prepare the house, right? As an individual, but also what we do. And so we could do all we want, but if people in their neighborhoods don't prepare, we're at increased risk.
SPEAKER_00:So it's a real collaboration between certainly the county and the community and the cities and everyone working together to try to harden our targets. I think that's great advice and something that certainly I think we all have to think about. In fact, I'm thinking about it now, about some of the bushes and trees around my house that need to be trimmed. So maybe that's for this weekend,
SPEAKER_02:huh? Maybe.
SPEAKER_00:And we do have fire season coming up. I mean, we're in it right now. Typically, September, October, we get those hot, dry, windy days, and that can be scary. And the other thing is, you guys have put in some great technology, right? To really kind of give us early warnings of any type of wildfire. Can you talk a little bit about that?
SPEAKER_01:Absolutely. So we are using AI modeling for evacuation planning. We are able to now run a lot of different simulations and see how an evacuation would go. And based on that, we can say when does these zones need to be evacuated versus before it used to be paper and it would be three scenarios. Now we can run hundreds of scenarios at the same time.
SPEAKER_00:And that's in real time.
SPEAKER_01:That's in real time.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, we've come a long ways. That's amazing. So during any emergency or even before an emergency or after an emergency, communication is key. And early warning systems and giving people information during a a natural disaster because information is power, right? And everyone wants to know what's going on. And then even after communicating, what tools are you using and how can people get involved in getting that communication?
SPEAKER_01:Mike, communication has always been something that comes out of every single after action report. And this is something that we collectively need to do better on. So one of the things that we're working on is standardizing messaging. We're getting all of the agencies in San Mateo County on the same page and the hope is that we are able to push that messaging out ahead of time to the public to say this is what it means when you get this kind of message you know what's the difference between advisory a watch or warning these are all confusing terms I mean before when I wasn't in emergency management I would be confused too they all mean the same thing in my head you know but now I clearly understand what they mean and you know we We have the knowledge that we just need to share with our public. I think the idea is to get that rolled out in the next year or so. And so we are getting buy-in from all of our city and our stakeholders to start moving that along.
SPEAKER_00:How can families, how can our residents get more information about how to prepare for a natural disaster? Is there a website that they can go to? Is there a list of things that they should be checking off and making that they have in their house to prepare for the next disaster?
SPEAKER_01:One of the websites that everyone should sign up to is smcalert.info. That's where you sign up to get alerts and warnings.
SPEAKER_00:Okay, let's say that again because that is so important. smcalert.info. Okay, very good. Everybody should sign up for that. Everybody should. So after this, after the million views we get here, your numbers should skyrocket, right? Absolutely,
SPEAKER_01:absolutely. Another great website to go to is... to our website. We recently created a tsunami dashboard and we had 78,000 views in a period of three days. And that I think is really important because we are putting the knowledge and the power in the hands of our public so they can make decisions. And so we have a survey that can be found in the link below that the community can participate in. And so the idea is to learn from the community. What do they need before, during and after disasters? And how we're going to use that information is we're basically going to take that information and say, these are our gaps. This is what the community needs. And how do we work towards these gaps into building into our plan? So then we are actually building with the community and co-creating our emergency plans with the community.
SPEAKER_00:All right. So last question. Yes. What's your five to 10 year vision for the Department of Emergency Management? I know you've done so much so quickly and you've got this dynamic team, but we're all about innovation in San Mateo County. We want to be the leader in everything that we do. The board has invested a great deal of resources in emergency management and you have played such an important part in just a very short time as the director and really revolutionizing the way that we respond to emergencies. What's your vision?
SPEAKER_01:It's actually not my vision, Mike. It's actually your vision and the board's vision. And that is to be the best in the country. And that vision is not about us as the Department of Emergency Management. That is really about this community and how we here in San Mateo County can be the most resilient community in the country. And we want to lead by example. We basically want everyone to copy us because we will be the most resilient. county in the country. No doubt.
SPEAKER_00:That's awesome. I love that energy. I love that. Look, ladies and gentlemen, I told you she was outstanding. We're so lucky to have you as the director of Department of Emergency Management. Thank you. Thank you for being our guest, our second guest on this podcast. And I want to thank all of you for joining us on Open Mic. Please take an opportunity to give me some feedback. Send me an email. Let me know what you want to hear. Thank you for joining us and stay safe out there.
