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Concerned about the threats of damaging earthquakes, wide-reaching tsunamis and a slow, disparate government response to them, the city of Long Beach announced last week it will overhaul its disaster plans into a first-ever Mass Evacuation and Shelter-in-Place Plan.
The consolidation will include plans otherwise made separately by city police, firefighters, public works and health officials to form a single-response playbook to catastrophe, from evacuation routes to shelter locations and how to handle the aftermath of a disaster.
But before they release any plans, the city wants to hear from the public.
Officials are running a 76-question survey through Nov. 30 that asks people what they already know about the city’s response, what assistance they most need and how they would prefer to be notified in the event they need to evacuate.
“We are committed to ensuring the safety and well-being of all residents, particularly in the face of emergencies and natural disasters,” said Mayor Rex Richardson. “By sharing their individual experiences through the survey, residents can contribute to a safer, more resilient Long Beach.”
Natural disasters are rare in Long Beach. According to Reginald Harrison, the city’s director of disaster preparedness, it’s been decades since this city has seen a tsunami or earthquake cause serious damage to property or people.
But that does not mean it’s outside the realm of possibility.
According to the U.S. Geological Survey, much of Long Beach’s low-lying coasts are vulnerable to natural disasters. The Belmont Shore neighborhood, as well as areas north of Colorado Lagoon and Los Cerritos Channel, and west of the L.A. River, are included in state evacuation zones.
“We’re a very complex city,” Harrison said. “We sit on the Pacific Rim, we are concerned about tsunamis, our most probable disaster is an earthquake, because of all of the fault lines that crisscross Long Beach and this region.”
Tsunamis are rare in California — more than 150 have run ashore since 1800 — but pose a constant threat to Long Beach and Los Angeles, especially at their respective ports.
Earthquakes along undersea faults also loom close to Long Beach and near Catalina. Many temblors, Harrison said, are small and almost unnoticeable yet happen daily.
Long Beach has not been the epicenter of a major earthquake since 1933, when the city experienced a 6.4 magnitude quake, resulting in over 100 casualties and $40 million in property damage.
“The most recent major earthquake felt in Long Beach was the 7.1 magnitude earthquake centered in Ridgecrest, Calif., in 2019, Harrison wrote. “There were no reports of major property damage.”
Other threats also loom, including tropical storm conditions exacerbated by climate change, which are likely to have increasingly heavy rainfall, heightening the risk of flash flooding, damage to boats in marinas and high water forcing people from their homes.
Harrison’s message was underscored by Long Beach Public Health Bureau Manager Sandy Wedgeworth, who reiterated that record rainfall in February — one of the wettest on record — and the threat of Tropical Storm Hilary last August put the city on edge.
She added that as Hurricane Hilary approached the coast, Long Beach was tapped to prepare shelter for the 4,200 people living on Catalina Island, beyond the 13 pre-designated locations they open in coordination with the Red Cross.
“All we can do is be prepared,” Wedgeworth said. “So if it does happen, we have the best possible outcomes, and so that’s why people should take it seriously because we can’t guarantee that, just because we haven’t had a natural disaster in however long, that we’re not going to have one. We could have one tomorrow. We don’t know.”
An effective evacuation, officials agree, is one in which as few people as necessary move the shortest distance to safety. How that happens is through a well-constructed system that considers the needs of different communities, distance to highways and access to supplies.
Some areas need more public transportation. Others, like the Naples area of Long Beach, for example, have an elderly population that requires extra attention. Some areas are close to the Port of Long Beach, or the airport, or are too far from a highway.
But it is also important to gauge how much people know about what services are already available to them, Wedgeworth said.
“It doesn’t do you any good to have, you know, a shelter that’s like a block away from your house but you don’t even know that that’s a shelter, right?” Wedgeworth said.
Following the conclusion of the survey, officials will draft plans that will be made available at the city’s libraries, community centers and online later this year, Harrison said.
Surveys can be taken in person at any city library or online in English, Spanish, Khmer and Tagalog.
To learn more about disaster preparedness, visit the city’s Disaster Preparedness website here.