Thanks kindly to your fine paper and reporter Thomas Pendergast for the critically important article detailing the insufficient funds for building our community’s water pipeline system to properly manage westside fire risks.
Thus water is not the only requirement during an earthquake in San Francisco. I remember an earthquake that happened at Market Street at Beal Street where the concrete façade’s on the buildings’ roofs came down like rain and broke like mortar on the sidewalk as I looked up Market Street as it rolled like ocean waves at the beach.
A plan for expanding the Emergency Firefighting Water Supply (EFWS) system to douse an inferno likely to follow a major earthquake is moving forward, with new pipelines proposed in addition to those already funded.
The California Geological Survey (CGS) released updated Tsunami Hazard Area Maps recently that show the City will be more affected on its northeast shoreline but of course the west side of town will be affected as well.
One San Francisco supervisor, the Richmond District’s Sandra Lee Fewer, asked the SF
Public Utilities Commission (SFPUC) to come up with a study of options for addressing
this issue after it offered a previous solution that the SF Fire Depart ment (SFFD) deemed
unworkable.
More than 15 San Francisco neighborhoods could burn to the ground due to a lack of water at the SF Fire Department’s disposal after a major earthquake.
City officials have been playing a dangerous game of Russian Roulette with the safety and
security of tens of thousands of San Franciscan’s lives. They all agree that a catastrophic
earthquake is coming, but they hope it’s not on their watch.
The recent wildfires that devastated parts of Northern California this fall have caused
communities across the state to question what resources they have available to quickly
put out large fires.
The reservoirs need to be
intact or fully backed up, otherwise what good are the pipes without water?
Richmond Review/Sunset Beacon 