Cow Hollow once had block captains. The Marina once had ALL of the San Francisco Fire Department’s certified neighborhood emergency responders.

That’s because after the destructive Loma Prieta earthquake, the Marina became the birthplace of the Neighborhood Emergency Response Team (NERT) program here in the city, and it has been a standard for the program spreading to other neighborhoods as 20,000 people have been trained in the past 30 years.

But the area’s readiness seems to have peaked and ebbed as people move away, follow other interests, age out of certain activities.

I have taken the pulse of the area as the official coordinator of Cow Hollow and Marina NERTs the past year and a half. I’ve discovered that NERT may have been born here after the Loma Prieta but there are only a handful of active NERTs left here.

I’ve had a chance to connect with former block captains and longtime NERTs in the area. “I couldn’t find anyone to take over from me,” one 80-year old block captain and former NERT told me. “The only person I still know on the block is 90.”

We have to take the baton from earlier neighbor responders, and pass it on to our neighbors of today. The people next door and the people across the street.

And there’s only one hour we need to focus on: The Golden Hour.

The Golden Hour, or first 60 minutes after a disaster happens, is when neighbors rely on each other. We can check on each other, treat minor injuries, and put out small fires.

A block - both sides of the street, about 20 homes - can learn to work together in “the Golden Hour” where we can make the most impact as neighbors.

Can we bring block readiness back to Cow Hollow & the Marina District? To do so, groups and leaders in our district can use this easy and free 9 step neighborhood response plan class that the SF Fire Department supports.

“Do you know how to turn off your neighbor’s gas?”

— It's one of the best ways to prevent fire.

Do you know how to stop a small fire from spreading from one home to the next home? How to shut off the water main so pollutants don’t enter your system? Or how to alert your neighbors you might need help?

Each block in our district and the city can learn these life-saving and property-protecting skills.

You can learn it in a free 9-Step block-by-block readiness program, like the one offered last week at the Golden Gate Valley Branch Library.

According to this SF Fire Dept preparedness program called Map Your Neighborhood (MYN), we do better in disaster response when we know each other.

As a NERT, the first households I am most likely to be able to reach and work with for emergency resilience are on my own block: gas turn offs, fire extinguisher shares, staging and gathering areas in homes and garages.

A year ago I took this 90 minute class, it covers what happens BEFORE NERTs deploy to help the wider neighborhood. We check our household, our building, our block.

I am probably the only person on my block to take the class, I believe I am the only NERT on my block. I wish I weren’t the only one who knows this. I see that NERT is a commitment and our area could start with something lighter weight like MYN. It’s an easy way to increase a block’s readiness for emergency situations that gets neighbors talking to each other about how we can each help. You can read about it here.

My takeaway from the class? I thought, “I’m not ready to tell my neighbors! That means….my block is definitely not ready.”

I can’t deploy as a NERT before I have taken stock of my own area. Since taking the class, I’ve been mapping my own block. I started talking to local neighbor associations about spreading the response plan to larger groups of neighbors.

Last week I attempted the next step: telling my neighbors about it (I even printed out flyers!) and inviting them to a class thanks to the dedication of the instructor of the class, fellow NERT Sue Brown. She is committed to making a regular schedule of events and bringing this class to a person on every block, and then to all the neighbors on that block — the class is a funnel of sorts, inducting us into a plan that only works if our neighbors know about it and take part.

I invited every household on my block to consider attending this event or another one upcoming. We can’t do the plan if they don’t know the plan.

“In a disaster, when emergency responders like 911, fire, police, utilities, EMS are overwhelmed, we are the responders.”

— That's you and me.

We can revitalize our block readiness

With a free and regularly offered 9 STEP PROGRAM supported by the SF Fire Department. Pictured at Golden Gate Valley Library with District 2 Supervisor Stephen Sherrill

I invited community leaders to take the class.

I also invited our new District 2 Supervisor, Stephen Sherrill, who joined the class. Supervisor Sherrill reminded me that he led hurricane response in the Office of Mayor Michael Bloomberg in New York, and then two hurricanes hit the city, so he knows why we need neighborhood readiness training and he’s interested in what we NERTs are doing in Cow Hollow and Marina.

I invited Rich Goss, a member of the security committee of the Cow Hollow Association, to join the class to see how the free fire department readiness class can kick off block-level readiness in our district.

I hope to raise awareness on my block - and all the blocks - to let people know we have a 9-step plan to increase readiness with our neighbors. We just need to be walked through it. This class does that.

All it takes to get started with district readiness is one person from one block to attend the 90 minute class.

The next classes will be at the Fire Department, Folsom & 19th, June 21 9am and 11 am. If you’re interested, but unable to attend these sessions, please contact Sue Brown, suebrown21@yahoo.com, for information on other sessions. If you’re in my district or neighborhood and interested, you can let me know too!

There’s also a Zoom MYN on June 19. Sign up here.