Santa Clarita Valley Preps for Big One : Grass-Roots Group Outfitting Schools for Disaster Survival

Diane Van Gelderen well remembers the days she had to escort her three small daughters across the bed of the Santa Clara River after fierce winter rains knocked out a bridge that led to their elementary school.

The family walked along gravel that rescue workers had spread over the muddy riverbed because it was the only way to reach the school. Van Gelderen and the girls scaled the embankments on hastily erected wooden ladders. The children, of course, thought that it was a wonderful adventure. “The kids loved it,” she recalled.

But for Van Gelderen and many of her Canyon Country neighbors, the flood six years ago was yet another reminder that many portions of the Santa Clarita Valley--and the entire valley itself--can be cut off from the rest of Los Angeles during a flood, fire or earthquake. They received another reminder this winter when a freak snowstorm closed Newhall Pass.

Parents Committee

Now Van Gelderen and a grass-roots committee of parents are launching an ambitious plan to outfit all valley schools with enough medical supplies, blankets, water and food for students to survive for 72 hours after a major disaster. The schools might also serve as emergency shelters for the public. On Saturday, the committee will hold a daylong country fair at Canyon High School in Canyon Country to raise money for the effort.

Experts in the disaster-awareness field called the parents’ effort unique. “I’ve never seen anything quite like it in the county,” said Dave Doughman, chairman of Santa Clarita’s emergency-preparedness committee.

“I think everyone has been looking to government to do these kinds of things,” said Lois Clark McCoy, past president of the National Assn. of Search and Rescue. Now coordinator for the Santa Barbara County Office of Emergency Management, McCoy has 30 years in the disaster and emergency-response fields.

McCoy said the Santa Clarita effort signals new public awareness about the dangers of a major earthquake in California. “I think they’re on the cutting edge of change,” she said.

The goal of preparing all valley schools for a disaster started at Sulphur Springs Elementary School, where the parent-teacher association started collecting emergency supplies two years ago. Van Gelderen and Chris Connelly, a nurse, spearheaded the drive.

A large shipping container, identical to the kind seen on trains or merchant ships, is kept on a concrete pad at the edge of the playground. The container is packed with barrels of water, cooking utensils, sandbags, splints, blankets, 10 portable toilets and canned food. “The peanut butter lasts 10 years,” Van Gelderen said.

The school also has a portable water-purification system that could be used to remove chlorine and impurities from the swimming pools of nearby homes, Van Gelderen added. Most of the goods were donated, she said. The container’s contents are worth about $15,000, she said.

Before the emergency supplies were collected, Sulphur Springs had a bare-bones disaster program, Principal Rochelle Glassberg said. Each classroom had a first aid kit, and students practiced earthquake drills. “Everyone would go under their desks,” she said.

Some other valley schools have begun collecting emergency supplies, Glassberg said. Organizers of Saturday’s fair hope to raise $100,000 for more supplies. The fair, from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., will include games, a petting zoo, music and dance performances, and an auction. A country music concert will be held at 8 p.m.

Glassberg has taught in the Santa Clarita Valley for more than 20 years and remembers how the 1971 Sylmar quake destroyed freeway bridges connecting the valley with Los Angeles. There is always the potential for that to happen again, she said.

“Fires, floods, earthquakes--we’ve experienced them all,” she said.