The roads are closed, and the cell towers are down. A disaster has struck West Marin—who will respond? 

Seven nonprofits in Marin are developing an independent communication system to help serve vulnerable communities when normal communication channels are unavailable. It’s a one-year pilot program, pairing resource centers with ham radio operators to relay messages about who needs food, water, clothes, blankets, transportation or information—much like the National Guard. West Marin Community Services and the San Geronimo Valley Community Center are participating, and if the program is successful it would expand to places like Tomales, Bolinas and Stinson Beach. 

“In a disaster, people have realized that lack of coordination and lack of communication results in a very inefficient disaster response,” said Adriana Rabkin, the director of Marin Voluntary Organizations Active in Disaster, or VOAD. “You have people block after block providing the same thing, and you’re missing the food or the water or the shelter. You have people in vulnerable situations, and they’re not getting the help…This says we can work together.”

The program is meant to match people with their expertise. First responders will remain responsible for protecting life and property, while community-based organizations will work to interface with the public and meet less immediate needs. Ham radio operators are already signed up to be called upon in an emergency, and they’ll be trained to meet up with a nonprofit employee to convey messages to and from Marin’s emergency operations center.

VOAD is partnering with the Radio Amateur Civil Emergency Service and the Marin Amateur Radio Society to coordinate volunteers, run drills and offer training for different scenarios. Participants are ready to put the communication system into practice this fall, whether it’s a fire, an extended power shutoff or something else.

Each nonprofit has designated a primary and backup liaison, and the executive director would be third in line. The liaisons were selected based on how close they live to the resource center and their knowledge of at-risk people.

Poko Giacomini is leading the disaster preparedness program at the San Geronimo Valley Community Center. The radio communications program is just one of many efforts she is undertaking. In partnership with the Marin County Fire Department and the San Geronimo Valley Emergency Readiness Group, she is creating a map of people who are vulnerable and a buddy system. Seniors without transportation are her top priority. 

“We are so isolated out here, we automatically kick into survival mode, because who knows how long it will take the county or the food bank to reach us, depending on the disaster,” she said.

Being prepared on an individual level is key, so she said she asks people to sign up for emergency alerts and to pack a go bag whenever she can.

The committee is meeting every Friday and is planning monthly drills. The costs are minimal; radio operators maintain their own equipment, and liaisons volunteer their time. Ms. Rabkin said the group will present to the Board of Supervisors by the end of the year to get their buy-in, then roll out the program to more organizations in early 2022.

VOAD is a national movement that’s had a local chapter in Marin since 1989. But as disasters fade away, so do VOADs, Ms. Rabkin said. The Marin VOAD, which has a seat in the emergency operations center, restarted after the North Bay fires in 2017, when evacuees showed up at the community center and Lawson’s Landing. 

Ms. Rabkin selected nonprofits for the pilot program that she has an existing relationship with, because she knows their capabilities. North Marin Community Services, Community Action Marin, Homeward Bound of Marin, the Canal Alliance and the San Francisco-Marin Food Bank fill out the roster over the hill. Once the kinks are worked out, the program can expand to anywhere a ham radio operator is willing to go.

“We were lucky because we had all the right players involved,” Ms. Rabkin said. “It was a mutual understanding that you need the left hand talking to the right hand, and that’s the public and private sectors.”