Water Rescue Failure - SF

[rognvald]

I find it curious that some contributors to this blog find humor or a basis for humor in the tragic death of a surely troubled soul. I believe these comments are not only insensitive and sarcastic, but lack respect for the serious nature of this discussion. Attempts at humor would find a more receptive audience in lighter, more superficial topics where contributors seek levity not philosophical substantiveness. Best, Ron

[rgscpat]

There was a sideshow story to the Raymond Zack tragedy on Crown Beach that the City of Alameda had budgeted money for renewal of water rescue training, but for some reason the training hadn't happened. I never heard a follow-up to this part of the story and wonder if it has been confirmed.

[MarkSF]

Originally Posted by rgscpat

There was a sideshow story to the Raymond Zack tragedy on Crown Beach that the City of Alameda had budgeted money for renewal of water rescue training, but for some reason the training hadn't happened. I never heard a follow-up to this part of the story and wonder if it has been confirmed.

There was a discussion the other morning on PBS about this - it turns out that the head of Alameda Fire dept. had stated that money had not been provided - while it has and had not been spent.

A few thoughts in random order :

Some who is suicidal is suffering from mental issues and needs help as much as someone suffering from a physical illness. They could be suffering from clinical depression and/or nervous breakdown.

I'd expect the police and fire in ANY locale to have the equipment to perform a water rescue, let alone on an island with a nautical history like Alameda's. All they needed was a $2000 inflatable and outboard.

Shouldn't there be federal requirements as to emergency services capabilities? As it looks like individual cities can't be relied upon to make the decisions themselves.

[hellosailor]

Not so simple, Mark.
" All they needed was a $2000 inflatable and outboard. "
No, not for any business much less for a governemnt agency. Buying the equipment "just" needs $2000. Now you need to add a maintenance line for it, and a storage line, and rules for operation and who and when it may be operated or transported. Where do you dock it? Or how do you launch it? Details, just details, but the purchase price is usually the least part of the ongoing cost of these things.


"Shouldn't there be federal requirements as to emergency services capabilities? As it looks like individual cities can't be relied upon to make the decisions themselves."
Well, that's a totally separate issue. There is no federal mandate to mess in these areas and as you may be aware, our federal government is actually prohibited from messing around in State affairs unless specifically authorized to do so. State public safety issues are State matters, not Federal ones.

Of course Congress can get clever and say "If you want federal budget dollars, your programs will have to meet federal standards for the following programs..." And Congress has indeed done that. If a state wants the federal government to pay for militia operations, the state must be enrolled in the National Guard program and the troops must be federalized, formally, or else the state pays their own bill. (That's right, National Guard deployments are "federalized" deployments of state forces, who may also be deployed at home as "State Guard" "Home Guard" "State Militia" or other terms, in which case the state has to absorb all the expenses.)

If the State wants civil "defense" (emergency responder) programs like CERT teams to be funded, they have to meet a long list of DHS criteria.

Of course that also means the junior Senator from Montana is going to be deciding how to fund California water rescues. Do you really think that's a good way to run things? Or necessary at all, much less feasible?

Every state probably gets federal funding for interstate highways and similar roads--and as part of the deal, they have to use uniform signage and meet other federal criteria. Same same for many many programs.

And if the local "Chief" tells his personnel to stand down and watch...it still won't matter who set the standards, will it?