Activities

LAEPF is ready to activate and assist responding agencies. As disasters or emerging events occur, LAEPF evaluates the level of need and support based on the requests from first responders or NGO organizations supporting the community needs. Through our outreach to partners, we fulfill a needs of a varied nature.

• COVID-19 — June 3, 2020
  LAEPF partnered with FreshLunches to provide 150 meals to the LAPD Operation Valley Bureau to feed officers who were working around the clock during the COVID-19 pandemic. 

• Getty Fire — November 28, 2019
  LAEPF volunteers contacted the Los Angeles Fire Department (LAFD) to offer assistance and began our outreach to furnish meals for LAFD EOC, LA EMD (City of Los Angeles Emergency Management) and LA County EOC (Los Angeles County Emergency Operations Center) for several days during the activation. In addition, Allergan donated 15,000 Refresh Eye Gel units for the first responders.  

LAEPF is currently leading an independent, transparent, non-bias report of the Woolsey Fire. The first phase of the report focuses on individuals who chose to “Stay and Defend” their homes, businesses and neighborhoods. This report was written in cooperation with Cal State University Long Beach along with expert academics from UCLA, USC, Cal Poly, and UC Berkeley. The first phase of the report was funded by the University of Colorado –Natural Hazards Research Center. This report was performed with the cooperation of local cities, the County along with NIST and NFPA. The title of the report is A Catalyst for Change: The 2018 Woolsey Fire, A Roadmap for a Safe & Thriving Wildland Urban Interface Community.

Small Businesses throughout the Los Angeles area are given the opportunity to have a trained disaster preparedness professional spend 1 to 2 hours at their business location to conduct an on-site assessment and develop a free emergency operations plan. The site walk-thru approach allows the business owner to understand and develop plans to mitigate identified physical risks at their facility (example: blocked exits, unsecured shelving, chemical exposures, utility shut-off and building structure issues).

The site walk-thru is followed by a review of operational risks and a discussion on insurance, disaster planning and emergency preparedness. SBA, FEMA, City and County of Los Angeles services and capabilities are also reviewed. Community outreach, interface with local fire and police along with ideas and impressions on how to expand the preparedness message are part of the review. Small business owners are heavily invested and dedicated to the successful operation of their businesses. Helping them to achieve higher levels of resiliency while reducing the exposure and impact of a loss make them strong advocates of the program.

The Small Business Preparedness Initiative is conducted in harmony with the City of Los Angeles RYLAN (Ready Your L. A. Neighborhood) program. LAEPF conducted 17 small business reviews in 2017 and 27 small business reviews in 2018.

If you are interested in participating in our Small Business Preparedness Initiative, please contact us.

The Business Operations Center (BOC) serves as a hub for community stakeholder partners to coordinate disaster preparedness, response and recovery activities. The BOC coordinates 15 sectors, each being represented by trained volunteers working for organizations in that sector. Volunteers complete the same EOC training and the room is run based on the ICS principles.

The sectors (listed alphabetically) are: (1) Academic, (2) Associations-Professional Services, (3) Construction, (4) Critical Infrastructure, (5) Entertainment, (6) Faith-based, (7) Finance, (8) Government, (9) Healthcare, (10) Hospitality, (11) Information Technology, (12) Manufacturing-Process Oil & Gas, (13) Nonprofits, (14) Retail Commodities, and (15) Transportation.

BOC Sector Growth

In 2017 LAEPF continued to focus on expanding the level of participation and commitment of community stakeholders interfacing with LAEPF and supporting the BOC. Of particular note are the significant advancements made in working with the Hospitality and Oil & Gas sectors.

In 2017 our strong relationship with members of the hospitality and retail sector became critical when responding to the December wildfires. The hospitality and retail sectors actively worked with LAEPF in supporting the needs of over 1,400 first responder firefighters throughout the active event period.

LAEPF also made significant strides with the Oil & Gas Sector bringing together representatives from major refineries, retailers and pipeline transport providers in the Los Angeles region. This effort continued in 2018 and has resulted in expanded knowledge and partnerships with State and Federal agencies involved in critical fuel availability and distribution plans.

As requests for goods, services and support came into the BOC, Our LAEPF team began tracking all requests and tasks via the LAEPF Resource Tracking App that was developed and utilized for the 2017 LA EMD Exercise along with LA Marathon and Mayday activations.

The Resource Tracking App provided an easy to use, situational awareness and tracking capability to help ensure that all items were logged, tracked and managed. The tool provided both “view only” and “full editing” designated capabilities with real-timeviewing as items were entered. The visual nature of the tool allowed for easy identifying and sorting of critical items and their status.

Utilizing the extensive capabilities of Google Docs allowed LAEPF to include easily tabbed information on shelter status, evacuations, priorities, reports, maps, attached pictures and documents. The information could also be displayed on multiple devices (laptop, desktop, tablet, cell phone).

Following the December 2017 Wildfires, LAFD entered proactive discussions on how to best track and manage resource requests within their DOC while effectively sharing resource request situational awareness information with their field operations ICP (Incident Command Post) along with other City of LA departments as appropriate.

Working with LAFD DOC management, LAEPF designed a customized version of the Resource Tracking App that matched the information flow and practices of LAFD including ICS 213 and 259 forms.

LAEPF is pleased to have completed four training sessions with LAFD DOC shift management personnel.

LAEPF will also be sharing this capability with General ServicesDepartment and LAPD to support the management of requested items.

LAEPF volunteers staffed the BOC during the LA Marathon and Mayday activations to provide assistance that may have been required during these annual planned events. In both events, LAEPF utilized its Resource Tracking App capabilities to track all assigned tasks and maintain situational awareness during the activations

On June 10, 2017 the L.A. County Department of Health conducted a survey involving approximately 10,000 residents living in the area surrounding the old Exide Battery plant. LA County reached out to LAEPF to request assistance from the hospitality sector to provide 1,400 county workers conducting reviews healthy snacks and bottled water.

LAEPF supports ILM Foundation’s annual Humanitarian Day event in Los Angeles for the homeless and in-need population living in the Mission District of Los Angeles. ILM continues to expand bringing increased health, security, financial, social and cultural challenges.

LAEPF works with the ILM Foundation, community groups and organizations that support the needs of the homeless and underserved population. Our support began in 2015 and has continued annually.  LAEPF works with Buddhist Tzu Chi Foundation, a partner to  provided blankets and supplies to over a thousand members of the Mission District community. LAEPF encourages businesses to hire locally and deliver services to help revitalize and strengthen this community.

Following the December 2017 fires, LAEPF established a strong relationship with Allergan Corporation (they manufacture Refresh Eye Gel). In the beginning of May, we were notified by Allergan of their desire to donate 50,000 packages of Refresh Eye Gel (the same type we gave to firefighters in December 2017) to help first respondersfor the remainder of 2018.

The large quantity being donated was well beyond the needs of any individual fire department so LAEPF began a state-wide effort to supply Refresh Eye Gel to first responders. As of May 25, 2019, LAEPF has supplied Refresh Eye Gel valued at a total of $255,850.

A bomb exploded at the Aliso Viejo Medical Center in Orange County on May 15th. There was one fatality, other injuries and significant concern by law enforcement authorities. On the morning of May 16th the Orange County Sheriff Department asked the FBI to provide support by taking over the crime scene investigation and analysis.

At 1:30 PM on May16th FBI Special Agent Frederick Simon called and emailed LAEPF asking if we could provide on-site support for 150 agents working at the crime scene and at the terrorism task force office in Orange County. LAEPF agreed and immediately began an outreach to our hospitality sector and retail stakeholder partners. LAEPF was on-site the next morning and provided snacks, meals (breakfast, lunch, dinner) and support services for all 150 FBI agents.

Key donors that worked with LAEPF on this response included the following: BJ's Restaurants, The Commerce Casino, CVS Corporation, Walgreens Corporation, Walmart, Pechanga Casino, Walt Disney Company, and Irvine Company. The value of this donation via LAEPF was approximately $6,178.

The FBI regional Special Agent in Charge (Stephen Woolery) and his senior Special Agent team have expressed their thanks to LAEPF for providing this vital service that allowed the FBI to remain on-scene and working at the Terrorism Task Force site on a 24 hour/day basis while handlingthis delicate situation.

Note: LAEPF began a close relationship with the Los Angeles FBI when contacted by the Los Angeles FBI office for support in response to the San Bernardino Shooting event.

The Los Angeles Fire Department is in the process of identifying and addressing the potential exposure of a major power outage that could impact the operation of fire stations serving the Los Angeles community. Assistant Chief Nelson and his team are working to improve the resilience offire stations across the city. He has requested support from LAEPF in the development and implementation of a plan to outfit 51 LAFD fire stations with backup power capabilities.

LAEPF is providing subject matter experts (SME) working on exposure analysis, capacity requirements, prioritization, implementation and tracking.

LAEPF is very pleased to have provided LAFD Air Operations with support in the conducting of a focused research study on the benefits of maximizing the capabilities of air assets operating in response to a major event (fire).

The research study led by Dr. Steven and Dr. Shirley Jensen provided valuable analysis and documentation that supported air operations equipment upgrade needs.

Houses of Worship (“HOW”) and Faith Communities (“FC”) are often targets of violent acts of crime and vulnerable to disasters (natural or man-made). With many incidents happening with little or no warning, HOW and FC should consider developing emergency plans that encompass mitigation, preparedness, response, and recovery to ensure the safety and security of their congregation, staff, and facilities. HOW and FC must take steps to plan for these disasters and/or emergencies through the creation of an Emergency Plan. 

Through Prep4Faith, we have made it easy to complete Emergency Plan Templates from various samples, guides and videos which can be downloaded and completed by your staff using the step-by-step instructions.

On December 2, 2015, LAEPF received a call from FBI Special Agent Maureen O’Connell 30 minutes following the mass shooting at the Inland Regional Center in San Bernardino, CA requesting assistance to feed all of the first responding agencies from the Federal and local government.  We immediately began our outreach to fulfill their requests to provide meals during their activation for 120 responders (3) times each day while at the Center.  This request began as of Thursday, December 3, 2015 and continued through Sunday, December 6, 2015.  

While assisting at the FBI Command Post (CP), LAEPF Volunteers attended daily briefings and supported agencies with unmet needs from local businesses.  These consisted of tables, chairs, extension cords, easy up covers, paper, pens, coffee pots, coffee products, paper goods, drinks, bottled water and ladder in addition to the 10 pizzas which were included without requesting them.  

On Monday, December 7, 2015 we were contacted again by FBI Special Agent Maureen O’Connell advising us the FBI Riverside SCIF (Sensitive Compartmented Information Facility) personnel were in need of meals since they were refusing to leave the facility due to the critical nature of their work and were eating cereal.  On Tuesday, December 8, 2015 LAEPF volunteers arrived with paper goods, fruit, snacks, drinks, large coffee pots and coordinated with partners to have meals delivered regularly through December 20, 2019.