Mar 21, 2008

Cal students get disaster supplies

Berkeley gives $18,000 worth of quake kits

By Doug Oakley / Daily News Staff Writer

UC-Berkeley students now have a supply of axes, crowbars and flashlights to help in the next big earthquake or fire.

The city of Berkeley on Thursday awarded $18,000 worth of supplies to students who live in fraternities, sororities and cooperative housing.

The supplies, including electrical generators, flashlights and two-way radios, are in sheds in six different locations, one on the north side of campus and five on the south side, said Berkeley Deputy Fire Chief Gil Dong.

Dong dreamed up the idea and wrote the grant awarded by the Office of Homeland Security.

It's part of a larger citywide program that gives supplies to neighborhoods.

Currently 34 neighborhood groups in Berkeley have supplies worth about $180,000 to fight fires and rescue people.

In addition to the supplies, students entrusted to take care of the goods will get free training in how to use them from both the city of Berkeley and the American Red Cross.

The supplies benefit about 2,000 students living in 60 cooperative housing programs.

Dong said he believes the student program is the first of its kind in the nation and representatives from the Association of Fraternity Advisors want to make Berkeley's program a nationwide model.

Grahaeme Hesp, UC-Berkeley director of fraternity and sorority life, said the supplies will give students a small sense of independence during the next big disaster.

"It will take three to seven days for federal aid to reach the city of Berkeley after a major disaster," Hesp said. "So students will have to be on their own."

The sheds full of supplies will be the responsibility of three or four students in each of 60 housing programs, Dong said. They are protected with locks, and the information and training will be passed on to new groups of students each year, he said.



E-mail Doug Oakley at doakley@bayareanewsgroup.com.