Glenoaks Canyon Homeowners Association

GOCHA Disaster Preparedness Program

Glenoaks Canyon is Prepared!

Over the past ten years, GOCHA has initiated and fine-tuned a neighborhood Disaster Preparedness Program that provides for door-to-door search-and-rescue in the event of a natural disaster. The 750 homes in the canyon have been assigned to twelve zones, each of which contains approximately sixty homes. Each home would be visited by teams of two volunteers to assess injuries and damage. Thanks to a map of materials and human resources in the area, these can be dispatched at short notice where needed, should public agencies be unavailable in this low-priority residential neighborhood.

Every two years, questionnaires are distrubuted to all area residents to update pertinent information and new arrivals are given a packet encouraging them to participate. At present, fifty percent of all homes are documented, allowing help to reach those most in need.

Volunteer recruiting is an ongoing effort and training takes place on an annual basis with drills and informational talks.

All forms are adaptable to smaller and larger numbers of homes and are available free of charge to interested groups wishing to organize their own neighborhoods for disaster preparedness. For information and forms, please call Isabelle Meyer at (818) 242-4290.

Photo is of Demonstration by Glendale Fire Department

(Photo Credit: Don Rector)