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HomeMy WebLinkAboutMINUTES - 12051989 - 1.14 TO: BOARD OF SUPERVISORS FROM: J. MICHAEL WALFORD, PUBLIC WORKS DIRECTOR DATE: DECEMBER 5, 1989 SUBJECT: BUCHANAN FIELD AIRPORT POST EARTHQUAKE REPORT Specific Request(s) or Recommendation(s) & Background & Justification RECOMMENDED ACTION: ACCEPT post earthquake report from the Public Works Director and DIRECT a copy of this report to the Cities of Pleasant Hill and Concord. The Public Works Director further recommends that the Public Works Department be DIRECTED to work closely with the Office of Emergency Services to determine the potential for maximizing the assets represented by Buchanan Field Airport. FINANCIAL IMPACT: None REASONS FOR RECOMMENDATION/BACKGROUND: Immediately following the earthquake, the Airport Operations Specialist (AOS) on duty checked all runways, taxiways, and buildings for any damage. None was found. Control Tower personnel evacuated the Tower immediately upon the onset of the earthquake. The AOS on duty moved one of the Airport vehicles to a location near the Tower. The Controllers utilized this vehicle radio for controlling aircraft for approximately fifteen minutes. Upon determining that additional shaking was not imminent, Tower personnel resumed their activities from the Tower cab. Cont'd on attachment: % yes Signature: Recommendation of County Administrator Recommendation of Board Committee Approve Other: Sicmature(s) : Action of Board on: DEC 5 1989 Approved as Recommended-_ Other . Vote of Supervisors: I HEREBY CERTIFY THAT THIS IS A TRUE AND CORRECT COPY OF AN Unanimous (Absent ) ACTION TAKEN AND ENTERED ON THE Ayes: Noes: MINUTES OF THE BOARD OF Absent: Abstain: SUPERVISORS ON DATE SHOWN. Orig.Div.-Airports Attested DEC 5 1989 cc: County Administrator Phil Batchelor, Clerk of the Public Works Director Board of Supervisors Public Works Accounting and County Admin" trator Aviation Advisory Com. Federal Aviation Admin. By Deputy Clerk HEW:dg airlift.bo Buchanan Field Airport Post Earthquake Report December 5, 1989 Page 2 Power failure did occur on the west side building area of the Airport. No runways, taxiways, or east side buildings were affected. No navigational aids were affected. With the exception of some minor inconvenience on the west side, all Airport operations remained normal. The Civil Air Patrol (CAP) immediately mobilized. The CAP facilities on the west side were without power. The Manager of Airports made available the old Airport management offices to the CAP. They remained in full operation for approximately forty eight hours . The CAP coordinated numerous emergency activities. They were instrumental in bringing the sniffing dogs to the Bay Area. The dogs were brought into Buchanan Field Airport and were dispatched from here to the areas needed. The Airport Supervisor of Operations, Vance Roskelley, immediately mobilized the aerial survey aircraft. Within thirty minutes of the earthquake, he made available four fixed wing aircraft and two helicopters, all with pilots. He advised the County OES of the availability of these aircraft. No use was made of these aircraft and approximately two hours later, Mr. Roskelley released them for other activities. Activities at other Bay Area airports were severely limited immediately following the earthquake either because of actual damage or because of power failures after dark. Buchanan Field Airport became a focal point of many of the rescue activities particularly relating to helicopters . Between approximately 5:00 p.m. and 10:00 p.m. , the Buchanan Field Airport helicopter count jumped up to approximately 120. operations . A high percentage of these were medical helicopters . Many of them were apparently going into John Muir and then coming to Buchanan Airport for staging for further rescue efforts . In addition, stranded San Francisco firemen were airlifted from Buchanan Airport to San Francisco. PGandE's Director of Emergency Services was airlifted from Buchanan Airport directly to PGandE's parking lot in San Francisco. The following day, Buchanan Field Airport experienced approximately 350 helicopter .operations . These operations included news media, gas line patrols, power line patrols, oil line patrols, medical activities, and some aerial structural surveys. On October 20, an airlift was organized to transport approximately 40,000 pounds of food and supplies from Central Contra Costa County to Watsonville. The County Food Coalition provided food and supplies and the Airport staff organized the airlift through volunteer pilots from various pilots' groups and individuals. There were approximately ninety aircraft from Buchanan Airport making ninety eight trips to Watsonville. Several interesting problems developed in this airlift, but because of the ability of everyone involved to adapt quickly and to make unusual things work, the entire airlift went smoothly. One problem was, that of a significant amount of restricted air space because of the earthquake in the areas most hard hit. President Bush had landed at Moffet Field in San Jose causing further air space restrictions . The Air Traffic Controllers, however, were able to work the airlift aircraft through the system with no delays. 2 Buchanan Field Airport Post Earthquake Report December 5, 1989 Page 3 Watsonville is not a Tower controlled airport and also has only one runway. Because of the airlift and other emergency activities that were taking place in that area, Watsonville Airport jumped up to approximately 100 aircraft operations per hour. Even at a Tower controlled airport, 100 operations per hour is considered high activity. The Airport Manager at Watsonville recognized the problem fairly quickly and she contacted the Approach Control facility at Monterey for assistance. The Approach Control took over getting the aircraft organized throughout the entire approach, did all the separating, advised the pilots to flip their runway lights on at a certain check point so the Watsonville Airport Manager could give field advisories from then on. All pilots that our Manager of Airports talked to said they encountered no problems at either end nor on route. The Airport Manager at Watsonville further advised our Manager of Airports that the ground handling also went smoothly at her end. It is interesting to note that if there was an attempt to organize an operation such as this when no emergency existed, it would likely take weeks to months to get it organized, if it could even be done. Organizing this began late afternoon on October 19 and the flights started early morning on October 20. As a result of this incident, we have several comments and observations that may be worthy of the Board's consideration. We feel that the Airport's capabilities and emergency facilities are being under utilized, and further that the planning for a major earthquake in the County should take more of the Airport's assets into consideration. For approximately two years, we have had within our plan and have advised the County and the Cities of Pleasant Hill and Concord that we would immediately make available aerial reconnaissance aircraft in the case of an earthquake. The Manager of Airports is on the Emergency Preparedness Councils for both the City of Pleasant Hill and the City of Concord. The Airport Supervisor of Operations has worked with Public Works emergency planning and developed the aerial reconnaissance program for the Airport. During the earthquake, we had aircraft and helicopters available for aerial reconnaissance both the evening of the earthquake and the next morning. None were used. As far as short term emergency care shelters, we have two large hangars on the west side of the Airport (including the one housing the Manager of Airports' offices) which can be utilized and made available very quickly for short term emergency care facilities. Both of these hangars can be isolated from the Airport side. Both buildings have water and sanitary facilities, and even some limited cooking abilities . The buildings are not totally heated, however, there are offices in both buildings which do have heat provided by electrical systems (heat pumps) . The one draw back is that we currently have no separate emergency power for these hangars . Airport staff is currently exploring the possibility of acquiring one or two emergency generators for these buildings through the Office of Emergency Services . It does not appear at the present time that any significant planning has been done to utilize the Airport facilities in this manner. 3 Buchanan Field Airport Post Earthquake Report December 5, 1989 Page 4 In the California Department of Conservation, Division of Mines and Geology, Special Publication Number 61 dated 1982, it was noted that an 8 . 3 earthquake on the, San Andreas Fault would close all of the Bay Area airports except San Jose, Hayward, and Concord. At Buchanan Field Airport we have already accepted grants from the Federal Aviation Administration which will, among other things, provide emergency power to all of the runway and taxiway lighting systems on the Airport. Unfortunately because of Federal regulations, we are not able to tie this power to the buildings. We will still have to have separate power for certain critical building areas. The installation of the generator for runways, however, will allow the Airport to remain fully operational under even a severe San Andreas Fault earthquake. The Airport further has the capability of handling certain types of cargo aircraft, such as the C-130, in fairly large numbers . Our current plan calls for closing unused runways for staging these cargo aircraft. We further feel that there would be some advantage to consider having the Airport as a participant and/or as a focal point for County earthquake disaster planning activities. This could include simulating or actually utilizing Airport facilities in some of the drills. It would appear to us that the Airport also has potential for alternate command post activities or limited' command post activities . It is possible :that with some limited improvements, certain of the Airport facilities could serve in one of these capacities if for some reason the primary command posts were either limited or unavailable. This could be available to the Cities, as well as to the County. It should be noted that most of the buildings on the Airport are of a flexible metal construction that does not seem to be as affected by earthquake activities as certain other types of construction. 4