Palisadian Hank Wright Discusses Community Communications, Emergency Preparedness at PPCC Meeting

By LILY TINOCO | Assistant Editor

Pacific Palisades Community Council invited Palisadian Hank Wright to its Thursday, April 25, meeting to discuss community safety, preparedness and communication in the event of an emergency.

Wright said he has been in the Palisades since the 1990s and is a member of the Los Angeles Fire Department Auxiliary Communications Service in Battalion Nine, serving communities on the Westside, including the Palisades.

“Our primary purpose is to provide backup throughout the city of Los Angeles if cells go down or [first responders] can’t communicate,” Wright explained. “This becomes very important in situations like the Northridge earthquake where, because of the problems that they had, they had to put a LAPD cruiser every mile across the Valley to be able to send information back to LAPD headquarters. The city of LA has a backup mechanism for that now, it is run out of LAFD, and that’s what ACS does.”

Wright explained that communication is “the foundation of the world,” and with technological advances, the world is able to communicate effectively today: “But what happens if the infrastructure fails?” Wright asked attendees.

“This is the biggest thing that I want to … drive into everyone’s thinking process,” Wright said. “If you don’t have a plan, you’re planning to fail.”

He explained that copper landlines are being cycled out—and can be too expensive to maintain—with fiber optic lines taking their place, which would not be operable in the event of a power failure.

Wright said American Legion Ronald Reagan-Palisades Post 283 has done a “fantastic job” at building and investing in an emergency communication infrastructure that is similar to one at the Los Angeles Emergency Operations Center.

He proposed the idea of forming groups of individuals in each neighborhood in the Palisades that would be connected and would feed data back to the American Legion.

“We need organizations like the Pacific Palisades Community Council, neighborhood watch … CERT groups to be able to organize it,” Wright said. “If we all watch out for our neighbors … we can be able to provide that situational awareness. My call to action is to start to become aware of what you can do …  to watch out for your neighbors, to get to know them, to be able to figure out what’s going to be your communication.”

Los Angeles Police Department Senior Lead Officer Brian Espin broke down the potential flow of information, explaining that a block or two of homes would report to a higher entity—similar to an HOA—which would report to Wright and his team, who would eventually report to LAPD.

Though this community plan is being discussed, Wright said it is ultimately important to have a family plan and stressed the importance of emergency preparedness. This can look like acquiring Family Radio Service radios, Community Emergency Response Training and ham radio operations.

A free, weekly, three-hour Amateur Radio Operating Class kicked off on Thursday, April 4, and will run through June 20 via Zoom at 6:30 p.m. ET.

“The presenters will be various experienced folks in the various subjects,” according to PPCC. “Attend them all, or any that you like, but you must register for the classes.”

For more information or to register, contact Rol Anders, K3RA, at roland.anders@comcast.net. To watch Wright’s April 25 presentation, visit PPCC’s YouTube: youtube.com/@ppcccalendarandyoutube6950.