Faculty, staff and students helped county cope with crisis.
For thousands of San Diegans, 2007 will be remembered as the year they lost their home to wildfire. Others, who were more fortunate, will not soon forget the displacement and uncertainty of evacuation.
Nine fires from the southernmost to the northernmost points of the county have already charred more than 300,000 acres, destroyed 1,400-plus homes, and forced more than 500,000 people to flee their homes and businesses.
Nine fires charred more than 300,000 acres across San
Diego County. Photo by Ralph Suelzle.
Although the San Diego State University campus escaped damage, the fires disrupted the lives of faculty, staff, and students. But they pushed back.
Throughout the week, faculty helped map the fire’s path using the most advanced imaging techniques; students delivered meals to evacuees at QUALCOMM Stadium; staff cleaned the debris from campus and set up facilities for displaced families in Peterson Gym. In dozens of ways, the crisis spurred the San Diego State community to individual and collective action.
“In crises like this, we sometimes go into sympathetic overload – the fight-or-flight response,” said SDSU traumatic stress specialist Robert Bray.
And fight they did.
Behind the scenes
On Sunday evening, hours after the fires ignited, Eric Frost, Bob Welty and their team at the Immersive Visualization Center or VizLab were gathering data from sources like NASA and Google and imaging it in ways that helped emergency responders identify hotspots.
“When we heard the fire reports, we self-deployed,” Frost said.
Bob Welty tracks the fires in the Immersive Visualization
Center.
The variety of visual information available on the wildfires is the result of established relationships with the military, regional and national homeland security agencies and other entities that regularly rely on Frost and his team for imaging work.
While the VizLab became the place to go for emergency responders, a reliable source of information for the San Diego community suddenly faced shutdown. As fire cut power to KPBS’s transmitter on top of Mount San Miguel early Monday morning, KPBS Radio 89.5 FM dropped off the air but maintained continuous fire coverage via Web transmission.
One of only two radio news teams in San Diego, the station had become a critical source of information for the county. Programming director John Decker worked the phones for hours before securing an agreement with alternative rock station FM 94.9 to carry the KPBS signal and get them back on air.
As the fires raged on, SDSU’s Geographic Information Systems force group, comprised of more than two dozen faculty and student volunteers in the geography department, created static and animated maps to track the fire’s status.
The site, which ranks first in a Google search of "San Diego wildfire," has received more than 300,000 hits to date. Additionally, the site has been linked to by KFMB-TV's Web site and the county's 211 Web site.
Powering up
The wildfires knocked out power to 80,000 homes during the week, creating problems for San Diego Gas & Electric (SDG&E). To assist, SDSU’s co-generation plant provided supplemental electrical power during the peak demand period.
The plant supplied a total of 2 megawatts of power to SDG&E until late in the afternoon of Wednesday, Oct. 24. That’s enough to power 2,000 homes.
As evacuation numbers grew, SDSU converted Peterson Gym into an evacuation center for students, faculty and staff. Assisted by students and staff, Lauren Cooper, interim director of facilities management, set up cots and provided bathroom facilities.
“The campus wanted to take care of our people the best we could,” Cooper said.
Aztec Shops donated food while students, staff and faculty spent their own money to provide everything from pillows to toilet paper. In all, 10 people, two dogs, two cats and a rabbit took shelter at Peterson.
Volunteer contingent
Aztecs were also visible at QUALCOMM Stadium, where more than 10,000 evacuees waited out the fires. Monday afternoon, SDSU student-athletes headed to the stadium, where they helped meet some of the evacuees’ basic needs by setting up water and unloading food donations, but they also helped lighten the mood.
SDSU students purchased food and water for
evacuees and volunteered at QUALCOMM Stadium.
“A few people just wanted to talk about past games,” said Chaz Schilens, a senior wide receiver. “They were asking about last (Saturday's game) and saying we should've won it and all that stuff. It seemed like they were happy to just get to talk about football.”
Many students who stayed on campus for the week used their extra meal points to purchase food and water for QUALCOMM evacuees.
On Monday night, Amy Halter, residence hall coordinator for Chapultepec Residence Hall, and her husband Joe, assistant coordinator for student organizations in the Office of Student Activities and Campus Life, drove to QUALCOMM with a truckload of supplies donated by Chapultepec residents.
Later that day, SDSU Dining Services, part of Aztec Shops, began working with the American Red Cross to prepare, assemble and deliver meals to evacuees at the stadium and Mira Mesa High School. Over two days, about 3,000 meals were donated.
Rory Levine helps SDSU Dining Services staff
prepare meals for evacuees.
Dining Services is accustomed to feeding 35,000 people a day on campus. However, with staff diminished because of the closed campus, assembling and boxing meals to deliver was a special challenge.
As the need for meals swelled, Robert Isner, associate director of residential dining and production, pulled personnel from other departments into the kitchen. Rory Levine, general manager of the campus' quick serve restaurants, was one of those who took up the gauntlet.
“We’re part of the team; we’ll do whatever it takes,” Levine said.
Far from over
As the extent of San Diego State’s contributions became apparent, SDSU President Stephen L. Weber congratulated students, staff and faculty for their response to the crisis.
“I’m learning about countless other examples of SDSU’s response by the hour,” he said.
Though the SDSU community came out swinging in the face of crisis, this has been a dark time for many San Diegans. It won’t end with the reopening of campus, the extinguishing of the fires, or even with the start of the rebuilding process.
“Everybody wants to rush out and help,” said Bray, who volunteers regularly with the American Red Cross and spent two days counseling evacuees at QUALCOMM. “But the folks who got burned out are going to need help over the long term.”
Related information
Credits
- Story by Lauren Coartney
- Story edited by Coleen L. Geraghty
- Graphics by John Signer
- Photographs by Ralph Suelzle, Tyler Sherer and Lorena Nava
Division of University Relations and Development
San Diego State University
5500 Campanile Drive
San Diego, CA 92182-8080
(619) 594-1476