The San Diego County Board of Supervisors went on record Tuesday against a federal agency’s plans to move a 12-ton cache of emergency medical supplies from San Diego to Los Angeles, City News Service reported.
“Sometimes the federal government gets a good idea. Unfortunately, this is not one of them,” Supervisor Ron Roberts said.
Roberts told his colleagues that the move could leave San Diego stranded in the event of a disaster.
“Should a disaster strike that destroyed or marginalized the north-south transportation corridors, the seat between San Diego County and Los Angeles, such as the recent wildfire did, our region could be cut off entirely from these supplies,” he said.
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services wants to move the stockpile to Los Angeles to regionalize medical supply caches.
The move will save the government about $40,000 a year it spends on renting a warehouse in San Diego to house the stockpile.
Dr. Jake Jacoby, a UC San Diego Medical Center physician who heads the county’s Disaster Medical Assistance Team, or DMAT, testified the supplies are needed locally to protect public safety.
“Having it two hours away will delay our response time,” Jacoby said.
Jacoby said the 12-ton stockpile of tents, generators, medical supplies and emergency equipment is enough to treat 150 to 250 patients a day for up to three days.
“The DMAT and our own experts in the county public health and the Office of Emergency Services believe that the move would significantly threaten our ability to protect the residents of San Diego County,” Cox said.
Source: KNBC.com
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