The debut of MySafeLA, a community information and education website has been carefully monitored by our team during the past six weeks. The just crushed L.A. area wildfires gave the site its first public outing and while playing only a minimal role, the opportunity for continual growth is significant.
The website listed a wide range of resources within an hour of the Sayre fire flaring up. Residents could utilize the site to find evac centers, animal support services, and to get the latest news, even if they were without access to traditional media, such as television. Council Member Huizar did a mailing to his district and traffic to the site spiked within a few hours of that activity.
This is all the more interesting as the site is truely in its promotional stage. Early in 2009, the objective is to roll out online learning tools, that will enable school teachers to deliver fire and life safety courses in their classrooms electronically, and will give them the power to monitor and evaluate the performance of their students. Families can track their loved ones, create supply lists and even purchase products via key distribution (for earthquake safety products, as an example) outlets.
The resources engaged to fight the L.A area and OC wildfires was remarkable, and lives were saved, as well as homes and businesses. We are encouraged that in the future, an online mechanism such as MySafeLA will be there to help homeowners organize and manage the safety and security of their families and possessions.