Julie Johnson

In just two months, the San Francisco Bay Area was hit by an oil spill, a 5.6 earthquake and a reminder from Southern California that urban wildfire remains an imminent danger each fall. Students at the University of California Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism look beyond the breaking news in this disaster-prone metroplex and ask…are we prepared?

PRINT STORY: Parent Groups, Private Funding Determine if Schools are Quake-Ready

SAN FRANCISCO — Gina Ferrante was a teacher in the San Gabriel Valley when the Whittier Narrows earthquake struck early in the school day in 1987. Her classroom caved in, and she evacuated panicked students.

Now assistant principal of San Francisco’s Balboa High School, Ferrante has been the major force behind emergency preparedness efforts there in the last three years.“I have a sense of urgency having experienced a major earthquake during school,” Ferrante said.But schools housing more than one million K-12 students in the disaster-prone Bay Area vary widely in how they’re preparing for the next Big One. While some schools have food, water and even chemical toilets in each classroom, others have nothing more than a first aid kit.

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