Palo Alto’s Office of Emergency Services (OES) is part of the City of Palo Alto’s Public Safety structure that includes the Police Department, Fire/EMS, and other city departments.

OES is in charge of coordinating services and staff of the emergency organization of the city.  It also represents the city in all dealings with public or private agencies on matters pertaining to emergencies.  Thus it leads or coordinates day-to-day planning, intelligence, and coordination, not only internally but also with allied agencies, Stanford University, the private sector, and the community.

Learn more about how the City is prepared to deal with emergencies and disasters in the Office of Emergency Services homepage and what it recommends for personal and family preparedness.  Do not miss the City’s Stay Informed page as this gives valuable contact information to find out what’s happening in the City – from road closures to fires to power outages, etc.  Find out how the City would communicate with residents if phone lines and cell towers are down in the City’s Be Informed video and in our Crisis Communications page.

Flooding is the most common disaster in the US and Palo Alto is no exception.  The City has created a special page with flood information to help you prepare for storm events, monitor storm and creek activity and report storm problems.

Last but not least, the difference between an emergency and a disaster is that in a disaster there are not enough First Responders to help everyone who needs help.  Emergency Services Volunteers (ESVs), an important component of the Office of Emergency Services, are residents like you and me who have signed up to help their neighbors during disasters.

After a disaster many neighbors show up to help and they can provide food, childcare, transportation for needy neighbors, etc.  But, how do you communicate needs to the City if the internet and phone lines are down?  How do you know how widespread is the problem?  The City’s Emergency Services Volunteer program is structured to help even when normal communications are down.  Check out how it works, how you would access it when there are no other forms of communication and consider joining this worthwhile program.

CITY OF PALO ALTO WEB PAGES

• Office of Emergency Services
• Stay Informed
• Crisis Communications
• Flood Information/Winter Storms
• Creek Monitor
• Sandbag Locations
• Ember Aware
• Power Outage Map
• Emergency Service Volunteers
• Palo Alto’s Ongoing Efforts to Address Public Safety and Resiliency