Meet Menlo Park’s New Disaster Preparedness Coordinator, Brandon Bond

Emergency preparedness has been identified as one of the Menlo Park City Council’s top priorities for the year, and to achieve this goal, Menlo Park has created a new position to help the city develop a streamlined system to address emergencies and disasters.

The city’s disaster preparedness coordinator is responsible for developing and reviewing disaster preparedness and response plans, coordinating emergency responses across departments, and helping the community stay informed and prepared, among other things.

Menlo Park selected Brandon Bond, a leading disaster preparedness professional with 25 years of experience helping businesses and cities develop, maintain and implement emergency preparedness plans. Bond began his role in May.

Bond’s Background

Bond has worked as a disaster preparedness coordinator at several companies in the San Francisco Bay Area. He was director of Stanford Healthcare’s Office of Emergency Management and helped the hospital respond to disasters such as the Asiana Airlines crash. He also worked as Meta’s operational solutions manager.

Beyond simply helping businesses and cities prepare for disasters, Bond has extensive experience responding to emergencies and disasters as a volunteer firefighter and member of state and federal disaster response teams.

He was on hand to help people during the 2010 Haiti earthquake as well as hurricanes Katrina, Ike, Maria, Irma and many others. He has been a certified paramedic since 1995 and has served in the National Guard.

Additionally, he served as deputy commander of the Bay Area Disaster Medical Assistance Team, a federal disaster response team.

“I was immediately excited about the opportunity to develop a premier emergency services program for the City of Menlo Park when I learned of the new opening,” Bond said.

Bond himself is always ready to deal with an emergency situation. Even his dog knows what to do in case of disaster. His dog Kylo, ​​a 5-year-old Labrador retriever, is a FEMA-certified live-victim search dog.

“He is trained to search for collapsed structures and alert on the scent of living humans, which helps focus rescue efforts,” Bond said. “He loves working and spending time with his family.”

Kylo is not Bond’s first search and rescue dog.

“My wife and I adopted a shelter dog, Max, who had aggression issues. As we learned more about his struggles, we realized he needed a job to focus his energy in a positive way,” Bond said. “Given my background in fire and rescue, search and rescue seemed like a natural fit. We were fortunate to have great mentors, and K9 Max became a certified wilderness search and rescue dog. He has participated in over 50 searches in California saving lives and helping families find closure.”

Disaster Preparedness Goals

Bond said his preparedness goals for the city involve a lot of face-to-face interactions and stressed that the best thing Menlo Park residents can do to prepare for any emergency or disaster is to be community-oriented and get to know their neighbors.

“It’s important to recognize that all disasters are local and goals are determined by the community,” he said. “That means communities must be prepared to help each other, neighbors helping neighbors. The more we can focus on the resilience of the entire community, the more prepared Menlo Park will be for a major disaster.”

Bond suggested that Menlo Park residents who want to get involved in community disaster preparedness can sign up for free disaster training through the Menlo Park Fire District’s Community Emergency Response Team at menlofirecert.com, or by getting involved with MPCReady, a volunteer-based nonprofit dedicated to building neighborhood disaster resilience in Menlo Park.

“Take action, get to know your neighbors, have basic emergency supplies available,” he said. “Preparedness starts with you.”

While Menlo Park hasn’t experienced many major natural disasters, the city does have several risk factors that Bond wants to help residents and city staff prepare for. Some of these risks will only get worse with climate change.

“(Menlo Park) sits along the San Andreas Fault and parallels the Hayward Fault, which poses a risk of major earthquakes,” he said. “Additionally, the Sharon Heights community sits in a wildland-urban interface, which means a risk of wildfires, and the Belle Haven community is exposed to flooding and rising sea levels. We have also experienced the effects of climate change, which brings extreme heat and atmospheric rivers.”

Menlo Park is also reviewing and adopting its new safety component, the part of the city’s general plan that identifies risks in the community and potential mitigation strategies. Bond’s disaster expertise will help the city implement these plans and ensure that Menlo Park is prepared for anything.

“I am honored and excited to work with everyone in the Menlo Park community to better prepare to respond to and recover from potential disasters,” Bond said.

Menlo Park residents can learn more about disaster preparedness at the 20th annual San Mateo County Disaster Preparedness Day on August 3.

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