As your new President of the Sunnyside Neighborhood Association, one of my core priorities is simple: improving the quality of life in and around Sunnyside through safety, preparedness, and community resilience.

That focus feels especially timely this week. On April 17, Axios San Francisco reflected on the 120th anniversary of the 1906 earthquake (April 18, 1906) and the hard lessons it taught our city about infrastructure, readiness, and what happens when communities are not prepared. One of the clearest lessons is that in any major disaster, neighbors will need to help neighbors, especially in the critical first hours before professional responders can reach everyone.

That is exactly why programs like NERT matter.

Yesterday, April 18, San Francisco Fire Department and NERT held their Spring Citywide Drill at the San Francisco Campus for Jewish Living, where more than 200 NERT volunteers came together for six hours of hands-on training and disaster-response practice. The drill itself was scheduled by SFFD as a citywide NERT training event from 8:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m.

NERT, the Neighborhood Emergency Response Team, is San Francisco’s free community preparedness and disaster-response training program. Through NERT, residents learn personal preparedness, fire safety, light search and rescue, disaster medical skills, team organization, and emergency communications. SFFD describes it as a neighbor-helping-neighbor program, and that is exactly what makes it so valuable. It gives ordinary residents practical skills they can use to protect themselves, support their families, and assist their blocks and neighborhoods when the next emergency comes.

Preparedness is not abstract. It is local. It is personal. And it is one of the strongest ways we can improve the quality of life here in Sunnyside. A safer neighborhood is one where people know each other, train together, communicate effectively, and are ready to respond when conditions are at their worst.

I also want to recognize the members of SF ARC (Amateur Radio Club) who are also members of NERT and who ran Comms Net-Control during the drill. Their work helps ensure that volunteers are not only trained in theory, but are actually practiced and competent in the communications discipline that becomes essential in a disaster. NERT’s own graduate communications training emphasizes Net Control as a critical skill for managing radio traffic safely and effectively in emergency operations.

If you live or work in San Francisco, I strongly encourage you to learn more about NERT and consider joining. It is one of the best ways to build both personal readiness and neighborhood resilience.

Learn more about NERT: SFFD NERT Overview
Sign up for training: Join NERT

Preparedness is one of the most practical forms of community care. One hundred twenty years after 1906, that lesson still holds.

Michael Kelly is the Sunnyside NERT neighborhood coordinator, and the SFFD Battalion 9 NERT Coordinator; he can be reached via email nert.sunnyside@gmail.com, radio call sign KO6EZE, or via phone at (650) 877-2447