Earthquake in California

Earlier this week a 6.0 earthquake struck Northern California. There were no deaths but more than 200 people were treated for quake related injuries, out of those 17 were admitted and 1 is still is critical condition.  After shocks are predicted to last for several weeks, the largest recorded one at this moment is a 3.6. The governor of California, Jerry Brown, declared a state of emergency due to the 6 major fires that erupted because of the quake. Many are without power and water as the city begins its repairs and could be that way for up to a full week. 70 commercial and non commercial buildings were red tagged and can not be entered due to safety risks, upward of 200 are yellow tagged meaning that owners can go in to clean up but are not advised to occupy them for an extended period of time. Napa City Manager, Mike Parness, made a statement saying that they have exhausted all of their local resources and need help from outside sources. Lt. Governor Gavin Newsom also reaches out in hopes to remind everyone that Napa is not just rich, wine country and that their are smaller, poorer people who will need help to recover.

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I chose this article because I wanted to remind my classmates that not everything is a huge debate and that we are not just a nation of politics but a country of people. There are perfect strangers on the other side of the country in a state of crisis. Recovery costs are estimated to be around $1 billion. People are without homes or have to find a way to rebuild. We have obviously seen much worse but why should we ignore this just because we can compare it to other disasters and say its not that bad. To those who are living it, it's very bad.

Questions:
1. How would you handle this situation if you were the Governor, Lt. Governor, or even the Napa City Manager?
2. In what ways do you feel that this nation can work to help these people recover from this latest natural disaster?