|
Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...
|
Emergency preparedness was identified as one of the Menlo Park City Council’s top priorities for the year, and to achieve that goal, Menlo Park has created a new position to help the city develop a streamlined system to tackle emergencies and disasters.
The city’s disaster preparedness coordinator is in charge of developing and reviewing disaster preparedness and response plans, coordinating emergency response between departments and helping the community stay informed and prepared, among other things.
Menlo Park chose Brandon Bond, a leading disaster preparedness professional with 25 years of experience helping companies and cities develop, maintain and implement emergency preparedness plans. Bond started in the role in May.
Bond’s background
Bond has worked as a disaster preparedness coordinator at several Bay Area companies. He was the director of the office of emergency management at Stanford Healthcare, and helped the hospital respond to disasters such as the Asiana Airlines crash. He also worked as Meta’s Operational Solutions Manager.
Beyond just helping companies and cities prepare for disasters, Bond has an extensive history of responding to emergencies and disasters as a volunteer firefighter and member of state and federal disaster response teams.
He was on the scene helping people at the 2010 Haiti earthquake as well as hurricanes Katrina, Ike, Maria, Irma and more. He has been a certified EMT since 1995, and served with the National Guard.
Additionally, he has served as a deputy team commander for the Bay Area Disaster Medical Assistance Team, a federal disaster response team.
“I immediately became excited about the opportunity to develop a best-in-class emergency services program for the city of Menlo Park when I learned of the new opening,” said Bond.
Bond himself is always prepared for an emergency. Even his dog knows what to do during a disaster. His dog Kylo, a 5-year-old Labrador retriever, is a FEMA-certified live-find disaster dog.
“He is trained to search collapsed structures and alert on live human scent, which focuses rescue operations,” said Bond. “(He) loves to work and spend time with the family.”
Kylo isn’t Bond’s first search and rescue dog.
“My wife and I adopted a shelter dog, Max, who had some aggression issues, and as we learned more about his challenges, we realized he needed a job to focus his energy positively,” said Bond. “Given my background in fire and rescue, search and rescue seemed to be a natural fit. We were fortunate to have strong mentors and K9 Max became a certified Wilderness Search and Rescue dog. He participated in over 50 searches in California to save lives and bring closure to families.”
Disaster preparedness goals
Bond said that his preparedness goals for the city involve a lot of face-to-face interaction, and stressed that the best thing Menlo Park residents can do to be prepared 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 driven by the community,” he said. “This means ensuring communities are prepared to help support each other, neighbors helping neighbors. The more we can focus on whole-community resilience, the more prepared Menlo Park will be for a major disaster.”
Bond suggested that Menlo Park residents who want to become involved in community disaster preparedness can sign up for a free disaster training through Menlo Park Fire District’s Community Emergency Response Team at menlofirecert.com, or by getting involved with MPCReady, a volunteer-based nonprofit organization dedicated to building neighborhood-level disaster resilience in Menlo Park.
“Take action, get to know your neighbors, have basic emergency supplies available,” he said. “Preparedness starts with you.”
Though Menlo Park has not experienced many major natural disasters, there are several risk factors within the city that Bond wants to help the residents and city staff prepare for. Some of these risks will only become more extreme as the climate changes.
“(Menlo Park) sits along the San Andreas Fault and parallel to the Hayward Fault, which presents the risk of major earthquakes,” he said. “In addition, the Sharon Heights community is within a wildland-urban interface — which means a risk of wildfire — and the Belle Haven community is at risk of flooding and sea rise. We have also experienced the impacts of climate change that bring extreme heat and atmospheric rivers.”
Menlo Park is also in the process of reviewing and adopting its new safety element, the part of the city’s general plan that identifies risks in the community and potential strategies for mitigation. Bond’s disaster expertise will help the city implement these plans and ensure that the city of Menlo Park is ready for anything.
“I am honored and excited to work with all the people in the community of Menlo Park to become better prepared to respond to and recover from potential disasters,” said Bond.
Menlo Park residents can learn more about disaster preparedness at San Mateo County’s upcoming 20th Annual Disaster Preparedness Day on Aug. 3.
Charged with child sex abuse, East Palo Alto employee gets character reference from council memberFebruary 23, 2026 2:08 pm
Welcome Brandon.
Hopefully the firest thing you will do is to establish a CERT program for Menlo Park.
The volunteers have already been well trained by Menlo Park Fire Protection District and organized by MPPC Ready.
All that remains is to give them official City sanction/recognition.
Peter
MPC (Menlo Park Community) Ready welcomes Brandon Bond to our community too. We appreciate what he’s accomplished already! We welcome readers to join us Saturday, July 27 (9:00-10:15 AM for our next free community meeting. Topic: Financial Preparedness for Disasters. Visit: https://mpcready.com to learn more, contact us and sign up for our newsletter.