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Page 4 September 21, 2017
UCLA Bruins, Josh Rosen Wilt in the Memphis Sun
with six carries for 20 yards and a touchdown,
but he was the fifth running back on the roster
to even touch the ball. In all, seven players on
offense carried the football, including Rosen, for
a total of 170 yards. That’s not to mention the
defense that allowed one 100-yard rusher and
just less than 400 yards total receiving from
Memphis wide receivers. Five different Tigers
receivers caught touchdown passes, including
Anthony Miller who caught two and hauled in
185 yards through the air.
The loss was a crushing blow for Rosen and
the Bruins, who entered the Top 25 for the
first time this year going into last week and
held the last spot in the rankings available.
Now UCLA will have a lot of work to do in
order to erase the mistakes made. Rosen will
likely continue to find success under center,
but the Bruins will attempt to get back into
the rankings when they take on the Stanford
Cardinal in what should be a tough matchup
this week. Looking ahead, UCLA’s schedule
seems to sport a relatively mild difficulty level,
outside of matchups at Washington and at USC
later in the season. If the Bruins want any shot
at a possible Pac-12 championship or even a
playoff appearance this year, they’ll certainly
have to limit their mistakes and shore up what
has already shown itself to be a porous defense
in order to do so. • – Aserrao6@yahoo.com
September’s Disasters Hold Lessons for the South Bay
and Redondo Beach. Torrance schools were
closed for the day, and the refinery was shut
down for the public’s safety. Southern California
calamities aren’t like the hurricanes in the Gulf
and Atlantic, which follow a season and come
with a warning to flee or ride out the storm. Local
disasters come on suddenly, with a sonic boom
or a shaking of the ground. Clear thinking isn’t
always possible when the building is rumbling
and sirens start wailing, the experts say.
That day will come as it has before, Kondo
says. The best defense is knowing beforehand
how to react during the initial disaster and
then how to survive the next 24 to 48 hours
if an evacuation order is declared. Instinct is
not a substitute for having an emergency kit
packed and ready to grab, including prescription
medications and comfort foods and extra socks
and a fresh change of clothes, according to
Kondo. That represents a bare-minimum level of
preparedness that can soothe jangled nerves and
put the ordeal into better perspective. “The time
is now to prepare and be ready for these types
of natural and/or manmade disasters,” he says.
Local disaster experts encourage South Bay
residents and community and church groups
to learn about the four levels of readiness,
which are covered in this month’s county-led
Preparedness campaign:
Week 1: Take the initiative to make a plan
for yourself, family and friends.
Week 2: Decide how to help your neighbor
and the community to handle a crisis.
Week 3: Practice in advance and try out
your plan.
Week 4: Get involved with the community
wide effort, be “part of something bigger.”
Other resources are available year=round,
including the Los Angeles County’s Emergency
Survival Guide. This free publication can be
downloaded in 13 languages at https://www.
lacounty.gov/emergency-survival-guide. People
with disabilities, their caregivers and anyone with
access and functional needs may call 211 LA
County at any time for emergency preparedness
information, and other referral services. The tollfree
2-1-1 number serves homeowners, renters
and commercial properties and businesses 24
hours a day, seven days a week. •
By Adam Serrao
All of the talk this year surrounding the
UCLA football program has been centered on
Bruins quarterback Josh Rosen. Rosen, the
unquestioned leader of the Bruins, is touted
to be a top pick in next year’s NFL Draft,
if not the number one player off the board.
Last Saturday at Liberty Memorial Stadium
in Memphis, Tennessee, Rosen wasn’t the
quarterback blooming on the national stage
like all initially expected. Instead, Memphis
Tigers quarterback Riley Ferguson managed
to best Rosen in the game and in the stat line.
In doing so, the Tigers not only won the game
by a final of 48-45, but the unranked team also
illustrated just how vulnerable the draft prospect
and the Bruins can actually be.
The Bruins have looked rather flawed in
multiple areas during this year’s young college
football season. That much has certainly been
clear, beginning with UCLA’s game two weeks
ago against the Texas A&M Aggies in which
Rosen had to orchestrate a comeback from 34
points down in order to pull out an extremely
exciting, nail-biting, last-second victory. Last
week’s game against Memphis may have been
equally as exciting…but despite the amount of
big plays and the massive score total, Rosen
and the Bruins not only had their luck run
dry, but also may just have been completely
By Rob McCarthy
South Bay residents could be forgiven for
thinking they’ve heard this all before. Disasters
don’t plan ahead, but you can. Yet, September’s
wildfires and Mexico’s strong earthquake have
injected an urgency in the local readiness
campaign, which kicks off this month against
a backdrop of natural disasters throughout the
country.
“The timing is just right,” said spokesman
Ken Kondo with the county’s emergency
management team. “We have our Los Angeles
County Prepareathon--a program that pairs with
FEMA to prepare residents and businesses
for emergencies and disasters [trying] to get
them educated, prepared and trained before
disaster hits.”
The Prepareathon runs from September
through November with public events nearby in
Gardena, Torrance and Long Beach. The safety
fairs and emergency-response training sessions
represent the calm before the proverbial storm
for South Bay communities that are accustomed
to fires, earthquakes and refinery emergencies.
This year, while FEMA was mobilizing
thousands of responders and relief employees
to the hurricane disaster zones in Texas and
Florida, Los Angeles County was confronting
its own seasonal danger: a wildfire that started
September 1 near Burbank. The La Tuna Fire
burned 7,000 acres and forced evacuation of
1,400 people while fire crews fought the blaze.
exposed in the process.
Ferguson didn’t just lead his team to victory.
He threw for 398 yards and six touchdowns
while matching, if not outplaying, Rosen every
step of the way. For all intents and purposes,
Rosen put up his share of decent numbers too,
throwing for a massive amount of 463 yards
and four touchdown passes on 56 attempts.
Despite those gaudy numbers, however, this
game was more about what Rosen didn’t do
as opposed to what he did do.
The game against Memphis marked the first
time in the Bruins’ initial three contests that
a flaw in Rosen’s game had sprung its nasty
head. Rosen, in UCLA’s pass-first offense,
did not throw an interception in either of his
team’s first two games and two victories of the
season. Last week, he managed to throw two
interceptions, one of which was returned 60
yards for a touchdown by Memphis linebacker
Tim Hart in the third quarter. Though Rosen’s
other interception wasn’t returned for points,
it came at an even worse time in the game.
With under seven minutes remaining and
UCLA looking for an edge that would give
it the game, Rosen’s second interception of
the afternoon not only stalled a Bruins drive
that was currently deep in Memphis territory,
but also wound up losing his team the game.
“I had no doubt we were going to go down
It’s being called the largest acreage fire in the
history of Los Angeles, and the damage was
limited to a few structures and no lives were
lost. One firefighter was treated for minor
burns, according to reports.
Residents were invited last Saturday to
communitywide disaster-readiness expos in Long
Beach and Gardena. They offered a glimpse
of what local households and neighborhoods
can expect, and what they should pack away
in an emergency supply kit. A family of four
needs at least 12 gallons of drinking water,
attendees learned, along with how to purify
containers using a solution of water, bleach
and dish detergent.
The fourth annual event in Long Beach was
a collaboration of Long Beach emergency
agencies, nonprofits, businesses and area
response agencies, including L.A. County’s. The
Gardena event was a second annual preparedness
fair hosted by the Japanese Cultural Institute.
Among the topics discussed Saturday was how
to get neighbors involved and talking about
disasters. One of the simplest and most direct
ways is for individuals to get first aid-certified
and take disaster response training, according
to the L.A. County team. The first responders
in any emergency are next-door neighbors and
people living and working in a building together.
There is still time to find a seminar or
a responder training session through Los
Angeles County’s campaign. The next nearby
Prepareathon event takes place from 10 a.m.
to 1 p.m. October 27 at the Sunnyside Nursing
Center in Torrance. Evacuation and safety
of older residents in an emergency will be
discussed. This event at 22617 S. Vermont
Avenue is open to the public.
All county-sponsored events this month and
next are built around four themes to guide
proactive South Bay residents, property owners
and caregivers to the homebound or disabled. An
emergency kit with food, water and medicine is
a must-have before and after a disaster strikes,
the federal and local campaigns stress. When
it will happen, no one can say, according to
L.A. County’s spokesman Kondo. But when
the ground starts shaking, or an evacuation
order follows a sonic boom explosion in El
Segundo, Torrance or San Pedro, it’ll be too
and score at the end,” said a dejected Rosen
after the game. “I just made some stupid
mistakes. I made 10 points worth of really
bad plays.” For the junior Rosen, this game,
as much as any that the starting quarterback
has ever played in, can be chalked up to a
becoming a great learning experience for a
quarterback who will undoubtedly wind up
playing on Sundays next year or the year after.
In the meantime, however, those mistakes were
perhaps the biggest reason that the Bruins lost
their first game of the season and have taken
a step back in this year’s college football Top
25 rankings.
UCLA head coach Jim Mora chimed in when
asked about the poor decisions made by his
star quarterback. “He made some really good
plays and obviously, he would love to have the
turnovers back,” Mora explained. “He has to
learn to be a little more careful with the ball.”
Even Rosen admitted that he was trying to do
too much to lead his team back from behind
and to a victory for the second week in a row.
“It’s trying to play hero ball,” he explained.
“You have to play within the system.”
That system may be as much to blame for
the loss as Rosen could be. Despite racking up
633 yards of total offense, the running game
looked to be almost anemic for most of the
day. In the box score, Jalen Starks came away
late to start thinking about who and what to
grab while rushing out the door or window.
Though it’s too late to register for today’s
American Red Cross Disaster Preparedness
Academy in Anaheim, surrounding communities
will benefit from this 33rd annual event. Experts
led daylong seminars on active shooters,
earthquakes, evacuation planning, school and
university preparedness, business preparedness
and resiliency planning, drills and exercises,
according to the Red Cross organizers. Contact
the academy about upcoming trainings in the
area by calling 714-481-5341 or emailing
RedCrossDPA@redcross.org.
The American Red Cross also offers
certified training to individuals and employers
in first aid, CPR, disaster response and other
lifesaving measures. Course information and the
advantages of being a trained first responder in
the home, office or neighborhood are explained
in detail at www.redcross.org/ux/take-a-class.
Readiness is about knowing beforehand
how to escape a building and account for
everyone in the family or office once outside,
according to Kondo. The Torrance refinery
explosion in 2015 is a recent reminder of how
an emergency can happen without warning
and upend a seemingly normal day in the
South Bay. Four people were injured by the
blast, which catapulted 80,000 pieces of debris
that landed a few feet from a tank holding a
highly toxic chemical. The U.S. Chemical
Safety Board investigated the explosion and
said the acid could have formed a vapor cloud
that traveled for miles across Torrance. Even
small amounts of the acid can be lethal, the
investigators said, and Torrance was spared a
life-threatening event.
Torrance was the site of another refineryrelated
emergency last October when a flare-off
knocked out power to surrounding cities and
nearby residents were ordered to stay indoors. A
flare-off occurs when a refinery relieves pressure
to “ensure gases are safely combusted” instead
of being released into the air, the Torrance
Police and Fire departments explained during
the Torrance Refinery Company incident on
October 11, 2016.
Power outages from the flare-off were
reported in Hawthorne, Gardena, Manhattan
A Long Beach expo held Saturday featured disaster-readiness tips
and rescue demonstrations for South Bay residents. The above photo
is from last year’s program, taken from the event Facebook page.