National Night Out Helps West Valley Prepare for 'Big One'

Police departments in 15,000 communities nationwide held National Night Out events Tuesday, but the West Valley event focused on one thing: Preparing for

“We have a very specific goal tonight by virtue of where we live geographically, and that is emergency preparedness,” said Captain Nick Zingo, patrol commanding officer for the West Valley area of the Los Angeles Police Department. “In other words, getting ready for the next big one, meaning the next big earthquake.”

National Night Out is a crime prevention and event held annually to get important information out to the community.

“It’s also an opportunity to bring together the community and the police, so we can all get to know each other and work together to make our communities more safe,” Zingo said.

Emergency buckets containing a three-day supply of nonperishable foods were on sale at National Night Out, because in the event of a big earthquake, first responders may not be able to get to everyone right away, Zingo said.

“Police and fire may not be able to get to people immediately depending upon the condition of the roads or whether they are trapped themselves,” he said. “So you have a three-day supply of food, and hopefully by then police services will be up and running. Actually, we should be back up within 24 hours.”

Free signs were given out at the event that read “Help” on one side and “OK” on the other. The signs should be placed in the window of a residence after a natural disaster,” Zingo said.

“If we see ‘OK’ in the window, that tells us that those people are safe and we can move on to people who need help,” he said. “But if we don’t see any signs in the windows, that means we’re going door to door to door to see if there are any people who are injured, or worse.”

Former "CHiPs" star Erik Estrada was at the event to support the police and California Highway Patrol officers and what they do for the community.

“I just think it’s terrific that they do this. It reminds me a little bit of "CHiPs" because we never drew our guns and it was all about the community and getting kids and law enforcement together and building relationships,” Estrada said. “That’s what this event is all about.”

The event was held at Randal D. Simmons Park and also included free hot dogs and a free screening of "Toy Story 3" on a large inflatable movie screen.