This neighborhood consists of the residents of Portola Heights Community and residents of Castanea Ridge.
Portola Heights Community is located approximately 3½ miles north of Hwy. 9, to the west of Skyline Boulevard (Hwy. 35). It is a gated community off of Portola Heights Park Rd. Castanea Ridge is the community just to the north of Portola Heights on Castanea Ridge Rd. Both communities are in San Mateo County and are surrounded by Mid-Peninsula Open Space property.
This neighborhood has an active group of residents who are interested in emergency preparation. Together the community has accomplished the following:
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Divided the community into 5 major groups to facilitate communication. Each group has a Group Coordinator who is responsible for contacting neighbors within that group in the case of an emergency.
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Established an Emergency Communications Infrastructure for rapid activation in case of an emergency:
- Phone tree with relevant information for contacting the residents in each group
- More than half of the residents have GMRS radios for effective communications. Monthly GMRS nets are conducted to ensure that communications are working.
- Seven residents currently have their Ham Radio licenses. During an emergency, South Skyline ARES (Amateur Radio Emergency Services) is activated, at which time ham operators monitor emergency communications with San Mateo, Santa Cruz and Santa Clara Counties.
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Practices emergency response procedures at an annual drill
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Participates in local CERT and Ham-ARES (Amateur Radio Emergency Services) drills and exercises
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In 2024 became a nationally recognized Firewise Community
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At least once a year, holds a community meeting to discuss issues, plans, communication, evacuation routes and other concerns
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Completed data collection for the GIS Mapping Project — the next step is to develop a pre-fire suppression plan for the community
For more information about Portola Heights / Castanea Ridge, contact Pat.