COUNTY TO UPDATE TSUNAMI PLANS EMPLOYEES ASKED TO DONATE TO RELIEF EFFORTS.

Byline: Troy Anderson and Rick Orlov Staff Writers

Los Angeles County officials said Tuesday they would update their tsunami emergency plans as they asked all 91,000 county employees to donate $10 each toward Asian relief efforts.

Los Angeles city officials also offered to help coordinate local efforts to aid victims of the Asian tsunami and possibly send used city equipment to some affected nations.

Councilman Antonio Villaraigosa won support for a motion to have the city's Emergency Preparedness Department work with relief agencies to help coordinate donations and responses.

``To look at these horrific scenes, to see the devastating power of the ocean, it makes you want to reach out and help as much as we can,'' Councilman Tom LaBonge said.

LaBonge won council backing for a separate proposal to have the city's General Services Department determine if there is any equipment that can be sold for $1 to the nations affected by the tsunami.

County officials kicked off their fund raising with an eye toward raising nearly $1 million.

``With 91,000 Los Angeles County employees, if each employee donated $10 to relief efforts, nearly a million dollars could be raised to help tsunami victims,'' Supervisor Michael Antonovich said. ``County employees should have the opportunity to join humanitarian efforts to aid those throughout the devastated region.''

The supervisors directed Chief Administrative Officer David Janssen, who kicked off the campaign with his own $1,000 donation, to develop a process allowing county employees to make a $10 donation to be divided among Doctors Without Borders, the American Red Cross and Salvation Army for relief efforts.

The supervisors also voted to update the county's Tsunami Emergency Response Plan, which was originally developed in December 1998.

``The devastation in South Asia demonstrates the real threat that tsunamis pose to our coastal regions,'' Supervisor Don Knabe said.

He said the existing plan needs to be updated to reflect the latest scientific research and recent changes in the county's own emergency response system.

A seismic expert told the Board of Supervisors that the county potentially faces significant risk from a tsunami.

``The west coast of America has a fault very similar to the one in Southern Asia - it has earthquakes of magnitude 9 on average about every 500 years,'' said Lucy Jones, a seismologist at the U.S. Geological Survey. ``The last one was on Jan. 26, 1700. It generated a tsunami that killed people in Japan.

``That fault is offshore from Cape Mendocino up to Canada. But an earthquake off of Northern California could have a significant effect in Southern California.''

Experts say an early tsunami warning system based in Alaska would most likely prevent the kind of devastation seen in South Asia.

Troy Anderson, [phone]

troy.anderson(at)dailynews.com