A special thank you to my CAPIO family for all of your messages and words of encouragement and support and a special thank you to Amy Orr and the CAPIO board for all that you do.
Over the years, our San Bernardino County Communications team has attended CAPIO and other training to prepare us for dealing with a crisis situation. As any communications professional knows, there is always the possibility of one’s agency encountering a crisis.
However, we never expected that we would be dealing with a crisis of this magnitude with the deaths 14, including 13 members of our San Bernardino County Department of Public Health Division of Environmental Health Services Family. Public Health is among the Human Services departments we serve and those in the room on December 2 were our friends and colleagues.
This hit especially close to home as my boss and dear friend, Summer Adams, lost her husband, Robert, and their 20-month-old daughter, Savannah, lost her father.
We remain in mourning for our fallen colleagues. It is my prayer that none of you will have to encounter a tragedy of this nature in your agencies or families.
I am extremely proud of the work of our Human Services Communications team as we have worked to do our jobs amid our own grief as a San Bernardino County family. We have a long journey before us.
Please continue to pray for those impacted by this tragedy, their loved ones and those of us who are supporting them.
C.L. Lopez, CAPIO President
Human Services Communications Officer
San Bernardino County
