Yesterday's 7.9 quake in Alaska is reported to have sent tremors around the continent. In fact, it gave me a brain tremor as I thought about what the Upper Hayward Fault could do to the Point.

Maps by the Association of Bay Area Govenments indicate that our hills should be OK; everything's built on rock. But the town square will be much different; everything's built on mud. So is much of the city east and north of the Point.

Are we prepared? Kathryn Gerk, an emergency services manager in the Richmond Fire Department Office of Emergency Services, estimates that the Point has just 15 or 20 volunteers trained for action after a major quake (or chemical release, major fire, etc). A more adequate number, she says, would be about half of the community.

Well, where are the firemen? They might be called away to other areas harder hit. In fact, the Point might not see response from emergency response professionals for 72 hours. Point volunteers may be the only ones available to rescue trapped neighbors, bandage wounds, fight fires, and signal high priority needs to the overwhelmed pros.

Consider the probabilities of survival for any trapped neighbor: He has a 99 percent chance of survival if he's rescued in the first half hour and an 81 percent chance if in the first day. If trained rescuers are spread so thin that they can't reach him for 72 hours, his likelihood of survival drops to 34 percent.

So sign up now for R.E.A.C.T classes. (R.E.A.C.T stands for Richmond Emergency Action Community Teams.) We need heroes and non-heroes alike. You attend four two-hour classes plus a four-hour hands-on disaster drill.

• Read more about R.E.A.C.T classes.
• See the ABAG maps here. Select Richmond and North Hayward, then the "view map" button.