Emergency Network Los Angeles

Hollywood producer Mark Flaisher has helped organize the "three tenors" concert, the opening and closing ceremonies for the 1984 Summer Olympics and the 1993 Super Bowl halftime show featuring Michael Jackson. But his latest assignment is to organize a much more chaotic event: Los Angeles' next disaster recovery.

Hollywood producer Mark Flaisher has helped organize the "three tenors" concert, the opening and closing ceremonies for the 1984 Summer Olympics and the 1993 Super Bowl halftime show featuring Michael Jackson. But his latest assignment is to organize a much more chaotic event: Los Angeles' next disaster recovery.

Hollywood producer Mark Flaisher has helped organize the Three Tenors Concert, the opening and closing ceremonies for the 1984 Olympics and the 1993 Super Bowl halftime show featuring Michael Jackson. * But his latest assignment is to organize a much more chaotic event: Los Angeles' next disaster recovery.

Hollywood producer Mark Flaisher has helped organize the Three Tenors Concert, the opening and closing ceremonies for the 1984 Olympics and the 1993 Super Bowl halftime show featuring Michael Jackson. * But his latest assignment is to organize a much more chaotic event: Los Angeles' next disaster recovery.

A network of community-based organizations and government emergency services agencies is sponsoring a series of seismic retrofitting workshops throughout Southern California beginning in September. Information for the workshops--geared toward contractors, framers and building officials--was gathered through analysis of the damage wreaked by the '94 Northridge quake. Material for the sessions was developed with the expertise of structural engineers, architects and contractors.

First terms have challenged L.A.'s last four mayors. They had to contend with big-city bureaucracy, a strong and independent-minded City Council and an institutionally weak mayoral office, though the new City Charter, adopted in 1999, has added muscle to the post. Then there were unforeseen natural disasters. So comparing mayoral achievement isn't a fair game. Still, Opinion asked political analysts and L.A.

In 1990, David Fleming was glad he did not win the Fernando Award. It was more fitting, he said, that Los Angeles Airport Commissioner and Valley philanthropist Samuel Greenberg won. Greenberg died eight months later. "It's not something you should expect to win," said Fleming, who won the next year. Those who deserve it do not seek it out, said Lee Alpert, current president of Fernando Award Inc., created to inspire others into community service.

The modem sings the distinctive tone that a connection has been made as Dr. Avrum Bluming stares into the screen of his Macintosh computer. But then, nothing. Somewhere, a step has been missed. The L.A. Free-Net is up and working, but at the moment its founder can't connect from his Encino office. "I'm not a computer techie," Bluming said, "I'm a doctor." Bluming, 57, is also the founder of the HOPE . Unit Foundation, an organization that supports cancer patients.

That Monday morning, we awoke to the roar of rock grinding 11 miles below the surface of the Earth. A year later, we awake to the roar of hammers banging a few feet below our windows. From Simi Valley to Sherman Oaks to Seal Beach, the sound of construction splits the air as Southern California pounds back from the costliest natural disaster ever to strike North America.