Costa Mesa purchases five laptops using Security grant

A grant from the governor’s Office of Homeland Security has brought the city of Costa Mesa into the 21st century, funding the purchase of five laptops used for countywide communications in the event of an emergency, officials said.

The nearly $10,000 grant will fully fund the purchase.

The new laptops give Emergency Services Coordinator Anna Tellez and her team in the Emergency Operations Center the ability to connect to the Web and see what the county is up to at any time, she said.

In the event of an emergency the operations center is where city officials and all department heads would go to make those safety decisions, Tellez said.

In the event of such an emergency a small sort of beacon is set off by the laptops and immediately puts Costa Mesa on the map for county emergency crews in Loma Ridge in Orange who would then monitor the city and offer assistance.

— Kelly Strodl