Emergency preparedness, Palo Alto officials have learned, is emergency preparedness — whether the emergency is an earthquake, a terrorist attack or a mountain lion. Last month, when a mountain lion strayed into a neighborhood in the heart of Palo Alto, police were so busy mobilizing officers, alerting schools and fielding news media questions that authorities didn’t activate a $172,000 telephone alert system until eight hours after the first cat sighting. By then, a police officer had shot and killed the treed cat. While that outraged animal lovers, many Palo Altans were more furious that city officials hadn’t used the auto-dialing system to warn residents — some of whom had children playing outside — that a powerful predator was on the prowl. Full Story