Earthquake Drill

Saturday, 8 September 2007, 10 am–noon

The earthquake: We imagine a large earthquake happening at exactly 10 am, Saturday, 8 September. It is big enough to cause injuries, structural collapses, fires, broken gas lines, telephone outages, downed power lines, and roads impassable by cars. The drill covers what we need to do in the first two hours after the earthquake.

Purpose of the drill: The goal is to improve our preparedness for a disaster by developing and testing a response plan. We have formed teams in Fire Suppression, Light Search and Rescue, First Aid/Medical, Shelter/Logistics, and Communications. Many have taken CERT trainings in these areas, but we still need a plan for a coordinated response. Our first draft of such a plan is given in the document Northside EmPrep Emergency Response Plan.

Twelve emergency situations:  To test the plan, we will tape twelve envelopes to the front doors of eleven houses, one house having two envelopes. Each envelope contains a one-paragraph description of the emergency situation at that house. The descriptions were designed by our teams to test their preparedness. They are given in the document Twelve Emergency Situations for the Earthquake Drill.

Response to the emergency situations: Volunteers will respond according to the Northside EmPrep Emergency Response Plan. They will search for the emergency situations (envelopes) and report them to the Incident Command. The appropriate response teams and equipment will be deployed. They will not actually enter houses, turn off gas, put out fires, bandage victims, or prop up walls with cribbing, but will report back what they would have done with the equipment that they brought. At the end of the drill, we will give a briefing to the Berkeley Fire Department (or one of us as a stand-in) of our status and needs.

Volunteers for the drill: To be sure that we have enough people to carry out the drill, volunteers have committed themselves in advance to filling the necessary positions as described in the document Positions to Fill for the Northside EmPrep Earthquake Drill. In a real emergency, these positions would be filled on the spot by whoever is available.

Other neighborhood participation: If other neighbors wish to participate, they can place a white sheet in a front window to tell searchers that they are OK, as long as their house is not one of the eleven with emergency situations (envelopes on the front door). They can join one of our Response Teams by contacting Tom Trippe. They can also come to the Incident Command Center at the cache (Neils’ house, 1675 La Loma) in case additional people are needed.

Good luck on the drill,
Tom Trippe
Captain, Northside EmPrep Group