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Quake 2000: Campus simulates emergency response to Hayward Fault temblor



Quake 2000: A coordinated rehearsal



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Quake 2000: A coordinated rehearsal

By By Diane Ainsworth, Public Affairs
Posted June 7, 2000

Quake 2000, the third in a series of annual earthquake disaster preparedness drills, was a multi-level effort bringing together more than 400 faculty, staff and volunteers for a three-hour field operations rehearsal.

The simulation, by far the most exhaustive of all the three, involved 165 building coordinators, 18 emergency operations center staff, several search and rescue teams, and a special canine unit. The exercise was designed to simulate a major 6.7-magnitude earthquake along the Hayward Fault, which has a 70 percent chance of occurring in the next 30 years.

The call to action went out at 9 a.m. from the Emergency Planning Office, which was set up at the Tang Center, designated as the alternate emergency operations site. One-hundred and sixty-five building coordinators reported their initial assessments of building damage, injuries and possible casualties. The information was relayed to 18 emergency management area coordinators, who then phoned in the information to the Emergency Operations Center.

Five department operations centers and their response teams began deployment of field operations. Home team volunteers trained in "light search and rescue" techniques, which included the canine team and first aid and triage, reported to their respective staging areas for emergency response missions.

Two incident command posts, decided beforehand for this drill, were established at Strawberry Creek and outside Evans Diamond and staffed by campus police officers. Their responsibilities were to set up the makeshift field posts and manage bystanders and victims, played by volunteers. They also appointed direct response teams and put in requests for resources from the Emergency Operations Center.

The primary purpose of this year's emergency earthquake drill was to give emergency staff at multiple levels the opportunity to practice an integrated field response. In addition to the building coordinators, emergency management area coordinators and incident commanders, participants included university health service staff, environmental health and safety officials, hazardous material response units and physical plant trade teams.

Quake 2000, which lasted two hours, was also designed to test Berkeley's disaster response plan. As a progressive training exercise, it allowed campus disaster volunteers to perform their jobs of reporting, communicating and managing the emergency operations center, various department operations centers and incident command posts.

 

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June 7 - July 11, 2000 (Volume 28, Number 34)
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