The City of La Mirada will conduct its annual communitywide disaster exercise on Thursday, October 20, in conjunction with the statewide earthquake preparedness campaign, The Great California Shakeout.
Each year, La Mirada partners with the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s and Fire Departments, and various community and business organizations to conduct a communitywide disaster exercise.
“The purpose of the exercise is to engage City staff, partner agencies, and the community in a realistic disaster scenario,” says Senior Administrative Analyst Andrew Vialpando. “The overall goal is to ensure we are prepared for a realistic disaster event.”
The City will activate its Emergency Operations Center (EOC) and City staff,
Los Angeles County Fire and Sheriff’s Department personnel, and American Red Cross will train on responding to an earthquake scenario. The exercise will also include disaster volunteers from the City’s Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) and HAM Watch amateur radio group testing their response efforts. The CERT team will discuss earthquake safety plans, and HAM Watch volunteers will coordinate a regional amateur radio communications exercise involving volunteers from the Cities of Downey, Whittier, Cerritos, and the American Red Cross.
For more information, contact the La Mirada Community Sheriff’s Station at (562) 902-2960.