Nov 15, 2006 11:23 am US/Pacific
Students, Seniors Help In Bay Area Quake Drill
SAN FRANCISCO (BCN) ―
Bay Area high school students and senior citizens will be working with local officials and the American Red Cross Wednesday to ensure that the Bay Area is prepared to support large numbers of displaced individuals in the event of a major earthquake.
The American Red Cross Bay Area will be opening local relief shelters in San Francisco and Marin County Wednesday as part of a statewide earthquake preparedness drill, according to Red Cross spokesman Paul Rose.
The drill, titled Golden Guardian 2006, will simulate the response to a catastrophic earthquake on the San Andreas fault, according to Rose. The Red Cross will work with local officials to set up short-term accommodations that would serve a large number of displaced households.
The Red Cross plans to help test a new E-entry system provided by Ticketmaster that has the capability to track shelter populations from controlled points using handheld, portable scanning machines, Rose said.
The exercise will help ensure the efficient support of the community by further developing volunteer teams, strategic processes and inter-agency collaboration, according to Rose.
In the Marin County shelter, the Red Cross will work with 40 city workers and community members from Mill Valley, Tiburon and Belvedere and will assign roles to 50 or 60 individuals from the local high school and senior center, Rose said.
In San Francisco, 30-40 volunteers from the Red Cross and local agencies will be assigned roles in the drill.
The Marin County drill will take place from 9 a.m. to noon at the Mill Valley Community Center, located at 180 Camino Alto in Mill Valley.
The San Francisco drill will take place from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. at Thurgood Marshall High School, located at 45 Conkling St.
(© CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. Bay City News contributed to this report.)
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