Responders Rehearse for Disaster at ShakeOut Drill

It was only a drill, but the practice was as real as it gets.

In conjunction with the Great California ShakeOut, a statewide earthquake drill, about 60 people convened at the headquarters on Rowland Way to simulate a coordinated response by an incident command center to a quake of 7.4 magnitude followed by a significant aftershock thrown in for good measure.

Exercise director Captain Dave Jeffries of the said the practice is set up to work out kinks such as communication problems and allow people in new designated assignments to get a feel for the responsibilities and pressures of that task.

People involved in the incident command center exercise included staffers from the fire district, the police department, the city of Novato, amateur radio operators group and other volunteers. A conference room was packed with people in colored vests that clearly noted their assignments. Websites with emergency data were projected on big screens, and greaseboards filled with vital information were hanging on the wall, a practice set up in case the command center lost power.

Jeffries said people with command center assignments could assume a first shift of 12 to 24 hours in the case of a real disaster. “People playing some of these roles might be on vacation in such an emergency or even hurt and not able to serve in this kind of situation,” Jeffries said.

Law enforcement agencies and other first-responders drill several times a year in Novato, he said. Most recent ones included sessions at , the and a .

Jeffries introduced a simulated aftershock at 10:20 a.m., just before people on the first shift were about to pass off responsibilities to a second shift.

“It’s a worst-case scenario, so it’s a good one to drill,” he said.