Northern Areas of Novato Practice Disaster Evacuation

About 675 households in the northern areas of Novato received a “robo-call” Sunday afternoon to let them know about an evacuation drill taking place at the parking lot.

Dozens of personnel from the , , the California Highway Patrol, the Marin County Sheriff’s Office and other aid agencies set up a command post and informational booths to inform “evacuees” of all the ways to keep themselves safe in the event of a wildland fire or other disaster.

Novato police used the WARN system to send out calls to hundreds of homes simultaneously based on numbers provided by AT&T and Verizon. Rejected calls to alarm systems and fax machines will be noted, police said.

Residents of the Wood Hollow and Partridge Knolls neighborhoods plus other nearby streets trickled into the parking lot and signed their names with the American Red Cross before mingling at tables set up by Get Ready Marin, the , the and Marin Medical Reserve Corps and ham radio operators who aid in communications during disasters.

As a volunteer search-and-rescue plane circled overhead, people were invited to ask questions about the process at the unified command post where police, fire and sheriff’s departments coordinated the exercise.