By Josh Richman
Oakland Tribune
OAKLAND, Calif. — Did you feel that 7.0 earthquake on the Hayward Fault on Saturday?
No? But you could have, and that is why hundreds of volunteers and about 50 neighborhood groups took part in the fifth-annual Citywide Community Emergency Response Exercise, organized by the Oakland Fire Department’s Office of Emergency Services.
Most of the neighborhood groups were led by and comprised of residents who trained in emergency preparedness and response through the department’s Communities of Oakland Respond to Emergencies (CORE) program.
More than 100 unaffiliated volunteers took part as either spontaneous volunteers or volunteer victims giving participants a chance to practice their disaster first-aid skills in the host neighborhoods. Local ham radio operators, city staffers and firefighters also participated, as did emergency services representatives from other local jurisdictions, to encourage inter-agency collaboration.
CORE teaches self-reliance skills and helps neighborhoods form response teams to take care of themselves until professional emergency personnel arrive. A major disaster will swamp first responders, leaving many community members on their own for the first 72 hours or longer. Since its 1990 launch, the CORE program has provided free, community-based training to more than 19,000 residents.
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