By Kerri Ginis
Fresno Bee (California)
Copyright 2006 McClatchy Newspapers, Inc.
All Rights Reserved
Fresno County practiced Wednesday responding to a major disaster that could hit anywhere at anytime.
A statewide drill had a 7.9-magnitude earthquake rattling the Bay Area at 5:23 a.m. With little time to prepare, the county had to take in 1,600 evacuees and provide them with food, medical care and social services.
Hundreds of local agencies participated in the drill, collaborating to share resources and provide the necessary help.
The Fresno-Madera Counties Chapter of the American Red Cross set up an emergency shelter at Valdez Hall in downtown Fresno. About 150 students from the Center for Advanced Research & Technology in Clovis played earthquake evacuees, spending the day stretched out on green cots.
It was all part of the state’s Golden Guardian Exercise Series, which began in 2004. The annual exercises provide cities, counties, first responders and volunteer organizations with the opportunity to test their emergency plans to respond to terrorism acts and natural disasters.
The county’s revamped emergency operations center served as the hub of communications. County officials manned phones and watched computer monitors for updates to the supposed earthquake.
County officials took their responsibility of coordinating the effort seriously, making it a point to collaborate with the city of Fresno, unlike what occurred last year when Hurricane Katrina hit.
A rift formed between city and county officials over a trip Fresno Mayor Alan Autry made to the Gulf Coast asking Hurricane Katrina victims to relocate in Fresno.
County officials, already struggling to provide services to 2,000 Hmong refugees, opposed the trip and criticized Autry for not involving them in his plans.
Tim Casagrande, manager of the county’s Office of Emergency Services, said those issues have been resolved. He said Wednesday’s exercise showed that all local agencies were working together.
“It’s extremely critical that we challenge and test the systems we have in place,” Casagrande said as he took a break from answering calls in the county’s emergency operations center. “It’s a learning experience.”
The students who participated were bused to Valdez Hall at 9 a.m. As they would in a disaster, they provided Red Cross volunteers with information about their families, their medical history and any injuries they sustained in the earthquake.
Each student received a slip of paper that guided their role-playing. Fabiola Duarte, 16, said she had mental problems and had to talk to a nurse about being traumatized by seeing “bloody people walking around and buildings destroyed.”
She sat on a cot covered in a light tan blanket next to her 15-year-old friend Marisol Palma. Both said they thought Wednesday’s exercise was a worthwhile experience for everyone involved.
“I think this is good, cause that way we’ll be prepared for something like this,” Marisol said.
Other students wrote in journals or listened to music as they waited for Red Cross volunteers to feed them a lunch of hot dogs and chili. A group of girls playing cards talked about what it would be like to be in an earthquake and have to stay in a shelter.
Amber Carpenter, 17, summed up their feelings: “It’s cold, and the cots are hard. I’m not sure that I can get much sleep here.”