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On Jan. 26, the Red Cross and the Anchorage Office of Emergency Management paired up to present a full-scale emergency exercise held at the Spenard Rec Center. (KTUU-TV / January 27, 2013) |
On Saturday night, 24 people volunteered to spend the night at a shelter to practice what they would do in a real emergency situation.
The Red Cross and the Anchorage Office of Emergency Management paired up to present a full-scale exercise held at the Spenard Rec Center.
Participants stayed at the shelter from six last night until nine this morning, sleeping on cots and eating donated food by the Red Cross.
They also had the opportunity to participate in a disaster preparedness education session.
This was the first time they've held the exercise in more than five years.
Organizers say the purpose of the simulated disaster situation is to find kinks in their emergency plan and find ways to fix them.
“Just like with a fire drill, if you make a fire drill escape plan for your house and then you never practice it ever - when you finally have a fire five or 10 years later, you're not going to know what to do,” Dawn Brantley, Anchorage Office of Emergency Management, said. “That plan is useless exercising that also helps us remember what the elements of the plan are, but it tests them - does this plan work the way we have it written?”
Every two years, the Anchorage Office of Emergency Management holds a full scale exercise called the "Alaska Shield."
Next year, the Anchorage Office of Emergency Management will hold a statewide full-scale emergency exercise, recognizing the 50th anniversary of the 1964 earthquake.
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