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Earthquake Drills and Simulations in Community‐based Training and Preparedness Programmes
Author(s) -
Simpson David M.
Publication year - 2002
Publication title -
disasters
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.744
H-Index - 70
eISSN - 1467-7717
pISSN - 0361-3666
DOI - 10.1111/1467-7717.00191
Subject(s) - preparedness , training (meteorology) , emergency management , typology , engineering , poison control , medical education , human factors and ergonomics , suicide prevention , psychology , medical emergency , medicine , geography , political science , archaeology , meteorology , law
The San Francisco, California, bay area is subject to continuous seismic risk. One particular response has been the development of community‐based training programmes designed to teach residents basic emergency response skills. Citizens are taught emergency medical techniques, search and rescue, fire suppression and other fundamental response skills. Current estimates in the Bay Area place the number of programmes at more than 100. Many programmes now include an annual community drill to reinforce the training and to evaluate the programme. The study described here is based on an evaluation of an effort initiated by BayNET (Bay Area Neighborhood Emergency Training), a voluntary association of communities with community‐based disaster preparedness programmes. In April 1996, BayNET asked all of its members to hold a community earthquake drill. After the drill, a mail survey was conducted of all programme managers. The survey examined the structure and administration of the programmes, training efforts and other related components. This paper describes the typology of drill formats that communities used, the role of the simulation in the city’s preparedness efforts, the qualitative costs and benefits, as well as an assessment of the drill based on survey respondents.