A ShakeOut Day of Activities

The following organizations participated on the ShakeOut conference call and shared with each other what activity their organization undertook, how many people participated, and what lessons were learned.

CVE, Inc. (Community Vocational Enterprises) - is a non-profit social enterprise that provides employment opportunities to individuals with mental health disabilities.

Over 40 individuals practiced duck, cover, and hold. The primary way CVE safety committee member’s initiated the drill was use of PA announcement and blowing whistles. CVE even had a class going on, which allowed for the instructors to spend time explaining to their clients what and why they are duck and covering.

The biggest issues CVE faced were hesitation from a few staff and clients. They plan on continuing to educate their staff and clients on the importance of duck, cover, and hold and the benefits of being personally prepared for a disaster.

The Jewish Community Center of San Francisco - is the oldest Jewish center on the West Coast, providing educational, social, cultural and fitness programs to the community since 1877. Open to all, with the mission of building and preserving Jewish Identity.

For this years ShakeOut activity, JCCSF wanted to focus on their preschool children’s population. Over 400 children, located at 3 schools practiced duck, cover, and hold. Additionally, they successfully tested their internal emergency notification system with over 500 staff receiving instructions to check their emergency supplies.

In the future, JCCSF plans on practicing duck, cover, and hold at their after-school programs.

La Casa de las Madres – responds to calls for help from domestic violence victims, of all ages, 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.

Jennifer Grant waited till more staff was in the office by conducting an evacuation drill at 2:15PM. To initiate the drill, Jennifer pulled the burglar alarm.

Staff and clients evacuated the building, grabbing the agency’s go-kit and rallying at the pre-designated location. 4 pre-trained staff and clients stayed behind and conducted floor sweeps utilizing walkie talkies’ to communicate with the safety monitor at the rally spot.

Once everyone was accounted, Jennifer initiated their incident command.

The only lesson learned, Jennifer commented, was making sure the batteries are charged in the walkie talkies.

Project Open Hand - provides home delivered meals, groceries and nutrition counseling to people living with HIV/AIDS; congregate lunches.

180 people participated in the organization’s ShakeOut drill. Starting at 10am, Mr. Steve Hunter went on to the intercom and announced that their duck, cover, and hold drill has started. Based on staff feedback and Mr. Hunter’s observations, roughly 95% of staff and visitors did a great job in duck, covering, and holding.

After the drill was complete, Mr. Hunter along with front desk disseminated information about the drill and earthquake preparedness to clients who were in the lobby and food pantry. The following is testimony from Mr. Hunter based upon his personal experience after the drill:

“The biggest issue came from communicating with hearing impaired volunteers and folks with English as a second language. I had thought I had covered the language issue by having two people that spoke Chinese in the Grocery center directing folks, but there was still a level of not getting the concept in our client waiting room since there were a number of other native languages represented. For our hearing impaired volunteers I was able to write the message out and they ended up doing exactly what was required.”

“The other incredibly potent part of this exercise was the dissemination of information. I personally spoke with 80 people about this event, what they could do themselves to be better prepared and handed out a lot of flyers, as well as specifically what would be happening during the drill. I have done earthquake drills before and there was always this element of questioning. What are we doing, how long do we have to stay in place, is this real, etc. This drill was different and had a very positive outcome in many respects.”

San Francisco Food Bank – collects donated food from growers, manufacturers and grocers and distributes it to food pantries, soup kitchens, childcare centers, and homeless shelters.

Just as most organizations, they conducted a duck, cover, and hold drill at 10:15am with over 50 people participating. The kink their leadership threw in was that it was a surprise. Unlike past drills that are usually announced beforehand, SF Food Bank wanted to see how people would react. Overall staff did a fantastic job. The only observation made was that clients shopping for food did not know what to do and a delivery guy laid-down in the back of his truck.

From the experience, SF Food Bank leadership plans on continuing to educate clients and drivers on what to do if on site during an earthquake.

St. Anthony Foundation – provides shelter, housing, meals, medical care, clothing and furniture, rehabilitation services, and senior services.

As 10:15am struck, St. Anthony Foundation conducted a duck, cover, and hold drill for staff. Over a 90 staff members at their 150 Golden Gate Building participated.

Overall the drill was very successful and the most common question from staff was, where do they go once they evacuate?

Support for Families of Children with Disabilities – offers information, education, and parent-to-parent support for free of charge.

Trying to incorporate communication systems into their drills, they waited to hear a special noise on KNBR to initiate their organization’s drill. When nothing happened, they utilized their pre-establish evacuation procedures to initiate a mass evacuation.

Before 10:15am, they conducted a duck, cover, and hold drill then waited before evacuating. In total, over 23 staff members participated.

From the experience, they plan on practicing and training further staff on using their evacuation chair for individuals that have a disability who may need assistance evacuating.