The Los Angeles County Office of Emergency Management (OEM) is holding a mock emergency functional exercise at the Los Angeles County Emergency Operations Center (CEOC) today from 9:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. The drill will test the response of various agencies to a simulated magnitude 7.8 earthquake hitting Los Angeles County.

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The exercise will feature the California Integrated Seismic Network’s Earthquake Early Warning Demonstration System and the participation of 53 City emergency operations centers, American Red Cross, Emergency Network Los Angeles, Southern California Edison and County departments (Chief Executive Office, Community & Senior Services, Coroner, Fire, Health, Human Resources, Internal Services, Mental Health, Public Health, Public Social Services, Public Works and Sheriff).

A functional exercise is a training event that is designed to test and evaluate selected emergency functions and the interaction of various levels of government, response organizations, volunteer groups, and industry in a simulated environment. This type of exercise usually involves key decision makers, the local emergency operations center and representatives from response and support organizations. Field response units are not normally activated and deployed during a functional exercise.

For more information on how to prepare for disasters, visit the OEM website at http://lacoa.org and Emergency Survival Program website at http://espfocus.org.

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