Montecito Fire and MERRAG Participate in the Great California SHAKEOUT

Posted by Geri Ventura -

October 15, 2009 - The Montecito Fire Protection District facilitated MERRAG's participation in the Great California Shakeout (California's largest earthquake drill ever), earlier today.

MERRAG is the Montecito Community volunteer group organized to assist the Fire District and other local agencies during emergencies. MERRAG members attend monthly training sessions to learn disaster preparedness for themselves and their families as well as learn how to work with the Fire District during emergencies.

It is expected that telephones and cell phones will be out of service during a large scale disaster like an earthquake, so MERRAG has distributed UHF radios to schools, churches, hotels and organized home owner groups within the community. Radio carriers can provide important information about their location via the radio acting as the eyes and ears of the community in the event of a large scale disaster.

During the Great California Shakeout, MERRAG members participated in Drop, Cover and Hold during the 2.5 minute simulation, then went into action activating the District Operation Center and responding to mock earthquake situations provided to each radio carrier prior to the drill. This provided radio carriers practice in using their radios and tested the MERRAG Team Member's responses and documentation of each reported "emergency".

Over 25 agencies and homeowner groups participated in the extended functional drill.

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