Contra Costa County Simulated Emergency Test 2009
Posted by af6aq on October 1st, 2009
On Saturday September 26, 2009 approximately 25 Amateur Radio Operators representing ARES®, RACES, American Red Cross, and the Contra Costa County Emergency Services Support Unit participated in the annual Contra Costa County Simulated Emergency Test.
SET 2009 was based on a 7.5 Earthquake along the northern Calaveras Fault. All telecommunications and utilities were destroyed. CERT teams established their incident command posts and reported field level intelligence up to their regional PSAP’s or EOC’s via amateur radio. From the PSAP’s and regional EOC’s traffic was than passed via amateur radio to the County Office of Emergency Services.
The motto of this years SET was “Break It and Make It Better”. Over the 4 hour exercise we identified several areas for improvement that will be addressed in upcoming monthly training.
Government agencies that participated in SET 2009 included: San Ramon Valley Fire Protection District, Town of Danville, City of San Ramon, and the Contra Costa County Office of Emergency Services. With the success of this years SET, Amateur Radio has once again proved to be a vital communications link in support of local and regional disaster response plans.
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