Countywide earthquake drill scheduled for today

Proving different than any other Halloween, Kitsap residents will learn what it’s like to survive a 7.3 earthquake

Today, Bremerton, Poulsbo, Bainbridge Island and Port Orchard in conjunction with Kitsap County government, Harrison Medical Center, Kitsap Transit, Kitsap fire agencies and other organizations will participate in a three-hour earthquake exercise. The purpose of this full-scale exercise is to evaluate the ability of the county to respond to a severe earthquake.

The drill will feature a simulated 7.3 magnitude earthquake at approximately 8:30 am today. The scenario is focused on demonstrating the use of the incident command principles in a multi-agency coordination environment, the ability to communicate and coordinate among incident commands, area commands and coordination centers under adverse conditions.

Kitsap County Department of Emergency Management will establish a special “crisis” Web site with earthquake information, posting news releases and links to relevant information. The community also can ask questions and can submit their photos, video or stories. News releases will be distributed via e-mail or fax to all who add their contact information to this Web site.

The idea is the crisis site will become the primary source of information in the county during any crisis and will allow Kitsap emergency response teams or agencies to speak in a single voice.

To sign up, visit kitsapdem.org and click on the yellow box titled “Sign Up for Alert and Warning.”

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