Deep in the Incident Command Center

At 10:17 a.m. on October 17, Bakersfield College participated in the annual “Great California Shake Out” drill for emergency preparedness.   This drill is designed to test the college’s response time and communication capabilities.

Deep in the Incident Command Center

At the scheduled time, staff and students received a message signaling the start of the drill.  That was the universal signal to “duck and cover”.  Following the duck and cover portion of the exercise, the fire alarms sounded to alert staff to clear the buildings.  Building monitors are assigned to each area to assure that the buildings are secure.  A runner is dispatched on foot with a message to the Incident Command Center that the building has been cleared; this part of the drill assumes that electronic message delivery would have been disabled by the catastrophe.  Had this been an actual emergency, this message would also include an estimate of any casualties discovered during the evacuation.  The entire campus was evacuated and reports were received with a 10-minute time span.

Aside from some good-natured teasing about the fashion statement made by those wearing security vests and hard hats, the participants in the drill responded appropriately and following directions in a timely fashion.  This type of orderly response is a positive affirmation that Bakersfield College would be able to do the same during an actual emergency.  Thank you, BC! And thank you Chief Counts!

You can see Amber Chiang and Ramon Puga

You can see Todd Coston and Laura Lorigo

Tagged: Bakersfield College, Shake out, Sonya Christian