Arizona is getting ready for 400,000 Californians taking refuge in Arizona.
Why Arizona is preparing for California's devastating quake, the 'big one'
http://c-7npsfqifvt34x24x78x78x78x2e...hf_$/$/$/$/$/$Los Angeles firefighters watch as part of the roof is pulled away from a Studio City house. They were trying yesterday to recover the body of a woman killed when the 1994 Northridge earthquake caused the house to slide 100 feet down a hill.
By Luis Gomez Contact Reporter
Californians have long braced for the inevitable earthquake known as the “big one.” Now, Arizona is getting ready for one anticipated aftermath: 400,000 Californians taking refuge in Arizona.
Californians aren’t so sure the preparations are necessary — “I’d rather grow gills,” one wrote — but many people are taking the situation very seriously.
As many as 75 state, local and federal agencies held a four-day drill this week on how to receive a massive number of evacuees from populated areas such as San Diego, Los Angeles, Riverside and San Bernardino counties, which sit along the San Andreas fault.
The full-scale drill, which concluded Thursday, was the first of its kind in Arizona.
What’s it like to prepare for an event like this? And what are some of the possible scenarios they rehearsed?
Here’s a look at the Arizona 2018 National Mass Care Exercise.
Why a mass care exercise?
The drill is part of a nationwide series of drills performed for a wide variety of emergencies. A manual known as the National Mass Care Strategy offers a blueprint for states to handle mass evacuations.
Similar drills have been conducted in Florida, Texas and Utah.
What are these places preparing for?
- Handling injuries: One of the main goals of the exercise was to learn how all the various agencies would accommodate patients or handle casualties stemming from earthquake damage in California, per the Arizona Department of Emergency and Military Affairs. Responders will use military aircraft to transport patients to a central staging area and then moved to local hospitals in or near Phoenix.
- Reuniting families: The agencies also focused on what to do when evacuees, including unaccompanied minors, are separated from their families. Judy Kioski, a spokesperson for DEMA, told the San Francisco Chronicle that “family reunification” was an important priority.
- Sheltering: Along with sheltering thousands of people, Kioski said these agencies also need to figure out how to feed everyone. The exercise even included a scenario for sheltering exotic animals and house pets.
- Fuel shortages: The exercises were meant to put a stress test on the agencies’ ability to deliver food, shelter and fuel, one Federal Emergency Management Agency official told a Los Angeles CBS station. “Part of the scenario is the fuel line is compromised in California, which directly effects Arizona,” said FEMA Deputy Director Wendy Smith-Reeve.
What does a drill of this size look like?
“If this was a full-scale emergency, the hotels would be full, areas would be saturated, the roads would of course be in a different condition,” one Red Cross official told a Phoenix NBC News station. “They would be gridlocked.’
To get a real hands-on practice on a mass evacuation scenario, the agencies set up tents, staging areas and operation centers to practice routing patients to hospitals, feeding refugees, or helping families reunite.
The image shows partner agencies and coordinators working and gathering in the Arizona State Emergency Operations Center.
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Will Californians actually flee to Arizona when the ‘big one’ hits?
Sure, the threat of the “big one” is scary; scientists figure it could feature an earthquake with a magnitude of 8 or greater, which would be much stronger that some of the strongest quakes in California history. But the possibility of a mass exodus from California to Arizona sparked some curious thoughts about this scenario.
Many Californians said no, they won’t flee to Arizona. Others said yes.
One of the snarkier comments came from former Assemblyman Mike Gatto.
If you live in California and the “big one” hits, would you flee to Arizona? Do you have a plan for a major earthquake? What will you do?
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