The Los Angeles County Office of Emergency Management will be hosting a major functional exercise to respond to a simulated magnitude 7.8 earthquake, Thursday March 21.
The exercise will feature the California Integrated Seismic Network’s Earthquake Early Warning Demonstration System and the participation of 53 City emergency operations centers, American Red Cross, Emergency Network Los Angeles, Southern California Edison and County departments (Chief Executive Office, Community & Senior Services, Coroner, Fire, Health, Human Resources, Internal Services, Mental Health, Public Health, Public Social Services, Public Works and Sheriff). These departments and organizations will be communicating and coordinating various types of resource and commodity requests by utilizing the Operational Area Response and Recovery System in response to a simulated magnitude 7.8 earthquake that impact the entire LACOA.
A functional exercise is a training event that is designed to test and evaluate selected emergency functions and the interaction of various levels of government, response organizations, volunteer groups, and industry in a simulated environment. This type of exercise usually involves key decision makers, the local emergency operations center and representatives from response and support organizations. Field response units are not normally activated and deployed during a functional exercise.
