On Saturday, June 11, approximately 60 Mercer Island emergency volunteers participated in the 2011 annual volunteer drill coordinated by Emergency Preparedness Officer Jennifer Franklin. The drill simulated a 6.8 magnitude earthquake and focused on communications and the activation of the emergency well. The call to action came at 8:45 a.m. for volunteers to respond to the City Hall Court Room to register and be assigned positions by volunteer leads Jason King, Dr. Lee Glass, Carv Zwingle and Larry McWilliams.
Volunteer teams include medical, mental health, registration, well operation, search and rescue, sheltering, child care, senior care, animal shelter, damage assessment. Communications, transportation and resource teams were assigned various areas on the Island to practice radio communications and to test equipment and team procedures.
This drill was the first time that volunteers were assigned to go out into the field and transmit mock emergency scenarios via specially designated UHF radios. Adding to the reality of the simulated drill, the UHF radios failed to transmit and volunteers were forced to rely on the use of HAM radios much as they might in an actual emergency.
“The drill was a great success, showing how fortunate we are on Mercer Island to have such a terrific volunteer network,” said Officer Franklin. Lessons learned will be incorporated into the citywide disaster drill on Wednesday, Sept. 21.
Volunteer leads are:
Registration: Sue Robboy, Lynn Meyer, Angela Decker
Medical: Dr. Carter Hill, Patti Darling, Annie Osnis
Emergency Well: Jim Kroeger, Charles Bruhl
Search & Rescue: Abraham Dunn
Shelter: John Frazier, Joan Belady
Mental Health: Dr. John Dunne, Dr. Kim Lampson Reiff
Child Care: Erin Koehler, Barbara Luther
Senior Care: Beth Cordova, Jim Hunt, Robert Wyde
Animal Shelter: Bonnie Miller, Kere Kemp
Damage Assessment: John Nielsen
Communications: Dave Cook, Woody House
Transportation: Bob Bersos, Sandy Yollin, Dean Corrigan
Resource Tracking: Bob Ewing, Andrew King
Officer Franklin can be reached for additional information at (206) 275-7905 or by e-mail at jennifer.franklin@mercergov.org.
