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City Prepares for Massive Drill Saturday |
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By Melissa Evans
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Tuesday, April 24 2007 |
Motorists beware: About 1,000 people will be fleeing their homes on the Riviera Saturday morning for a full-scale emergency evacuation drill.
Cars of residents will be leaving the area for checkpoints, emergency vehicles will be entering the area, and media trucks will be filling staging areas near De la Guerra Plaza and the Santa Barbara Mission.
It’s probably best to avoid the area, organizers say.
City officials, along with nearly two dozen agencies helping with the drill, are trying to warn bicyclists, walkers, construction workers and others who may be traveling along Alameda Padre Serra on Saturday.
The massive undertaking is designed to see how well the city’s communication networks would hold up in an emergency – in this case, a fire. They also want residents to practice what to do in an emergency.
“It’s been my experience that people don’t do what they learn, they do what they practice,” said Yolanda McGlinchey, emergency services manager for Santa Barbara.
Letters were already sent to the 970 homes on the Riviera warning them about the drill. The exercise was requested by the Riviera Homeowners Association, and city and county leaders happily obliged.
Other organizations involved in the drill include the California Highway Patrol, the American Red Cross, Caltrans, area fire departments and the Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s Department.
On Saturday morning, the city will hold a media briefing before the event. Mayor Marty Blum, Santa Barbara County Supervisor Salud Carbajal and Assemblyman Pedro Nava, D-Santa Barbara, will speak.
Residents participating will receive a phone call through police dispatch's reverse telephone directory in the morning. They will also be warned by way of bullhorns, sirens, public service announcements and word-of-mouth.
They will proceed to designated checkpoints to be counted. Instead of calamity and worry, however, Riviera residents will be greeted with a raffle organized by the homeowners association.
Residents won’t be forced to participate, but are highly encouraged if physically able, city officials said.
The primary thrust of the drill is to improve communication, McGlinchey said.
“We’ve found that communication is always the first thing to break down,” she said at a press conference Monday afternoon.
The drill will begin at about 8 a.m. and conclude around noon.
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