Drills?

Is anyone aware of any countries that run drills on disaster events, just wondering if this something any country really take seriously!

 

I'm from the Philippines and yes, the government often holds drills to train citizens on what to do during disasters like earthquakes and floods. Our country has an agency called the National Disaster Risk Reduction Council or NDRRMC which oversees and implements these drills. We really need these types of drills because our country is a disaster prone area. It's always being hit by typhoons and earthquakes.

 

That's great that your government takes an active interest in getting citizens prepared. Is there any literature on the successes of such citizen trainingg programs?

 

Metro Manila had the so called Shake Drill 2 weeks ago. It is an earthquake drill taken very seriously. They have the fire brigade, the police department, the paramedics and some other people who are related to an earthquake disaster. The drill is like a movie where there are "fake" victims complete with makeup and blood (coloring). Ambulances blared their sirens and roads were cleared. There's even an old taxicab suspended by the edge of the bridge to test the rescuers on how to handle such emergency situations. The only drawback of that earthquake drill is the huge budget. It is costly.

 

Yes I can imagine it is very costly, but so are the effects of aa major quake. By drilling, the emergency services may be able to mitigate some of the losses when a quake hits.

 

There are no practice drills ran by government here in Philadelphia but as individuals we should drill and practice so that we can be ready ourselves. Cannot depend on government on any level to do the things that we can do for ourselves.

 

When I was a police officer I wrote Emergency Weather procedure policy.
This in the event of severe t-storms, or tornado.
We seldom got an earth quake but there was one I recall that was a 5.5 on the old Richter scale.
Minor damage but buildings did move a tad.
I was in Virginia when there was a 6.0 and I could feel the ground shake a good bit for
a few seconds.
I didn't like that much.

 

Japan NEEDS one of the best disaster simulation drills system world over.

 

Might have been the same quake I remember on the east coast a few years back.

 

Yeah, there one of the countries at risk with these earthquakes so these drills are really necessary.

I remember when Japan got hit with this strong earthquake and the tsunami that ensued was quite a sight. I don't know if I could be prepared for something as huge as that.

 

One of the things that people who live in Western Washington are very concerned about is the possible eruption of Mt. Rainier. After going through the experience of Mt. St. Helens erupting in the 1980's, research revealed that there was a danger for Mt. Rainier to erupt as well. If that happens, the whole I-5 corridor through Washington would be closed, and there would be mass casualties.
One of the town that is closest to Mt. Rainier is Orting. Since they would only have about a half hour or less to evacuate when the volcano erupts, they have evacuation plans for the whole town, and I also read that they had drills so that everyone knows how they are supposed to evacuate the town.
Hopefully, this will help more people evacuate safely before the volcano closes off the evacuation routes and floods the whole town.

 

Over here they have drills to the army only. Which is quite senseless if you ask me because in the case of an emergency the victims would be mostly civilians so they should be the ones being prepared. But it's the country we live in.

 

We have in our country an earthquake drill but the downside is when it's done frequently, people get used to it and never bother to take it seriously. The first major earthquake drill was taken seriously that all us at work need to go outside as a part of contingency plan for earthquake disaster.