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Shake, rattle, roll: Grissom drills for earthquake

  • Published
  • By Tech. Sgt. Mark R. W. Orders-Woempner
  • 434th ARW Public Affairs
GRISSOM AIR RESERVE BASE, Ind. --  Not quite along the lines of what Elvis had in mind, Grissom Airmen got all shook up during an earthquake drill held throughout the central United States Feb. 7.

"Every year the ShakeOut organization conducts these drills around the country," said Bob Wydock, Grissom deputy emergency manager.

According to the Great Central U.S. ShakeOut website, over 2.4 million people participated in the earthquake drill, which was aimed at educating the public about how best to deal with earthquakes.

"It's a matter of earthquake safety and trying to get the word out that the old way of doing things isn't as safe as the new way of getting down, taking cover and holding on," explained Wydock. "They've found that more people got hurt trying to get out of buildings than would have had they just found cover."

ShakeOut guidelines suggested participation could range from simply having people demonstrate how to get down, take cover and hold on to full-blown disaster response exercises. Grissom took a two-part approach to its participation.

"We first tested the base populace on their ability to take cover in an earthquake," elaborated Wydock. "Afterwards we convened the emergency operations center and gave them some possible inputs as to what might happen if a major earthquake were to hit here at Grissom."

Grissom's EOC is a group made of base emergency responders and leadership personnel who direct recovery operations after and emergency has taken place. EOCs found on military installations throughout the country mirror those used by civilian communities' first responders.

For this reason Kris Marks with the Miami County Emergency Management Agency visited the base during the drill to watch how Grissom responded to both the earthquake and the aftermath.

"Any time we can get together and learn from each other, it's a good thing and as an observer I learned a lot," said Marks. "I'm always impressed with (Grissom's) EOC because it's well designed, very orderly and they have a structure in place to deal with all the what-ifs."

Wydock agreed the base performed well during the exercise.

"I think we did very well; I was over in (the 434th Communications Squadron) at the time of the earthquake and they reacted just like they should," he recalled. "With the EOC afterwards, we started throwing inputs at them before everyone was in because it's more like what would happen in a real event, and they reacted to all the inputs, stayed focused and did really well."

For more information on earthquake safety, visit the ShakeOut website by clicking here.

Grissom is home to the 434th Air Refueling Wing, the largest KC-135R Stratotanker unit in the Air Force Reserve Command. Grissom Airmen are often called upon to deploy around the world in support of the Air Force mission.

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