Both Pittsburg and Brentwood campuses at Los Medanos College will be participating in a nationwide emergency drill Oct. 19 in the morning. The drill will be practiced along with several other schools across the country and is organized in an effort to prepare communities for big disasters, such as earthquakes. In fact, ShakeOut’s primary focus is earthquake preparedness.

The Great Shakeout was organized in 2008 and was designed to bring awareness to earthquake safety and recovery. According to LMC’s President Pamela Ralston, the drill serves as valuable practice for real emergency situations. 

 “It is organized to inspire communities to get ready for big earthquakes, and to prevent disasters from becoming catastrophes,” said Ralston. 

The drill will begin at 10:19 a.m. and while participating, students and faculty will be asked to act as if an earthquake had hit. While in the drill, participants will practice many concepts that may seem familiar.

“We will be practicing drop, cover and hold on across classrooms, offices, libraries, labs and open spaces on both of our campuses,” said Ralston.

This is Ralston’s first ShakeOut as the acting President, but this isn’t the first drill LMC has participated in. LMC has been attending these drills since 2017 and in previous years drills, students have also gone over evacuation routes among other activities relating to earthquake safety.

The Shakeout is scheduled to occur nationally every third Thursday in October, and it has been this way since the date was selected in 2009. For more information about the ShakeOut, you can find them online at: https://www.shakeout.org/california/.