City of Hayward Staff Conduct EOC Exercise
HAYWARD - Thursday, May 19th the Fire Department welcomed city staff to an emergency response training exercise. Employees from every City department sat down for an hour-long orientation to the City's Emergency Operations Center, a pop-up situation room activated by the City in the event of an emergency.
Then the calls started rolling in.
Over the next hour, City staff answered phones, deployed resources, and mapped reported damage as a simulated emergency scenario unfolded. Faced with a flood of conflicting information, the Emergency Operations Center team got to experience what a developing emergency is like and exercise their roles in responding to it. The training allowed staff to apply what they have already learned in online training courses, in-person classes, and offsite exercises, and helped exercise organizers identify training, equipment, and logistical opportunities to improve the City's ability to respond in a disaster.
"It felt like a real disaster was happening in real time so it gave participants a feeling of what it will be like in an activated EOC," one participant noted. "The more we have these training exercises, the more comfortable participants will be once a disaster strikes."
This simulation was only the first in a series of Emergency Operations Center trainings that the Hayward Fire Department will hold to further prepared City employees to help keep the City safe in an emergency.
