Call it a sleepover party for preppers.
Tooele County Emergency Management, the Stansbury Community Emergency Response Team and the American Red Cross will team up this weekend to host the county’s first-ever evacuation and emergency shelter drill at Stansbury High School in honor of the state’s Great Shake Out event.
While there won’t be an official disaster scenario for this drill, and while residents won’t be asked to leave their homes, the three partner agencies request that all interested locals bring themselves, their families and their 72-hour kits to Stansbury High on Friday to make the drill as realistic as possible.
Participants will check into the shelter at Stansbury High just as they would during a real evacuation. But, unlike a real evacuation situation, participants will then be treated to a tour of the shelter area and a community emergency preparedness fair hosted by emergency-related agencies.
There will also be 30-minute breakout sessions on topics such as 72-hour kit assembly, emergency related aps and technology, emergency prep for pets, and the county-wide potential for various disasters.
After the community preparedness fair and workshops, those who desire to do so may try out the emergency shelter cots and spend the night.
“You don’t have to stay the night, but it would be a great, fun opportunity, like a little overnight party with your friends and family,” said Robin Frederickson, the operations director for Stansbury’s CERT team.
The main goal of the drill, Frederickson said, is to give the 20 CERT volunteers who recently completed shelter management training some almost-real-life experience.
There will also be Red Cross and CERT training available during the drill, she said.
“The shelter exercise will allow those who just took that training to practice,” Frederickson said. “We want to encourage people to come to give us the opportunity to learn.”
But the drill will also be a good opportunity for residents to test out their 72-hour kits. Other than some snacks and a light breakfast for over-nighters, there will be no meals available during the drill.
In addition to finding out whether your kids — and yourself — can stomach the food you’ve packed in case of an emergency, it’s important to find out whether you have the right non-edible supplies in your kit, Frederickson said.
“If you’re ever asked to go to a shelter, it’s very important to have a 72-hour kit with everything from clothing to food and personal hygiene supplies,” she said. “That will make them that much happier with their shelter experience.”
Frederickson said three days was the average length of time it requires for emergency agencies to respond and set up to disperse food and aid.
While an earthquake is certainly a possibility in Tooele County, Bucky Whitehouse, emergency services director for Tooele County Emergency Management, said wildfires are the number one reason county residents are evacuated to an emergency shelter. Residents from both Stockton and Pine Canyon were evacuated and spent time in shelters just last year, he said.
Stansbury High School will be open to drill participants from 6 p.m. this Friday to 9 a.m. the following morning. Educational breakout sessions will run from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. on Friday.