Local high school students conduct earthquake preparedness drill

Cathedral City High School was in need of emergency help on Thursday. Students were calling for medical attention after a massive earthquake struck the school. For the 60 students that were part of the emergency response team, there was no worry as it was all a simulation.

It was part of the Great California ShakeOut, a state-wide earthquake drill. Over 10 million people in the state participated along with about 660,000 in Riverside County.

The students were spread out into teams to search across campus for 90 “injured” students as a way too practice coordinating a response to a disaster such as an earthquake. One student said it was an eye-opening experience.

“I really thought it would have been less catastrophic but as I can see from here it’s really worse than it can be,” Alanis Meza, a senior at the high school, said.

The teacher at the head of training the student responders, Kyle Bashore, said he thought the students did a good job during the exercise. He wanted it to be realistic in order to prepare them further.

“If they actually have to respond to a disaster, hopefully they’re a little prepared psychologically for what they would see or experience,” he said.