Agua Caliente simulates earthquake emergency response
The City of Palm Springs and the Agua Caliente Band of Cahuilla Indians simulated an emergency response in the event of a major earthquake striking the city Thursday morning.
City staff and the tribe worked together in order to coordinate a response to a simulated 8.0 earthquake that struck the city.
They had to deal with various issues such as multiple fires, bridge collapses, and mass casualties. It;s preparation that’s valuable for an area that’s seismically active.
“We’re actually surrounded by two fault lines we have the San Andreas Fault in the San Jacinto fault line,” Anjila Lebsock, emergency services coordinator for the Palm Springs Fire Department, said. “So we have one on the north and one on the south side.
City leaders said the simulation of the ever changing circumstances of a disaster.
“You can never be prepared enough for these kinds of situations so this is going to hone everyone’s skills so if we’re ever called into this kind of a situation, everyone knows their role and we can get as much help to people as quickly as we can,” David Ready, city manager of Palm Springs, said.
