The City of Oakland is holding a “Citywide Emergency Response Functional Exercise Plan” this Saturday morning and, with its large earthquake scenario, seems like the most realistic practice possible!

What’s most striking are the communication channel tests, which are no longer all about ham-radios.  In a true sign of the times, you are instructed to receive text messages and visit Facebook for updates.  You’re also supposed to ask non-Bay Area people to receive texts, which makes good sense.

For the 2011 exercise, the City of Oakland wants to test individual and group contacts.

The exercise objectives for ALL participating individuals are to:
1.  Communicate with an Out-of-Area Contact.
2.  Receive an official text notification from the City of Oakland/CORE.

The exercise objectives for participating neighborhood groups are to:
3.  Demonstrate effective communication within the neighborhood.
4.  Demonstrate effective communication with another neighborhood group.
5.  Demonstrate effective communication to the City Emergency Operations Center.
6.  Practice an orderly evacuation of the neighborhood.

Interested?  Take a quick look at the PDF guide here, if you would like to learn more and/or participate this coming Saturday.