LOS ANGELES – LASC TO PARTICIPATE IN 2016 GREAT CALIFORNIA SHAKEOUT

What: All 38 LASC courthouses will participate in the 2016 Great California ShakeOut. When: Thurs., Oct. 20, 2016; 10:20 a.m., start of ShakeOut “drop, cover and hold on” drill.

For a third year, the Los Angeles Superior Court (LASC) will be joining millions across the state in the 2016 Great California ShakeOut on Thurs., October 20. The yearly exercise is organized regionally by Shakeout partners the Earthquake Country Alliance and Southern California Earthquake Center, among others. The ShakeOut exercise permits LASC to coordinate emergency efforts with state, county, and city agencies, including the Judicial Council of California and its Office of Security, California Highway Patrol, Office of the State Fire Marshal, Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department, Los Angeles Police Department, Los Angeles County Fire Department, Los Angeles Fire Department, and Los Angeles County Office of Emergency Management. On Oct. 20, 2016, at 10:20 a.m., ShakeOut exercises will start at each of LASC’s 38 courthouses with the ringing of a courthouse’s emergency fire bell followed by instructions from the sheriff’s department over public address systems. Instructions will direct all persons to participate in the ShakeOut’s “drop, cover and hold on” drill, and for those individuals with disabilities to “lock, cover and hold on” to a solid object. The Los County Sheriff’s Department is using the ShakeOut event as an opportunity to practice its emergency response plans in a “real world” environment by directing a mass evacuation of the courthouses. After the drill is completed, all persons within a courthouse will be directed to evacuate the building via its stairwells. Persons with disabilities will be directed to a courthouse’s main hallways, where sheriff’s deputies will escort them down the elevators to avoid injury. In a real emergency, sheriff’s personnel are trained to use “Med Sled” evacuation devices to lower injured or disabled persons down the stairwells. -moreLos Angeles Superior Court Public Information Office Website: www.LACourt.org E-mail Address: PublicInfo@LACourt.org Upon exiting a courthouse, persons will be directed toward an assembly point where a headcount will be conducted. Court personnel and each agency with office space within a courthouse will communicate with sheriff’s command post staff when they have accounted for all judges, jurors, and employees. Each of LASC’s courthouses is equipped with substantial emergency supplies, including searchand-rescue kits, emergency medical kits, and Med Sleds to evacuate the injured or disabled. In the event that a shelter-in-place order is more appropriate than leaving the facility, thousands of individual containers of emergency food and water supplies are available for immediate deployment. The Great California Shakeout and evacuation procedures are critical practical exercises that greatly assist the Court and the sheriff’s department’s ongoing efforts regarding emergency preparations and crisis management. LASC takes emergency preparedness measures seriously and encourages everyone else to do so as well.

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