PHOENIX, Arizona--The state of Arizona started a full-scale, three-and-a-half-day-long exercise Monday to prepare for a mass exodus of Californians in the event of a catastrophic earthquake.

Beginning at 1 p.m., more than 1,000 participants from government agencies, volunteer organizations, and the private sector will play out the scenario of a major earthquake rattling Southern California, triggering a mass migration of 400,000 evacuees to Arizona.

"We're looking at what are we doing for mass shelter and what might we have to do to feed all these people," says Judy Kioski, a spokesperson for the Arizona Department of Emergency and Military Affairs (DEMA).

Kioski says another important issue to explore is " family reunification."

"If it was a massive earthquake, maybe there are people who left and who can't get in touch with their relatives and they've come this way due to road closures," Kioski says. "Is communication down? With all these people heading to Arizona, how will we deal with the cell phone towers? We need to know how to help those people reconnect with family."

This is the first time the state has engaged in a mass migration and care scenario on this scale and they're following a framework provided by the federal government; earlier in the year, DEMA hosted a one-day tabletop exercise to start discussions around mass care.

The exercise, running May 21 to 24, engages a wide variety of participants pulling from a broad range of organizations including hospitals, volunteer organizations such as the Red Cross, transportation systems, air ports, banks, retail stores and public utilities.

"It's about the coordination of the resources, the food, the emergency supplies, the shelters — and prioritizing who gets resources first," says Kioski. (Source: The San Francisco Chronicle)

Story Date: May 22, 2018