April 16, 2013

To the Residents of Cross Way, Detroit Avenue, Lynn Avenue, Todd Avenue:

The City of Concord's Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) will be
holding a "Disaster Drill" on Saturday, May 18, 2013 in your neighborhood, where
trained citizen volunteers will exercise their knowledge, skills, and abilities should they
be deployed in an actual emergency. The "mock disaster" planned for this event will be
an earthquake with activities beginning as early as 8:00 AM and concluding by 3:00 PM.

Concord citizens trained in CERT will pour into your neighborhood wearing green vests
with green hard hats to provide support for the various emergency situations which will
be staged, as if a disaster has really occurred. They will be easy to spot in their CERT
apparel and will move about your neighborhood in pairs (using the buddy system), or
perhaps in larger groups. This exercise will allow the CERT trained individuals to
practice contacting citizens who may need emergency assistance, check for gas lines
that may be leaking, and/or search for residents that can not be accounted for.

We are also very interested in YOUR participation. With your help, we can make this
exercise as real as possible so that we can identify our weaknesses and strengths in
managing a disaster situation. If you haven't yet attended the free 20-hour CERT
training, we encourage you to participate as actors, or "resident victims" of the disaster
scene. Makeup artists will be on hand to create simulated injuries on victims, known as
moulage. After you are decorated with injuries we ask that you return to your home or
ask to be assigned with others and wait for to be contacted by a CERT team. We are
specifically asking that your household give us permission to:

• Inspect your gas meter; then mimicking that we detected a leak we might
  physically tie a ribbon on it to illustrate that we have pretended to turn the gas off.
• Knock on your front door and ask if everybody in the house is okay; then using
  large poster paper, we would mark the paper on your door indicating that we
  have searched the inside of your house. (No entry will actually be made to any
  home, just a front door face-to-face communication).
• Even if you don't want to be disturbed, with your permission we would like to
  place the large poster on your front door for the CERT search and rescue teams
  to mark their findings. We will collect the large papers before we leave, because
  we evaluate the information written on them.

Please contact us to indicate only your non-interest in this drill. Whether vou choose to
articipate or not our goal is to comply with the wishes of each of the residents of our
neiahborhood.

To request "no contact" please email Concord.CA.CERT@gmail.com or call the CERT
Hotline at 925-603-5933. In about two weeks we will provide you with a window sign to
place in the window most visible from your front entry. The two-sided sign says "HELP"
in red and "OK" in green. If you do not wish to be disturbed on Saturday, May 18. 2013,
please post the "OK" in green side to be visible from outside your home. Please keep
these laminated signs as a token of our appreciation for using your neighborhood for
our drill. The signs will be a great help in the event of a real disaster!

After a CERT team has been to your house we encourage you to join us at the Incident
Command Post on Cross Way to see more ofthe activities. You won't be able to drive
your car as you usually do because the parking spaces will be already occupied and the
courts filled with people. If you need assistance, please just ask your CERT team as we
would like them to gain the practice of helping citizens get to a safe gathering area. At
the Incident Command Post we will have a CERT Animal information booth telling you
what you can do for your pets to prepare for the 72-hours following this "mock" disaster.
We may also have an American Red Cross booth that will provide information relating to
preparedness, evacuations and disaster shelters.

We are truly excited in planning this upcoming activity and are looking forward to your
household participating in testing our skills.

Sincerely,

Margaret Romiti
Office of the Chief
Emergency & Volunteer Services Manager
Concord Police Department
1350 Galindo Street
Concord, CA 94520
Phone: 925.671.3184
Fax: 925.691.6640