
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SUNDAY, March 12, 1995                   TAG: 9503130089
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: B3   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE: FALLS CHURCH                                 LENGTH: Short

RED CROSS DRILL NOT ALL FANTASY

Play acting intertwined with reality Saturday as the American Red Cross staged a nationwide mock disaster response exercise. Amid fictitious hurricane and earthquake reports, the agency faced very real disaster challenges from California's floods.

As part of the exercise, about 50 people analyzed emergency needs and coordinated responses from the basement ``Disaster Operations Center'' at the Red Cross' national headquarters.

Red Cross officials in 400 communities in 47 states conducted simulated disaster preparedness drills across the country and sent in status reports and their requests for assistance - just as if it were for real.

The daylong drill involved thousands of volunteers, said Peggy Hinz, a Red Cross spokeswoman. It simulated a massive weather front moving across the country spawning everything from snow storms and heavy flooding to tornadoes and a hurricane. A couple of earthquakes, an oil truck explosion and an airplane crash were added to the mix.

But in the midst of the play acting, Nicholas Peake, a senior Red Cross official, interrupted with a real-life damage assessment from the flood-ravaged counties of California, where at least one person has died and thousands have been forced from their homes.

No one believes all these disasters would occur in a single day, said Don Jones, the Red Cross vice president for disaster services, but the exercise allows for a check on how the response system is working and gives local chapters a way to remind people that disasters can strike anytime.

by CNB