The City of Santa Monica participated in the countywide tsunami response exercise on Wednesday, February 20. The exercise included personnel from the Santa Monica Police Department, Santa Monica Fire Department, Emergency Services Office, Red Cross of Santa Monica, volunteers, and other local disaster preparedness and response organizations.
Members of the Santa Monica Police and Fire Departments exercised alerting and response drills in the Main Street business district, Pacific Coast Highway area, and the Santa Monica Pier. The joint command center was at Palisades Park, with key personnel working there in contact with the Emergency Operations Command at City Hall. In the hypothetical scenario, 20,000 people would need to be relocated to higher ground, probably Santa Monica Airport, Samohi’s Barnum Hall, and possibly the Santa Monica Civic Center, according to Captain Scott Ziegert, SMFD Public Information Officer.
