On 10/16 at 10:16am a major earthquake did not happen in Alaska, but the Great Alaskan Shake Out did and because of the annual training lives may be saved and injuries prevented when the next major quake does strike Alaska. The theme of this year’s drill was “Shake out, don’t freak!” reported Pegge Erkeneff, KPBSD communications specialist. Schools in the Kenai Peninsula Borough School District participated in the Great Alaska ShakeOut where all students practice the “Drop, Cover, and Hold On” drill. KPBSD students and staff joined more than 66,000 Alaskans who registered to participate. Dave Jones, assistant superintendent of instructional support, said, “We need to be prepared for incidents we hope never happen, but if they do, we can minimize the danger to our students, staff, and community.” Earthquake preparation and the proper “Drop, Cover, and Hold On” technique is valuable safety education for our students and employees. We will also practice a radio check-in to the district office from each of our schools following this earthquake drill.

At Redoubt Elementary the drill was deemed a success by Principal John Pothast, “The kids and the teachers take this drill seriously just like they do fire drills. We live in Alaska where earthquakes are probably more frequent than fires so kids need to learn what we do when we have the next earthquake. The staff also works on what we would do in an actual quake when it’s not just a training drill, we have procedures in place and we practice a lot as far as what do we do in any real emergency. A fire or intruder is usually site specific, but in an earthquake an entire area is affected which means first responders are spread thin in such an aftermath. We know that kids and parents will be scared so we do a lot of training outside of the drill as to what we do in the aftermath of an emergency so we can be as self-sufficient as possible,” he explained.