In continuing the efforts in preparing the Los Angeles County Operational Area (LACOA) and its partners including the 88 cities, 137 unincorporated area communities, 200-plus school and special districts to respond to and recover from disaster(s), the Los Angeles County Chief Executive Office, Office of Emergency Management (OEM) is hosting a functional exercise at the Los Angeles County Emergency Operations Center (CEOC) from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Thu., March 21.

This year’s functional exercise will feature the California Integrated Seismic Network’s Earthquake Early Warning Demonstration System and the participation of 53 City emergency operations centers, American Red Cross, Emergency Network Los Angeles, Southern California Edison and County departments (Chief Executive Office, Community & Senior Services, Coroner, Fire, Health, Human Resources, Internal Services, Mental Health, Public Health, Public Social Services, Public Works and Sheriff). These departments and organizations will be communicating and coordinating various types of resource and commodity requests by utilizing the Operational Area Response and Recovery System in response to a simulated magnitude 7.8 earthquake that impact the entire LACOA.

A functional exercise is a training event that is designed to test and evaluate selected emergency functions and the interaction of various levels of government, response organizations, volunteer groups, and industry in a simulated environment. This type of exercise usually involves key decision makers, the local emergency operations center and representatives from response and support organizations. Field response units are not normally activated and deployed during a functional exercise.