In an effort to keep Mission Viejo safe and prepared for emergencies, City staff on Wednesday participated in the Golden Guardian 2011 Exercise, sponsored by the California Office of Homeland Security.
Mission Viejo’s exercise was part of a countywide effort to test emergency communications systems in the City’s Emergency Operations Center (EOC) using a winter storm response scenario. Located at Mission Viejo City Hall, the EOC is a secure facility where City department heads are able to work in the event of a large disaster. The facility provides centralization of City response to major events. The EOC allows for City departments to work closely together to make recovery more efficient for the community.
Using the City’s AlertOC emergency communication system, emergency services staff were called to report to the EOC, where they were required to set up communications systems in less than an hour. Once activated, staffers sent information reports to the County Emergency Operations Center using WebEOC, an Internet-based countywide emergency communication system. The system allows emergency management to monitor an incident, send and receive messages to the County EOC, view countywide disaster response activity and request resources. In order to test the emergency generator, the City shut off the electrical power to City Hall to simulate a power outage.
As part of the detailed exercise, the City also called into action the Mission Viejo Radio Amateur Civil Emergency Services (RACES) Team and tested satellite phone capabilities. Mission Viejo RACES is a volunteer group of amateur radio operators that deploy the City’s backup emergency communications system in the event that other methods of communication fail. The group can communicate with state, county and other local jurisdictions through amateur radio frequencies, including the use of amateur television (ATV) and e-mail.
