San Diego Community College District

First responders, San Diego Community College District employees, and members of the public will converge at San Diego Mesa College on Tuesday, May 24, for a day of disaster preparedness training exercises and police and fire department exhibitions. 

The SDCCD Disaster Preparedness Training Symposium gets underway at 9:15 a.m. in Parking Lot 3. Among the participating agencies are the SDCCD Police Department, the San Diego Police Department, the San Diego County Sheriff’s Department, and the American Red Cross.

This free event aims to educate citizens on how local resources work during emergencies and how residents can better prepare for a wide variety of disasters. The day will include annual training exercises for the SDCCD’s Campus Community Emergency Response Teams (C-CERT), and a large number of the teams’ nearly 600 faculty and staff members and administrators are expected to be on hand. C-CERT complements CERT San Diego, which was developed by the San Diego Fire-Rescue Department to help citizens become involved after the outpouring of volunteers who offered to help in disasters such as the 2003 Cedar Fire. C-CERT volunteers are trained to do everything from helping to direct traffic to working in an emergency command post.

The public is invited to attend the May 24 event.  The San Diego Police Department’s ABLE helicopter is scheduled to make a 10 a.m. flyby with a landing on the Mesa College football field at approximately 10:15 a.m.  The training portion of the event will conclude at 2 p.m.

“The program allows for the public to see what our first responders are doing for the community while providing training for our CERT volunteers,” said SDCCD Police Officer Richard Ferrell, who coordinates the department’s Emergency Resources Team, which is planning the event.

Mesa College is at 7250 Mesa College Drive, San Diego, 92111. Event parking is free.