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How does the Lindon City Drill work?
Trained Community Volunteers
Block, Neighborhood, Area
Every year we ask for volunteers from our great city to fill the job of community captains and other specialists. Every year, over 200 of you step up.
These volunteer captains are in place all year long. They receive annual training from the city's Emergency Manager and additional subject matter experts. They engage with the community at least once a year during the Lindon City Drill.
They would be called upon to coordinate communication throughout the city in a large-scale earthquake or any other scenario where we need to be sure every resident receives critical information. They should be able to act with or without the use of cell phones.
- They should encourage individual and household preparedness.
- They must act in their position while maintaining respect for and appropriate boundaries with their block members.
- They may need to field specific requests from block members pertaining to special needs.
Block Captains aren't only there for the drill.
Lindon City has been lucky not to have had too many situations come up that have required resources beyond our typical capacity.
But we plan and practice to be singularly ready for something big, were it to occur.
Block Captains could be called upon to help alert, assess, or organize due to —
- Fire evacuation
- Boil order
- Wild animal
- Silver Alert
- Flooding
- Storm recovery
- Debris removal
Runners and Radio
2-hour drill in 20 steps
Residents and Block Captains
- The annual Lindon City Drill begins at 6PM.
- Block Captains should honk their horns.
- Residents exit their homes and gather.
- Block Captains record who has participated.
- Unless requested not to, Block Captains then check on those who have not participated.
- In-person gathering is preferred but text or phone or other communication is okay as needed.
- Block Captains record the TOTAL ESTIMATED AMOUNT OF TIME volunteered by them and their block members. (NOTE: After a disaster, volunteer time can count toward recovery reimbursement and MUST BE TRACKED to help with funding.)
- Block Captains send their stats on to the Neighborhood Captains by a pair of runners.
- Block Captains do a short training with their blocks on the Individualized Protection Plan.
- Residents may return home immediately or enjoy an evening with fellow block members.
Neighborhoods and Areas
- Neighborhood Captains tally how many blocks participated and how many people in each block.
- Neighborhood Captains tally total block volunteer time and ADD their own volunteer time.
- Neighborhood Captains send their stats on to the Area Captains by a pair of runners.
- Neighborhood Captains should actively check in with lagging blocks and help them troubleshoot.
- Area Captains tally how many neighborhoods particiapted and how many people in each.
- Area Captains tally total neighborhood volunteer time and ADD their own volunteer time.
- Area Captains send their stats on to the City EOC by a pair of runners AND via ham radio specialists.
- Area Captains should actively check-in with lagging neighborhoods and help them.
- City officials at the City EOC and Radio Room recieve reports and do additional training.
- The entire drill takes only two hours. There is a debrief at 8PM at the City EOC. All can attend.
City Leadership
Complex-Coordination Practice
- Exactly how does a multi-agency, multi-jurisdictional response get organized?
- When resources are limited — equipment, vehicles, and personnel — where do they go and how do they get there?
- What does a response cost? And how will Lindon City pay for it?
- What supports do city leaders need? What supports do residents need?
- How will city leaders communicate critical information, situation reports, and requested actions to the public?
- What about the future? How can we recover and build-back better?
The Lindon City Drill provides critical practice to city leaders to help coordinate and work out the answers to these very questions.
While the entire Lindon City population is in motion, accounting for each other and assessing immediate needs, our city leaders gather to engage in specialized training.
Past trainings have covered earthquake, wildland fire, train derailment, hazardous materials spills, public information policy, available resources through mutual aid and military, and disaster recovery. This year we will look at special needs planning and case studies.
As reports come in from around the city and over the radio, we can use them to practice situational assessment, operational communications, reestablishment of community lifelines and critical services, operational coordination, and public information and warning.
These efforts improve our response, recovery, and community resilience.