For complete details about the Lamorinda 2021 Virtual Evacuation Exercise being held on July 31st, click here.
On Saturday July 31st, the Lamorinda police departments (Moraga, Orinda & Lafayette), Moraga-Orinda Fire, Contra Costa County Fire, the East Bay Municipal Utility District (EBMUD) and the Contra Costa County Community Warning System will be conducting a joint virtual evacuation exercise. The drill will include all of Lamorinda and the Community of Canyon. In an actual emergency, evacuation messages will be issued for these zones when there is extreme danger to an area. When a real evacuation order is issued, residents should evacuate immediately.
The July 31st exercise begins at 9:30 a.m. and involves a virtual fire that spreads to all three Lamorinda cities. Only small portions of the community will receive an alert right around 9:30. Residents throughout Lamorinda can expect to receive a test message sometime between 9:30 and 11:00 AM. As with a real emergency, all evacuation orders are issued via the Contra Costa County Community Warning System (CWS). CWS is the only official source for this information. During an emergency, Nixle will not be used for evacuation messages, but may be used to provide other information. Residents should subscribe to both services.
What is being tested?
Only the Community Warning System owned tools are being tested for this exercise. This test will include:
- Phone calls
- Text messages
- Email messages
What isn’t being tested?
The Community Warning System will not be activating
- Wireless Emergency Alerts (WEA)
- Emergency Alert System (EAS), or
- NOAA weather radios
During a real fire or evacuation, WEA is often activated.
During emergencies that are larger scale or very serious, the Emergency Alert System is often activated.
During large scale emergencies or emergencies that have caused communication issues, Weather Radios may be activated.
If the BIG fire comes, we will activate all of these tools.
