Stories From The ShakeOut

Margaret Hale (HR Director - Ignition Creative)
With the previous experience of planning for the drill, this company thoroughly planned for this year’s ShakeOut drill 3 months in advance, which resulted in a fruitful, “quick and painless” procedure for her 160 employees. Read more...

Nevadah Coxhill (HR Director - ACCENT PLASTICS)
Though the company environment makes it hard to find places to perform the drill, it successfully carried out the drill and raised awareness as recent earthquakes have taken place around the world. Read more...

Tami Velazquez (Administrative Assistant/ Safety Committee Member - National Cornerstone Healthcare Services, Inc.)
This company reviewed the drill in advance with a successful turn out, and followed up with a positive discussion of what was learned and what needed to be changed. Read more...

Denise Peters (Chief Operating Officer - Mr. Clean Maintenance Systems)
This company has recently updated their emergency action plan and executed it in the ShakeOut drill. The drill was a good experience and demonstrated that they need to improve their emergency paging system that would be heard everywhere in the facility. Read more...

Don Plondke (Instructor of Geography - Chabot College)
Although their college is not officially participating in the ShakeOut, the Physical Geography class watched a portion of the "Raging Planet" video from the Discovery Channel on earthquakes, including scenes from the 1989 Loma Prieta quake. Read more...

Heather Flett (Founder - Rookie Moms)
She dropped to her knees and covered her head away from any windows. She also took notice of the safety hazards around her home office, and considered alternative ways to stay safe. Read more...

Lucie Loach
The Housing division of the City of Santa Monica prepared an earthquake scenario where a role card was placed under each employee's desk. The simulated magnitude 7.8 earthquake worked well, which led into discussions on future preventive plans. Read more...

Wendy Meador (Safety Coordinator - Tangram Interiors)
The receptionist at Tangram Interiors sounded the alert and started the sound effects as the drill began. Afterwards observers brought back some great points for future drills. Read more...

Eileen Nitsche (Admin - AbilityFirst)
She cleared all rooms in her home office before going to a designated area outdoors. Read more...

Jan Harris (Campus Security - Silver Springs High School)
The drill was made “fun” by rewarding the students with gift cards and free pizzas if they participated in the drill. All parents were called the night before, and the ShakeOut Drill Broadcast recording was played over the paging system at 10:15. Read more...