THE Office of Civil Defense (OCD) will lead the third quarter Nationwide Simultaneous Earthquake Drill (NSED) at 4 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 11, to test the country’s readiness for a major tremor.
The exercise will kick off with the pressing of a at Camp Aguinaldo, Quezon City, followed by a full-scale simulation at the 525th Engineering Combat Battalion Training Area inside Libingan ng mga Bayani in Taguig City.
This quarter’s drill will simulate the so-called “Big One,” supposedly a magnitude 7.2 earthquake with intensity VIII shaking Metro Manila, Central Luzon, and CALABARZON. The scenario envisions the capital being cut off from neighboring regions and the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (NDRRMC) Operations Center in Quezon City rendered non-operational.
Under the exercise, disaster response will be led by Regional Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Councils in Northern and Southern Luzon, the Visayas, and CARAGA, covering mass casualty management, collapsed structure search and rescue, emergency operations activation, hazardous materials response, and logistics coordination.
