The great California ShakeOut drill will rock the Bakersfield College campus on Oct.18 at 10:18 a.m. Scientists and emergency managers created the ShakeOut exercise as a way of informing and helping people prepare for an earthquake. It has grown exponentially since 2008, and today has over 17 million participants worldwide.

Amber Chiang, BC’s public relations and marketing director, is the coordinator of the communications about the ShakeOut, and also coordinating the campus exercise.

Chiang said the exercise will begin at 10:18 with a two-minute duck, cover, and hold on drill where you take cover under a desk and hold on.

Because of the danger of falling and flying objects, the two minutes is the safe time required for the after shaking to subside.

At 10:20, the fire alarms will begin ringing and the entire campus must evacuate, with their personal belongings, to the designated area where everyone can be accounted for.

A building administrator for each building must report in person to the emergency team center stating their building is all clear.

Although this is an earthquake model, it is a practical exercise that is useful in various emergency situations, according to Chiang.

Whether it’s a fire on campus, or an active shooter situation in one of the buildings, it’s imperative that students, staff, faculty and anyone on campus know the quickest safest route to get off campus.

Chiang said it is crucial for the students to take this exercise seriously because it allows the college to practice the school’s emergency planning procedures it is expected to know when an emergency happens.

“The goal is to have every building evacuated in less than five minutes,” said, Chiang. The administration’s first priority is the safety of everyone on campus, and the federal government, which dictates directives to the state, county, city and school level, takes safety incredibility seriously as well.

“It’s an interruption to your day, it’s an interruption to your class,” said Chiang.

“It can be mildly annoying, but it’s a great way to be prepared when something does happen. And the schools that don’t prepare are the ones that regret it when something happens.”

During emergency operations school officials use emergency command titles. Chiang’s title is the Public Information Officer, and is the official spokesperson of the college.

Chiang works directly with the incident commander (school president) to make sure all of the information disseminated is accurate because major emergencies change by the minute, which is why a single person is designated to talk to the public.

Sept. 11, 2001, Hurricane Katrina and the Virginia Tech shootings were “watershed events that really changed the emergency planning, and it continues to evolve with each new event,” said Chiang.

“Emergency planning for colleges and universities have become the most important priority yet outside of education itself, because you never know when your college or university can become a moving target.

Being part of the emergency command structure is very detailed, and there are a myriad of classes a person must go through to try and understand it.

“If you think about the difference of the things that happen in our world and in our country, there’s no way that you can be completely prepared for everything,” said Chiang.

“The best thing you can do is practice what you know so that you can be as prepared as possible.