YUMA, Ariz. (KYMA, KECY)- The annual Great ShakeOut earthquake drill took place in Imperial County.
The El Centro Regional Medical Center held the drill last Thursday, October 17th at 10:17a.m. in remembrace of the Loma Prieta earthquake of 1989.
The shaker registered 6.9 on the Richter scale in the San Fransico Bay area. The quake killed 63 people and caused over $6 billion dollars in damage.
The hospital CEO says drills like these are important to educate employees on how to stay prepared and protect themselves and patients in case of emergencies.
“For instance if the patients is on the operating table, what do they need to do to protect that patient? Obviously when you’re having surgery, you can’t just remove the patient from the table. You have to take certain steps, and they practice what they would do in that case,” said El Centro Regional Medical Center CEO Pablo Velez.
The hospital says that over the last year, they’ve put money into upgrading facilties to make sure they’re seismic compliant in case of an emergency. They say they plan to have them done by the end of the year.
