The District of Columbia Homeland Security and Emergency Management Agency (HSEMA) will conduct community preparedness exercises for residents of several northwest neighborhoods on Saturday, November 1, Thursday November 6 and Tuesday November 25.
The exercises are intended to help residents learn how to prepare themselves and their families for natural or man-made emergencies and disasters and will provide an opportunity for residents, community leaders and emergency officials to discuss how they would work together in the event of an emergency.
“We are working to help our neighborhoods prepare for, respond to and recover from emergencies of all kinds,” said HSEMA director Darrell Darnell. “We are providing them with the information and skills they will need to sustain themselves and their community for the first 72 hours of an emergency.”
Residents of Ward 1 neighborhoods including Adams Morgan, Cardozo/Shaw, Columbia Heights, Howard University, Lanier Heights, LeDroit Park, Park View, Pleasant Plains, Mount Pleasant and Woodley Park East should plan to attend the November 1 exercise, scheduled for 11 am at the Columbia Heights Recreation Center, 1480 Girard Street, NW.
The November 6 exercise will take place at 5 pm at the Martin Luther King Library, 901 G Street, NW, Room 810, and is intended for residents of the Burleith/Hillandale, Chinatown, Connecticut Avenue/K Street, Dupont Circle, Foggy Bottom, Georgetown, Kalorama Heights, Logan Circle, Mount Vernon Square, Penn Quarter, Shaw, and West End neighborhoods in Ward 2.
The November 25 exercise will take place at 5:30 pm., at the Cleveland Park Library, 3310 Connecticut Avenue, NW. Residents in Ward 3 who live in American University Park, Cathedral Heights, Chevy Chase, Forest Hills, Foxhall, Friendship Heights, Glover Park, Hawthorne, Massachusetts heights, McLean Gardens, North Cleveland Park, Palisades, Spring Valley, Tenleytown, Wesley Heights, Woodland-Normanstone Terrace and Woodley Park should plan to attend.
Register online at www.dccommunitypreparedness.org, to attend an exercise or by telephone at (202) 338-7153, ext. 212.