Simulated Hostage Exercise
At Lake Chabot/Anthony Chabot this weekend
October 24-26, 2009

Visitors to Lake Chabot and Anthony Chabot parks may encounter what looks like something out of a Hollywood thriller this weekend. Rest assured, it’s actually an elaborate training simulation through Urban Shield, www.urbanshield.org . Beginning 6am on Saturday, October 24 through 6am Monday, October 26, emergency response teams from as far away as Boston, MA, Israel, and France will take part in a regional training exercises. East Bay Regional Park District will be hosting one of these exercises near their public safety office at 17930 Lake Chabot Road in Castro Valley. Park visitors may also encounter some activity on regional park trails too during this event but at no time will trails or park access be closed.

Closures for the public: The only area closed to the public is the upper parking lot at 17930 Lake Chabot Road, where EBRPD Police and Fire Department is located – all trails leading to this area are still open. However, there will be no public parking up there over the weekend.  Lake Chabot Road and the parking lot at Lake Chabot will remain open during regular hours, as will all other staging/parking areas and trails.

Monitors will be on site continuously to inform the public of the event and to prevent any park visitors from wandering too close to the exercise.

The Lake Chabot scenario will simulate a hostage rescue situation with a full-size bus and live fire (e.g. open flame), role players, professional makeup artists, medical teams, and approximately 25 of our Volunteer Safety Patrollers. The District's Mobile Incident Command vehicle will serve as the communications control center for the blue area command via satellite and radio communications to the Emergency Operations Center at the Office of Emergency Services in Dublin.

Urban Shield is a Bay Area emergency preparedness drill focusing on special response and high risk police teams (such as SWAT Teams) in dealing with a variety of tactical situations.  This year's event includes 27 venues, and 27 teams from around the region.

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