04/30/2026
Ferndale CERT, sponsored by the Ferndale Police Department, is participating in a simulated drill today, as part of a BEACON exercise. Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) training is based on a foundation of modules that educate individuals about disaster preparedness for hazards that impact their area and trains them in basic disaster response skills such as fire safety, light search-and-rescue, team organization, and disaster medical operations. These volunteers will be responding to a call-out as if it were a real scenario (described below). CERT members assist others in their community, tribe, neighborhood or workplace following a disaster when professional responders are not immediately available to help.
Description of Disaster Scenario 2026
USGS reports an 8.8 magnitude earthquake along the San Andreas Fault, with building collapse, infrastructure damage, and fires. In such an event, communicators will be tasked to engage other volunteers to give situation reports; provide radio assistance to shelters, schools, and hospitals; set up public information posts at police and fire stations, libraries, and other public places; help coordinate resources within neighborhoods; ensure messages get delivered to their intended recipients; and communicate resource requests through official channels.
BEACON: Building Emergency Area Communications, Operations, and Networks
Auxiliary Communications (AuxComm) is the term adopted nationally to refer to volunteer led backup communications networks. AuxComm has been a component of the National Emergency Communications Plan (NECP) since 2014, and states are asked to adopt AuxComm in their state plans. California adopted AuxComm in the California Statewide Interoperability Communications Plan (CalSCIP) in 2022.
BEACON unites the volunteer auxiliary communications community with the career professionals that rely on them to augment incident communications. The Exercise focuses on the expected roles, responsibilities, and outcomes that define effective auxiliary communications from the neighborhoods and cities up to the state and beyond, including mutual aid practices, official forms, and processes that ensure vital two-way communications to operational area partners that include NGOs, schools, hospitals, CERT, and other partners.
BEACON draws on real experience learned across the US, from hurricanes in the east, derechos and tornadoes in the Midwest, and wildfires in the west. To many in the auxiliary communications community, this exercise will be very different because it integrates the methods and practices followed by career emergency management professionals. The exercise is no longer theory, but practice.
As a professionally developed Homeland Security Exercise Evaluation Program (HSEEP) exercise, BEACON offers a standardized and performance-based methodology that allows agencies to assess and validate the policies, plans, procedures, training, equipment, assumptions, and interagency agreements. This assessment helps identify gaps, deficiencies, and vulnerabilities before a real incident occurs.
Agencies also meet part of their Emergency Management Performance Grant (EMPG) funding requirements by participating in HSEEP programs.
