Imperial County, CA – In an ongoing commitment to ensure community safety and regional readiness, local agencies came together on Thursday, May 8 to conduct a coordinated emergency preparedness training exercise designed to evaluate and strengthen response systems across multiple disciplines. This multi-agency collaboration is the result of extensive planning between public health, emergency medical services, law enforcement, fire, emergency management, healthcare, communication and other types of service providers. The effort reflects the shared understanding that no single agency can respond alone to complex emergencies. Effective crisis response requires seamless coordination, open lines of communication, and ongoing training under simulated high-stress conditions.

“Exercises like this give us an opportunity to push our systems, test our limits, and learn in real time,” said David Creiglow, Emergency Medical Services/Disaster Preparedness Manager for the Imperial County Public Health Department. “It’s not just about individual performance, it’s about how we come together to respond under pressure.”

The planning and execution of such an event requires months of coordination and the alignment of operational plans, resource deployment strategies, communication protocols, and joint public information systems. The participating agencies emphasize that the primary goal of this training is to evaluate how well systems function when faced with high-pressure, dynamic scenarios that mirror real-world emergencies.

“Preparedness isn’t about perfection, it’s about practice,” said Joseph Bernal, Fire Chief

for the City of El Centro. “By training together, we learn together. And what we learn ultimately strengthens the safety net for our entire region.”

While the details of the training scenario remained confidential to ensure the realism of the event, organizers stressed the importance of public-private partnerships and community trust in emergency planning efforts. The knowledge gained from this exercise will be compiled into an After-Action Report to help guide future training, improve response strategies, and enhance overall resilience.

The Imperial County Public Health Department and all the agencies involved would like to thank the public for their support and cooperation as emergency personnel train to protect and serve Imperial County.

To learn more about emergency or disaster preparedness, please visit the Imperial County Public Health Department’s Emergency and Disaster Preparedness page at https://www.icphd.org/emergency-medical-services/emergency-and-disaster-preparedness, or the California Department of Public Health – Center for Preparedness and Response at https://www.cdph.ca.gov/Programs/EPO/Pages/Program-Landing1.aspx.