SANTA ANA : Students Test Their Quake Readiness

Kevin Taylor, 17, his head bandaged and with fake blood drying on his arms, watched fellow students rushing to provide medical aid to him and other “victims” in the aftermath of a staged earthquake.

As nearby teams of Red Cross-trained students applied bandages to the wounded and soothed the hysterical, Kevin said he believed the drill would prepare his classmates at Santa Ana High School well for a real emergency.

“I think it will help a lot. They’ll know what to do and they won’t have to think about it when (a disaster) happens. It makes me feel real good to know that if a disaster happens, there will be someone here to take care of me,” he said.

The hourlong drill on Wednesday simulated the potentially deadly aftermath of a 5.9-quake along the Newport-Inglewood fault line. School officials said it provided a realistic setting in which students, faculty and staff could practice disaster response.

Throughout the event, about 45 specially trained students helped coordinate disaster response, damage assessment of buildings and treatment of wounded just as they would during a real emergency.

For many of the students trained through the Red Cross Youth in Emergency Services program, the drill was the first chance to apply skills learned in disaster-preparedness classes, said Peggy-Sue Ellis, who coordinates the program.

Ellis said that students “go out there and live it a little bit, so they can say later, ‘Wow, I was able to handle that.’ ”

During a real emergency, trained students are an ideal source of help in providing immediate first aid, damage assessment and other crucial services.

The Red Cross has trained about 1,700 students countywide over the last three years for similar emergencies and more than 300 of them helped out as translators and shelter workers in Los Angeles and Orange counties during last fall’s firestorms and the recent Northridge earthquake. Red Cross officials hope to train students at all public high schools countywide by the end of the year, Ellis said.

As the drill began, some of the students lined up outside their classrooms and walked to open playing fields. Dozens of students remained inside the rooms, portraying injury victims. Many of the rooms were marked with signs describing the kind of damage they had sustained, such as collapsed ceilings, broken windows and cracked support beams.

At the medical aid center, Martha Sarabia, 18, acted the part of a hysterical student and screamed repeatedly until others came to calm her. She said that lying there made her think about what it would be like to be helpless during a real emergency.

Surveying a room filled with moaning students with arms in splints, she added, “I take it more seriously than before.”