(State College, PA) – The Centre Region Office of Emergency Management and Penn State University Emergency Management are partnering on a joint emergency operations exercise. The exercise will test the readiness of emergency operations staff and emergency operations plans should a major disaster occur. The exercise is planned for Wednesday, October 17, 2012.

As part of the exercise, the Region’s notification and alerting plan will be tested. Residents will receive a notification via telephone, radio and/or television. Residents enrolled in the CodeRED notification program will also receive notification via cell phone. Social media alerts will be sent via the Centre Region’s Facebook and Twitter accounts.

Residents are encouraged to sign up for Centre County’s CodeRED Emergency Notification list by visiting www.co.centre.pa.us/codered/. Residents are also encouraged to “like” the Centre Region Ready Facebook page at www.facebook.com/centreregionready and to sign up for alert notifications via the Region’s Twitter account: http://twitter.com/cremalerts.

Emergency preparedness starts at home. Residents are encouraged to visit the Centre Region Ready website, www.crcog.net/EM, to download the Family Emergency Preparedness Guide. Copies of the guide are also available at municipal offices and at the Centre Region Council of Governments Office, 2643 Gateway Drive, State College. The guide contains information on how to prepare your family for a disaster. It also contains a list of important phone numbers.

For further information  contact: Shawn Kauffman – (814) 235-7838