Rapid Action Marks Rehearsal for Emergency CENTRAL OFFICE . . . Reports from field offices of the Red Cross disaster committee, hastily but efficiently set up within half an hour after a disaster reheasal was called, were pouring into the central office in the city-county building when this picture was taken. E. G. Bennett, chairman of Weber county chapter, (left) is checking the names of "injured" while A. T. Barrett, chairman of the disaster commit¬tee, is receiving the call of a field officer. Scout Lester Moncrief of troop 4 is handing a report to C. E. Armstrong, committee vice chairman. Efficiency Revealed As Red Cross Group Holds Drill for Catastrophe Little Dog Forms Only Casualty in Realistic Rehearsal 6/16/41 Earthquake, fire and flood struck the east bench of Ogden city Monday night, victimizing from one to five members in each of 400 families, but the only fatality was a little black dog. The occasion was the first “fire drill” of the Weber county chapter Red Cross disaster committee. President E. G. Bennett of the chapter and Chairman A. T. Barrett of the disaster committee issued the call at about six-forty p.m. which sent the entire setup of the catastrophe crew into action in a realistic rehearsal. Inside of 20 minutes, every sub-committee had reached its disaster headquarters and reported to the central office, established in the office of City Commissioner E. T. Saunders and presided over by Mr. Barrett and C. E. Armstrong, vice chairman. Drivers Respond In the mayor's office, Leonard G. Diehl, chairman of transporta¬tion and communication, had a tel-ephone line working long before seven p. m. and had in service 25 of the 40 passenger cars and three trucks which eventually reported to the city-county building. The only fatality, that of the dog occurred at Twenty-sixth and Mon¬roe, when a small black Scotch ter-rier ran into the street to bark at the wheels of Fire Chief Owen A. Owens' car, making a practice run to the imaginary center of the ca¬tastrophe at Ogden senior high school. The chief's car was moving too fast to stop or to swerve from the dog's path. Following the fire chief was a car with Police Chief C. H. Taylor and members of the city police de-partment, moving to the catastro¬phe center to take over direction of rescue crews and establish a guard over ruins to prevent loot¬ing. Offices to handle registration of catastrophe victims were estab¬lished in the office of the county clerk, where T. L. Shreeve was in charge and where C. H. B. Seybert, head of the food committee, and E. R. Buckner, charged with pro¬viding shelter for the homeless, also had offices. At the national guard armory on Twenty-third street, Lynn B. Cor¬nish, in charge of the distribution of clothing, assembled his commit¬tee and reported in by telephone to the general headquarters. "We were functioning inside of 20 minutes," said Mr. Barrett. "There were several things we discovered in the setup, which was tested to see where our weaknesses were for coordinators in each of the districts of the city, divided north, south, east and west at the intersection of Washington and Twenty-fourth, and the need for trained nurses." The publicity office, operated by W. F. Smiley, was not set in oper¬ation for the test, as its functions in a regular disaster do not start until preliminary activities have been sufficiently completed to gath¬er a picture of the scope of the dis¬aster. However, news reporters and photographers and radio men, who will cooperate in conducting the publicity department, were called in and reported. Special commendation was given Mrs. Ronald Wadsworth, in charge of providing passenger cars for Mr. Diehl's committee, who had cars re¬porting to the city-county building even before the transportation of¬fice was fully in operation. Luncheon Planned A luncheon will be held, with a national Red Cross expert in dis¬aster relief in attendance, sometime in the next week or 10 days, Mr. Barrett said. At that time, further details will be worked out and plans will be laid for another prac¬tice, this time to be known before¬hand and to utilize the full facili¬ties of the committee by calling on Boy Scouts and others to serve as "dead" and "injured." The Boy Scouts did yeoman service Monday evening as messen¬gers, a number of them being as¬signed to each office for an inter¬office communication system. Indicated By Flag At the field headquarters, indi¬cated by a Red Cross flag planted near the south entrance to the high school at Twenty-ninth and Harrison, Dr. R. L. Draper and Mrs. E. L. Miner, in charge of doc¬tors and nurses; Louis H. Griffin in charge of rescue, and Byron L. Blood, substituting for C. J. Olsen, head of the survey committee, as¬sembled to conduct the work in the field. L. Wesley Robbins, chapter vice chairman, was on hand to aid the survey unit.