Over one hundred Raanana educational institutions and thousands of students participated in a national earthquake exercise held by the home front command at educational institutions across Israel.  The exercise began at 10:00 and lasted an hour.  During the exercise, the educational staff and the students practiced the behavior procedures in case of an earthquake.

At all of Raanana’s schools and preschools, they have been working according to the annual curriculum with regard to subjects of safety and operation in a state of emergency, including the rules of behavior also in cases of earthquakes.  Students and educational staff also took an active part in the exercise.  Some were assigned in advance to the areas of firefighting and first aid.  They also practiced going out to open areas – sports fields and open fields.

During the exercise, the home front command representatives and Mayor Nahum Hofree toured the schools to watch the exercise being executed.

Preschools were also evacuated to open areas that were selected and authorized in advance, which were not near buildings or electricity poles.  In some cases, a number of preschools were gathered in one public compound, such as Uri Gordon Park.

The municipal education system invests a great deal in preparing for emergency scenarios and schools and preschools hold various exercises throughout the year, in accordance with their annual curriculums, for the subjects of earthquake, missile attacks, fire, etc.

Alongside the educational preparedness, Raanana is one of the leading cities in the Sharon and Israel in general in the field of promoting and implementing the TAMA 38 plan, that deals with reinforcing buildings in case of earthquake.  The local committee has issued 4 building permits to date, and currently work on three apartment buildings in the city is underway.

The Raanana Municipality encourages and supports any initiative to implement TAMA 38 and sees the implementation of the program to be of utmost public importance.  Therefore, it has made the process easier for the tenants to implement.  The committee promotes any request it is submitted and gives preference to the process of authorizing the request.

Mayor Nahum Hofree:  “The Raanana Municipality does its best to help promote municipal early preparedness in the case of earthquakes and conducts regular exercises to best meet the needs of all of its residents in time of need.”