Central Medford High shakes up the Great Oregon ShakeOut

MEDFORD, Ore. — Over half a million Oregonians participated in the Great Oregon ShakeOut Thursday. Central Medford High School shook up the normal drill showing students how understanding amateur radio could help if a big earthquake did happen.

At 10:21 a.m. correlating with Thursday’s date, students dropped beneath their desks, covered their heads and waited out the fake earthquake. Then teacher and amateur radio aficionado Michael Torguson showed his students how helpful the tool is. Instead of focusing on a future event like an earthquake, he spoke about an event that affected many in the Rogue Valley, the Almeda fire.

“The emergency broadcast system was not activated and there was not a good amount of quality truthful information that people could rely on. So amateur radio operators stepped up, got on to the frequency and worked together to pass quality truthful information,” explained Torguson.

Torguson offers a course for interested students. He says once students complete it and get their license… The school will buy them their first amateur hand-held radio.

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