Disaster drills as games: ShakeOut, CERT, kids' preparedness games and Japan's disaster sports days
People remember what they practice, and they practice what they enjoy. Around the world, preparedness educators turn drills into events and games.
Worldwide
| Program | What it is |
|---|---|
| Great ShakeOut | An annual earthquake drill practicing Drop, Cover and Hold On. Before the October 2025 drill, the Red Cross reported more than 22.4 million participants registered globally, calling it the largest earthquake drill on the planet |
| CERT (FEMA) | Community Emergency Response Team training in team organization, disaster medical operations, fire safety and light search and rescue. The basic course ends with a disaster simulation. LAFD developed CERT after studying civilian response to disasters in Mexico and Japan in 1985 |
| Ready Kids (FEMA) | Games that test children's know-how in emergencies and teach them to build a kit, including a card game teaching five steps to stay safe until help arrives |
| Prepare with Pedro | A free youth preparedness program created by the American Red Cross, with a FEMA and Red Cross game |
| The Pillowcase Project | A Red Cross program inspired by students carrying belongings in pillowcases during Hurricane Katrina evacuations, using a Learn, Practice, Share framework. By 2018, one million 3rd to 5th graders had taken part |
| Folk games in Viet Nam | On World Tsunami Awareness Day 2017, traditional games around Hoan Kiem Lake in Ha Noi taught tsunami risks and prevention, supported by Viet Nam's disaster management authority, the Government of Japan and UNDP |
The bucket brigade itself is old: a fire service history notes that bucket brigades came before hand-pumped engines in early colonial America. Today it lives on as a team relay.
Japan's disaster-prevention sports days
Japan has gone furthest in blending drills with sport. Tokyo's Ota City describes the bousai undokai, a disaster-prevention sports day, as adding disaster-themed events to local events so adults and children learn while having fun, and says adding even one such event to a community festival counts. Itabashi City's drill guide suggests these formats to reach people who would never come to something called a "disaster drill." Common events:
| Event | How it works | Skill practiced (our note) |
|---|---|---|
| Bucket relay | Pass water down a line to a target; Kawaguchi City suggests balls instead of water where water isn't available | Early firefighting, teamwork |
| Blanket-stretcher relay | Use a blanket as a stretcher and race to carry a person (Kawaguchi City) | Moving the injured |
| Disaster scavenger race | Run to collect the emergency item named on a card, such as a flashlight or newspaper (Kawaguchi City) | Knowing your kit |
| Sandbag race | A sandbag-stacking race (Rumoi, Hokkaido) | Flood defense |
PLAY BOSAI
Japan's Sports Agency is developing PLAY BOSAI, an experiential disaster-education program in which participants take on physical missions that build judgment, action and cooperation, using the competitiveness and game elements of sport to make learning memorable. Its example events (as of fiscal 2025) include:
- Shelter shuttle run: work out what each shelter needs and deliver supplies correctly, against the clock.
- Go-bag ball toss: throw balls into an open emergency backpack set about 3 m high.
- Go-bag weight challenge: learn to judge how much you can carry and move safely with it on your back.
- Smoke road crawl: move low through a 10 m course of bars and nets, timed.
- 5 m sprint: sprint 5 m to feel how fast a tsunami moves.
- Flood balance: choose footholds and keep your balance on unstable footing, as in flooding.
The agency says detailed manuals are still being developed. A related term, "防災スポーツ" (bousai sports), is also a registered trademark of a Japanese company, so we use "disaster-prevention sports day" for the general idea.
Running one safely
- A sandbag weighs about 5 kg; watch for back strain when lifting (Sumida City). See Lifting and carrying.
- Use dummies, not people, on stretchers and carts as a rule (Sumida City).
- Fill buckets only half to two-thirds, and line up so people aren't checking safety over their shoulder (Ena City).
- Plan for heat, shade and water on hot days (our suggestion; see Exercising in the heat).
Related: Play and sport after disasters and our Camp leadership basics course for planning safe group events.
Everyday
Add one preparedness game to a family day, school event or camp: a bucket relay or a blanket-stretcher race.
When it counts
In a real emergency, the moves you practiced as a game, from Drop, Cover, Hold On to carrying an injured person, come back faster.
Sources and when we checked them
- American Red Cross Los Angeles, The Great ShakeOut: A Global Rehearsal for Earthquakes (October 14, 2025) (checked 2026-10-31)
- FEMA, CERT Basic Training Participant Manual (August 2019, PDF) (checked 2026-10-31)
- Ready.gov, Ready Kids (checked 2026-10-31)
- Ready.gov, Games (checked 2026-10-31)
- Ready.gov, Prepare with Pedro (checked 2026-10-31)
- American Red Cross, Red Cross Trains 1 Million Children through The Pillowcase Project (June 7, 2018) (checked 2026-10-31)
- United Nations in Viet Nam, Disaster preparedness education through folk games (November 14, 2017) (checked 2026-10-31)
- Fire Fighters Association of Missouri, Handtubs and Hand Pumped Fire Engines (November 18, 2023) (checked 2026-10-31)
- Japan Sports Agency, Sports × disaster prevention (PLAY BOSAI, in Japanese) (checked 2026-10-31)
- Ota City, Let's hold a disaster-prevention sports day (2023-08-30, in Japanese) (checked 2026-10-31)
- Kawaguchi City, Let's hold a disaster-prevention sports day (2026-03-11, in Japanese) (checked 2026-10-31)
- Sumida City, Disaster drill menu, first edition (April 2017, PDF, in Japanese) (checked 2026-10-31)
- Ena City, Community disaster drill manual (April 2023, PDF, in Japanese) (checked 2026-10-31)
- Itabashi City, Drill menu (FY2014, PDF, in Japanese) (checked 2026-10-31)
- Cabinet Secretariat (Japan), national resilience case study: Rumoi disaster-prevention sports day (PDF, in Japanese) (checked 2026-10-31)
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