It's a dirty job, but someone's gotta do it.

On April 30, Oakland emergency response agencies, community groups and volunteers will be simulating the aftermath of a major earthquake. It's the sixth annual citywide emergency response functional exercise - and it's a crucial tool for making sure local responders, systems and equipment are ready to spring into action to help people in need.

The CORE program - Communities of Oakland Respond to Emergencies - is coordinating this exercise, which starts at 9:30 a.m. and wraps up at noon this Saturday, April 30. The exercise will include collaboration with several regional emergency response groups, amateur radio operators and more.

Many volunteers will be wearing makeup to appear injured. "Interest in improvisational acting is helpful," said the volunteer victim recruitment flyer. (The deadline for volunteering to be a victim was April 1.)

According to the 2011 exercise plan, the goal of this year's exercise is for participants to practice neighborhood evacuation and demonstrate effective communication.

"Feedback from last year's exercise participants emphasized a need for additional training and practice opportunities surrounding communication. This includes information about basic two-way radio operation and protocol, communicating with other CORE neighborhood groups and improved communication with professional first responders."

If you'd like to participate, but haven't officially volunteered, you can help by forming your evacuation plan and preparing to evacuate.

Also, you can contact CORE at (510) 238-6351 or core@oaklandnet.com to find out who your local neighborhood coordinator is. If your neighborhood has a coordinator, check in with that person ahead of the April 30 drill to ask how you might participate. Otherwise, ask CORE for recommendations on how to prepare and what to do during the drill.

The city's emergency text alert system will be tested during this drill. Here's how to sign up to receive emergency text alerts from the city of Oakland:

• Go to Oaklandnet.com. Scroll to the bottom of the left column to where it says e-mail updates. Enter your e-mail address and click sign up.
• On the next page, follow the prompts to confirm your primary e-mail address, and provide a mobile telephone number if you'd like to receive wireless (text message) alerts on your cell phone. (Password is optional.)
• On the following page, check the boxes corresponding to the categories of updates you wish to receive. Be sure to select Emergency Alerts for Residents and Office of Emergency Services, in addition to any others to which you'd like to subscribe. (Note: During the citywide exercise, the city will send alerts only to users subscribed to Office of Emergency Services. In a real disaster, messages would be sent to people subscribed to Emergency Alerts.)
• On the bottom of the page, click Save.

Learn how to prepare for disaster, and to help Oakland respond: The CORE website offers many resources, including info about CORE training sessions and coordination activities.

The city offers free basic emergency preparedness training online. And you can request a CORE training class in your neighborhood.

For more emergency planning resources, see Ready.gov.