In the event of an actual emergency ...

Makayla Smith and her schoolmates traveled to Mills Park Monday morning, but not for a field trip nor a chance to play.

They went to sit in an idling school bus.

"We're going to the park, but we're not going to get off the bus," the 9-year-old noted, peering wistfully through the opposite window toward a distant playground.

She was among the 600-plus Bordewich-Bray Elementary School students taking part in the school's first earthquake-and-bus-transport drill, which other schools will practice in the 2006-07 school year.

Earthquakes are ranked third in natural disasters likely to affect Carson City schools - after fire and flooding, according to Kevin Curnes, director of safety services for the Carson City School District.

Every school - elementary, middle and high - practices at least one drill per month: fire, earthquake, evacuation or lock-down. The fire drills can be complex because both the fire department and school's safety team must be alerted in advance.

The most recent real fire drill at Mark Twain Elementary School was when an overheated belt blow on a motor. Students evacuated to the field, and the engine was located and turned off.

"We do the drills mainly so the children and the staff know what to do and it doesn't become a panicky situation," said Bordewich Vice Principal Casey Gilles, who worked on Monday's drill with Curnes.

Gilles occasionally enacts a partial lock-down drill, when teachers practice the reporting aspect of who's in their classrooms. She will change the time and location of drills - including to recess - so everyone is prepared.

At 9 a.m. Monday, staff and students evacuated Bordewich within minutes of a mock earthquake alarm, which sounded more like the rattle of a snake's tale than the deep booming of the earth's shifting plates.

"Some schools have a different bell," Gilles said. "We don't have that capacity so we do it this way. It's our way of trying to simulate quaking."

Children are trained to duck under their desks, but Monday was different. The objective was to evacuate to the track field then from the school by bus.

Staff exited the front office. Teachers, donning orange vests, streamed out of classrooms. Lines of students snaked behind.

The bathrooms were checked. Lights installed by fall will flash there to alert deaf and hard-of-hearing students of emergencies.

Students in hallways or en route to classes latched on to adults.

"I'm excited (about the drill), but not really, because (an earthquake) might happen," said Tevin LaFond, 9. "It could mean that our school might fall down or collapse."

Once out on the track field, homeroom teachers waited for errant students, then checked attendance books and held up green cards to indicate all the students were there. A red card meant something else - disaster, possibly, or simply a student picked up in another teacher's line.

Buses arrived within 11 minutes after Cumes called for them.

"We're responsible for children, the most precious commodities of parents, and we're responsible for them until they go home," he said.

All district schools have back-up evacuation sites, like Carson Middle School. But in the event of some circumstances, like the extreme early-year flooding on King Street, other options need to be examined.

Armed with a megaphone Monday morning, Gilles kept teachers - and students - on the field comforted.

First on the buses were autistic and special-needs children, who waited curbside. The. rest of the children calmly boarded the remaining 11 buses. The buses headed north to William Street and east toward the park. Teachers issued reminders like 'Be quiet' or 'Sit still,' and once at the park initiated short games to keep students focused.

"I think it's going well," said third-grade teacher Kathy Lehmkuhl. "They've gotten a little noisy, but that's to be expected."

Within 15 minutes, the buses, headed back to Bordewich by a different route.

Had an earthquake occurred when district buses are used for middle and high school routes, they would have been diverted to areas most in need.

"I was so pleased," Gilles said. "We did it in 50 minutes from start to finish. The students did an awesome job remembering it was a drill and not a field trip. We had absolutely no glitches."

• Contact reporter Maggie O'Neill at moneill@nevadaappeal.com or 881-1219.