testing your own emergency plans

FDIC Bahrain 2007 Conference

Testing your own Emergency Plans.

Gianmario Gnecchi - Italy

Tell me, and I’ll forget Show me and I may remember

Involve me and I will learn

Chinese Proverb We assume that the participants to this conference have already a general knowledge of risk analy-sis, emergency planning techniques, incident command system

FDIC Bahrain 2007 Conference - Testing your own Emergency Plans. Gianmario Gnecchi, Italy

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Foreword Public Authorities and Private Companies have developed good emergency planning suited to face emergency risks and situations that can potentially involve their jurisdiction. Yet, only a part of them had the opportunity to actually test the emergency plans in a productive, credible and effective way. This conference brings the participant through best practices in organizing several types of emergency plan tests, from field activities to virtual reality tools.

This paperwork has been prepared also collecting most of the relevant documents available on the internet. This time-consuming activity has lead to an broad overview of publications written in different places in the world. This helped very much in order to compare specific ways to reach the same objective (and most of the time the author found that the basic goals and methods are very similar). In this document the author has tried to organize a synthesis of this huge panorama of ideas and put them in a way that should be more immediately profitable for the reader.

Important to notice that the original documents with their full contents unabridged are an impressive source of procedures and ideas that will strengthen all the concepts listed here. This paper contains also a concise collection of lessons learned taken from direct experiences of the author in several exercises run in Italy and Abroad. What this presentation is about This work is a merging of the following different inputs. Collection and review of existing documents. There is a very mature collection of projects and examples and courses related to emergency planning and emergency plan test, available on the internet. The author has done a thorough research on this subjects and has prepared a “compilation".

Personal experience of the author in the contribution to the planning committees for the re-daction of emergency plans and guidelines. In more than 20 years of activity in the Fire Service the Author has participated in several local, regional and national Committees in charge of the elaboration of new emergency planning or in charge for the revision of existing planning.

Personal experience of the author in the participation at national and international exercises. Attached to this document there is a list of the main exercises in which the author has participated with different roles. Here are a few of these: Exercise Planning committee member, Sector Officer, Incident Commander, Evaluation officer, Head of Assessors Team.

Collection and review of ex-isting documents on emer-gency planning and exer-

cises.

Personal experience of the author in the contribution

to Planning Committees for the redaction of emergency

plans and guidelines.

Personal experience of the author in the participation at several national and in-

ternational exercises.

Best practices and practical suggestions for testing

emergency plans.


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1. INTRODUCTION

1.1. The Emergency Planning Cycle Emergency Planning is a process: it is not an isolated document covered with dust in one of the bookshelves in your office. Planning gives the opportunity to prepare for the circumstances that can generate a significant deviation from the normal every-day activity. If there is not adequate plan-ning, the outcomes of an emergency situation, when are managed on an “improvised” basis, are of-ten unsuccessful. But planning itself (even good planning) it is not enough, of course. There is a very well written paragraph in the document FEMA IS 235 – 2006 which summarizes concisely the cycle of the planning process.

When you look at Emergency Planning process you’ll notice that Testing The Plan is one of the four essential steps. This presentation will focus on that specific aspect of the emergency planning cycle.

The Emergency Planning Process Emergency planning is not a one-time event. Rather, it is a continual cycle of planning, training, exercising, and revi-sion that takes place throughout the five phases of the emergency management cycle (preparedness, prevention, re-sponse, recovery, and mitigation). The planning process does have one purpose—the development and maintenance of an up-to-date Emergency Operations Plan (EOP). An EOP can be defined as a document describing how citizens and property will be protected in a disaster or emergency. Although the emergency planning process is cyclic, EOP development has a definite starting point. There are four steps in the emergency planning process:

1. Hazard analysis. Hazard analysis is the process by which hazards that threaten the community are identified,

researched, and ranked according to the risks they pose and the areas and infrastructure that are vulnerable to damage from an event involving the hazards. The outcome of this step is a written hazard analysis that quanti-fies the overall risk to the community from each hazard. Hazard analysis will be covered in Unit 3.

2. EOP development, including the basic plan, functional annexes, hazard-specific appendices, and implementing

instructions. The outcome of this step is a completed plan, which is ready to be trained, exercised, and revised based on lessons learned from the exercises. EOP development will be addressed in Units 4, 5, and 6.

3. Testing the plan through training and exercises. Exercises of different types and varying complexity allow you

to see what in the plan is unclear and what does not work. The outcomes of this step are lessons learned about weaknesses in the plan that can then be addressed in Step 4.

4. Plan maintenance and revision. The outcome of this step is a revised EOP, based on current needs and re-

sources (which may have changed since the development of the original EOP). After the EOP is developed, steps 3 and 4 repeat in a continual cycle to keep the plan up to date. If you become aware that your community faces a new threat (e.g., terrorism), however, the planning team will need to revisit steps 1 and 2.

Excerpt from FEMA IS 235 – 2006 edition - Source: www.fema.gov


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2.

HOW TO TEST YOUR OWN EMERGENCY PLANS. 2.1. Why someone should ask to you to test the emergency plan? There are several reasons that may require to put to test your existing emergency plan. Some of these are: - Routine test and revision, as defined by laws or

by local requirements or by the plan itself. o Most of the plans provide a sort of “revi-

sion” deadline or validity period. When the plan is going to be written, it is impor-tant to forecast what kind of “credible” revision activity could be made in the fol-lowing years

- There is some important change in the existing

situation: new buildings, new plants, new proc-esses, new infrastructures

o It is self evident that when there is significant change in the layout of the infrastructure or there are new risks the plan will be updated almost immediately. But often this does not means that a new test will immediately follow; consequently there will be a “gap” when there is a new plan but it has not been tested.

- There is some important change in the plan: new chain of command, new procedures.

o In this case it is of paramount importance the dissemination of information on new change. Then, at least, a control post exercise should be run (see paragraph 2.4).

- There is some important change in the response capabilities: new alert systems, new responding

resources o Sometimes there is the expectation that making significant improvement in the quality of

resources will automatically improve the quality of the response and of the plan. Only through a test of the plan this will be confirmed.

- There is some “political” reason (the Chiefs need to show “how good – or how bad – is the

situation”) o Yes, the “Chiefs” (of any level and Agency) need to show periodically to their “bosses”

the situation. Sometimes it seems natural to do it organizing a simulation of an emer-gency response, preferably through a “live exercise”. For This purpose we’ll illustrate some ways to be used before managing a real scale exercise. My personal opinion is that we can test most of these aspects without running firetrucks, ambulances and police vehicles all around the city. The most common methods that can be used to support this activity are listed in the following pages

- There is some imminent threat: natural threat, man-made threat

o In this case the need to check if the plans are updated is self evident and gives enough motivation

TEST

EVALUATION

PLANNING

REVISION

UPDATE


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TEST

EVALUATION

PLANNING

REVISION

UPDATE

1Check

SINGLE RESOURCES

2 Test the

STRUCTURE OF THE PLAN

3 Verify the

ABILITY OF COMMANDERS

2.2. What do you need to measure? (And Why)? There are at least three aspects that you may test, individually or together. You may test: - the structure of the plan and the procedures - the resources needed to fulfil the actions required in the plan (human and technical resources) - the capabilities of the emergency managers and the “chiefs” in the command and control chain There is a sort of logical sequence in the above men-tioned aspects. It should be self-evident that, of course, you cannot test the abilities of the emergency managers if you are not sure that the plan is equili-brate and credible (and well written) or if you are not confident on the real capabilities of the response re-sources (and their training).

What we are suggesting here is that you should follow this se-quence, before trying to test all the system in one big field exercise.

The risk is always to have the illusion to “simulate” an emergency response but without a real feed-back. If there is not real feedback the test of the emergency plan is often inadequate (we could say quite always).

First responders Plans Chain of command


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2.3. Exercise in a real-like setting. Not always possible (and not always necessary). Sometimes we may think that there is the need to test the plan, running exercises as close as possi-ble to the real event. Today, for several reasons, is not always possible to organize a full-scale exer-cise. And the author’s opinion is that it is not always necessary. In this page there is a sequence of pictures related to national and international exercises at which the author has participated. If it could be possible to give an idea in numbers of what proportion there is between the efforts for organizing those field exercises and the actual (and efficient) use of the follow-up results, it is not difficult to say that it is close to 10:1. That means that often there are ten days (but very often more) of preparation and 1 day (and very often less) for the management of the follow-up information. We should be careful not to fall in this “illusion”, even if it appears to be very attractive.

Milan Italy – National CBRN exercise Milan Airport – Exercise

Russian Federation – International Exercise


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2.4. Typical methods and available documentation 2.4.1. – A short series of examples In the following pages are shown some of the different methods used to test one plan or only part of it. Particularly interesting are two documents available on the internet that give a description of the possible ways to test a plan. One is provided by the site www.ukresilience.info and the other is provided by the site www.fema.gov. Looking at the two sources of documents even if they have some slight differences, we’ll notice that both of them provide an adequate and coherent overview. A third document is excerpted here and it has been prepared by the Italian Civil Protection Depart-ment. www.protezionecivile.it. It gives an indication on what kind of tests can be run when dealing with relevant risk chemical industries.


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Descriptions of different Types of Exercise text from http://www.ukresilience.info and pictures of the author

The choice of exercise is important : it should provide the most appropriate and cost effective way of achieving its aim and objectives. There are basically four types of exercise, although there are variations on the theme of each: Seminar - also known as workshops or discussion based exercises; Table top - also known as “floor plan” exercises; Control post - also known as “training without troops”; and Live - also known as practical, operational or field exercises. New plans or players would normally be involved in seminar or table top exercises before a control post or live exercise was planned.

SEMINAR ESERCISES Seminar exercises are generally low cost activities and inform participants about the organization and procedures which would be invoked to respond to an incident. The emphasis is on problem identification and solution finding rather than decision making. Those involved can be either new to the job or established personnel. This type of event will bring staff together to inform them of current developments and thinking. These events may take place within the framework of a seminar which also includes and/or panel discussions and are primarily designed to focus on one particular aspect of the response

TABLE TOP EXERCISES Table top exercises are a very cost effective and efficient method of testing plans, procedures and people. They are difficult to run with large numbers, but those players who are involved are provided with an excellent opportunity to interact with and understand the roles and responsibilities of the other agencies taking part. They can engage players imaginatively and generate high levels of realism. Participants will get to know realistic key procedures along with the people with whom they may be working in an emergency. Those who have exercised together and know each other will provide a much more effective response than those who come together for the first time when a disaster occurs. An element of media awareness can be introduced under controlled conditions, such as the preparation of press releases at the tactical level, or the use of trainee journalists, under the direction of their tutor, to play news hungry reporters.

CONTROL POST EXERCISES In control post exercises, the team leaders (and communications teams) from each participating organization are positioned at the control posts they would use during an actual incident or live exercise. This tests communication arrangements and, more importantly, information flows between remotely positioned team leaders from participating organizations. By not involving front line staff, these exercises are cost effective and efficient in testing plans, procedures and key people.

LIVE EXERCISES Live exercises range from a small scale test of one component of the response, like evacuation – ranging from a building or “incident” site to an affected community – through to a full scale test of the whole organization’s response to an incident. Live exercises provide the best means of confirming the satisfactory operation of emergency communications, and the use of ‘casualties’ can add to the realism. Live exercises provide the only means of testing fully the crucial arrangements for handling the media. A live exercise would not normally be undertaken until you had confidence in those involved.

It is quite easy to notice that in the fourth category (“live exercise”) there is a sort of “warning” re-lated to running “live exercises”: A live exercise would not normally be undertaken until you had confidence in those involved. That “confidence” comes after having tested the system in the sequence proposed in paragraph 2.2.


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There is a comprehensive publication of FEMA regarding how to design exercises. With the document come also a lot of Job aids. Even if you only look at the following table of content it is possible to have a broad idea on how complex could be the design and preparation of an exercise. FEMA IS 139 – 2003 - EXERCISE DESIGN

TABLE OF CONTENT

Course Overview Unit 1: Introduction to Exercise De-sign Introduction Unit 1 Objectives Why Exercise? Regulatory Requirements Functions Activity: Needs Assessment Summary and Transition For More Information Knowledge Check Unit 2: Comprehensive Exercise Program Introduction Unit 2 Objectives Progressive Exercising Who Participates? What Activities Are Included? Comparing the Five Activities Building an Exercise Program Activity: Develop a Comprehensive Exercise Program Plan Summary and Transition For More Information Knowledge Check Unit 3: The Exercise Process Introduction Unit 3 Objectives The Big Picture Accomplishment 1: Establishing the Base Accomplishment 2: Exercise Devel-opment Accomplishment 3: Exercise Conduct Accomplishment 4: Exercise Evalua-tion and Critique Accomplishment 5: Exercise Follow-up Reviewing the Current Plan Assessing Capability to Conduct an Exercise Addressing Costs and Liabilities Activity: Getting Ready for Exercise Design Gaining Support Assembling a Design Team Activity: Identify Design Team Mem-bers Exercise Documents Summary and Transition For More Information

Knowledge Check Unit 4: Exercise Design Steps Introduction Unit 4 Objectives Step 1: Assess Needs Step 2: Define the Scope Step 3: Write a Statement of Purpose Activity: Define Exercise Scope and Purpose Step 4: Define Objectives Activity: Analyze an Objective Activity: Compare Good and Poor Ob-jectives Activity: Develop Objectives Step 5: Compose a Narrative Activity: Outline a Narrative Step 6: Write Major and Detailed Events Step 7: List Expected Actions Activity: Write Major and Detailed Events Step 8: Prepare Messages Activity: Compose a Message Pulling It Together: The Master Sce-nario of Events List Alternatives to Self-Developed Exer-cises Summary and Transition For More Information Knowledge Check Unit 5: The Tabletop Exercise Introduction Unit 5 Objectives Characteristics of the Tabletop Exer-cise How a Tabletop Works Facilitating a Tabletop Exercise Activity: Your Ideas for Facilitating a Tabletop Exercise Designing a Tabletop Exercise Activity: Develop Tabletop Exercise Problem Statements Activity: Develop a Tabletop Exercise MessageSummary and Transition For More Information Knowledge Check Unit 6: The Functional Exercise Introduction Unit 6 Objectives What Is a Functional Exercise

Activity: Compare Tabletop and Func-tional Exercises Participant Roles How a Functional Exercise Works Facilities and Materials Designing a Functional Exercise Activity: Identify Functional Exercise Roles Summary and Transition For More Information Knowledge Check Unit 7: The Full-Scale Exercise Introduction Unit 7 Objectives What Is a Full-Scale Exercise Activity: Know Your Regulatory Re-quirements Activity: Compare Functional and Full-Scale Exercises Full-Scale Exercise Roles How the Full-Scale Exercise Works Exercise Locations Designing the Full-Scale Exercise Special Considerations Activity: Plan Ahead for the Full-Scale Exercise Summary and Transition For More Information Knowledge Check Unit 8: Exercise Evaluation Introduction Unit 8 Objectives Why Evaluate the Exercise Integrating Evaluation Throughout De-velopment The Evaluation Team Evaluation Methodology Evaluator Checklist Narrative Summary Key Event Response Form Problem Log Exercise Debriefing Log Exercise Critique Form Postexercise Meetings After Action Report Implementing Change Activity: Plan the Evaluation Summary and Transition For More Information Knowledge Check

Unit 9: Exercise Enhancements Introduction Unit 9 Objectives Why Use Enhancements Communications Equipment Visuals People and Props Enhancement Resources Enhancement Logistics Activity: Enhance a Scenario Activity: Plan Enhancements for Your Exercise Summary and Transition For More Information Knowledge Check Unit 10: Designing a Functional Ex-ercise Introduction Unit 10 Objectives Select Your Exercise Step 1: Assess Needs Step 2: Define the Scope Step 3: Write a Statement of Purpose Step 4: Define the Objectives Step 5: Compose a Narrative Step 6: Write Major and Detailed Events Step 7: List Expected Actions Step 8: Prepare Messages Constructing the Master Scenario of Events List Planning the Exercise Evaluation Planning the Exercise Enhancements Optional Activity: Exercise Design Documents Summary and Transition Unit 11: Course Summary Introduction Reasons to Exercise Comprehensive Exercise Programs The Exercise Process Exercise Design Steps The Tabletop Exercise The Functional Exercise The Full-Scale Exercise Exercise Evaluation Exercise Enhancements Next Steps Appendix A: Job Aids Appendix B: Acronym List Appendix C: Exercise Tool Box


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TABLE TOP EXERCISES Excerpt from FEMA IS 139 unit 5 Characteristics of the Table-top Exercise (...) A tabletop exercise simu-lates an emergency situation in an informal, stress-free envi-ronment. The participants usually

people on a decision-making level gather around a table to discuss general problems and procedures in the context of an emergency scenario. The focus is on training and familiarization with roles, procedures, or responsibilities.

Purpose The tabletop is largely a discussion guided by a facilitator (or sometimes two facilitators who share responsibilities). Its pur-pose is to solve problems as a group. There are no simulators and no attempts to arrange elaborate facilities or communications. One or two evaluators may be selected to observe proceedings and progress toward the objectives. The success of a tabletop exercise is determined by feedback from participants and the impact this feedback has on the evaluation and revision of policies, plans, and procedures.

Advantages and Disadvantages The tabletop exercise is a very useful training tool that has both advantages and disadvantages, as summarized in the following ta-ble.

Advantages and Disadvantages of Tabletop Exercises

Advantages Requires only a modest commitment in terms of time, cost, and resources Is an effective method for reviewing plans, procedures, and policies Is a good way to acquaint key personnel with emergency responsibilities, procedures, and one another

Disadvantages Lacks realism and thus does not provide a true test of an emergency management system’s capabilities Provides only a superficial exercise of plans, procedures, and staff capabilities Does not provide a practical way to demonstrate system overload


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FUNCTIONAL EXERCISES excerpt from FEMA IS 139 unit 6

What Is a Functional Exercise? The functional exercise simulates an emergency in the most realistic manner possible, short of moving real people and equipment to an actual site. As the name suggests, its goal is to test or evaluate the capability of one or more functions in the context of an emergency event. Below is a brief summary of the main points.

Key Characteristics

Interactive exercise, designed to challenge the entire emergency management system. Can test the same functions and re-sponses as in a full-scale exercise without high costs or safety risks.

Usually takes place in an EOC or other operating center. Involves controller(s), players, simulators, and evaluators. Geared for policy, coordination, and operations personnel (the players). Players practice their response to an emergency by responding in a realistic way to carefully planned and sequenced messages

given to them by simulators. Messages reflect a series of ongoing events and problems. All decisions and actions by players occur in real time and generate real responses and consequences from other players.

Guiding principle: Imitate reality. The atmosphere is stressful and tense due to real-time action and the realism of the problems. Exercise is lengthy and complex; requires careful scripting, careful planning, and attention to detail.

Best Uses The functional exercise makes it possible to test the same functions and responses as would be tested in a full-scale exercise, with-out the high costs or safety risks. The functional exercise is well-suited to assess the:

Direction and control of emergency management. Adequacy of plans, policies, procedures, and roles of individual or multiple functions. Individual and system performance. Decision-making process. Communication and information sharing among organizations. Allocation of resources and personnel. Overall adequacy of resources to meet the emergency situation.


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Comparison: Tabletop and Functional Exercises

Tabletop Functional

Degree of Realism Lacks realism As realistic as possible without deploy-ing resources

Format/Structure Group discussion, based on narrative and problem state-ments/messages

Interactive; simulators deliver “problem” messages, players respond in real time

Atmosphere Low-key, relaxed Tense, stressful

Who Takes Part Facilitator, participants (deci-sion-making level); may use recorders

Controller, players (policy, coordination, and operations personnel), simulators, evaluators

Who Leads Facilitator Controller

Where Held EOC, other operations center, or conference room EOC or other operations center

Equipment Deployed No No

Test Coordination Yes, on a discussion level Yes

Test Adequacy of Resources No Yes

Test Decision-Making Process Yes Yes

Relative Comple-xity/Cost

Small group; simple format; modest cost

Large scale; complex format; moderate cost to design and implement (higher than tabletop, lower than full-scale)

Formal Evaluation No (self-assessment by par-ticipants) Yes


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FULL SCALE EXERCISES – excerpt from FEMA IS 139 – unit 7 What Is a Full-Scale Exercise? A full-scale exercise is as close to the real thing as possible. It is a lengthy exercise which takes place on location, usingas far as possiblethe equipment and personnel that would be called upon in a real event. In a sense, a full-scale exercise combines the interactivity of the functional exercise with a field ele-ment. It differs from a drill in that a drill focuses on a single operation and exercises only one organi-zation. Eventually, every

emergency response organization must hold a full-scale exercise because it is necessary at some point to test capabilities in an environment as near to the real one as possible. However, there is more to a full-scale exercise than just practice in the field. As we discussed in Unit 1, various regulatory agencies have requirements for full-scale exercises which must be satisfied. In order to receive FEMA credit, for example, a full-scale ex-ercise must fulfil three requirements: It must exercise most functions. It must coordinate the efforts of several agen-

cies. In order to achieve full coordination, the EOC

must be activated.

Russian Federation – International Joint exercise

Key Characteristics Interactive exercise, designed to challenge the entire emergency management system in a highly realistic and stressful envi-

ronment. Tests and evaluates most functions of the emergency management plan or operational plan. Takes place in an EOC or other operating center and at field sites. Achieves realism through: • On-scene actions and decisions. • Simulated “victims.” • Search and rescue requirements. • Communication devices. • Equipment deployment. • Actual resource and personnel allocation.

Involves controller(s), players, simulators (different from simulators in a functional exercise), and evaluators. Players represent all levels of personnel, including response personnel. Messages may be visual (e.g., staged scenes, made-up victims, props) and scripted. All decisions and actions by players occur in real time and generate real responses and consequences from other players. Requires significant investment of time, effort, and resources (1 to 1½ years to develop a complete exercise package). At-

tention to detail is crucial.


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Italian Department of Civil Protection

Guidelines on the Emergency Planning for Relevant Risk Industrial Activities

December 2004 - www.protezionecivile.it

Para IV.1 UPDATES, EXERCISES AND PER-SONNEL TRAINING Article 20 of Decree 334/1999 states that EEP Ex-ternal Emergency Planning should be re-evaluated, tested and, if necessary, revised and update periodically and however every three years. The revision (of the plan) should take into account any modifications of the facility and its safety con-ditions that may have been occurred also following the application of complementary technical meas-ures stated at art. 14, para 6 of Decree 334/99, and taking into account the actions for the reduc-tion of territorial environmental vulnerability, oper-ated through the application of politics of territory government and related instruments in high risk in-dustrial areas. Any revision and update of EEP must be notified to Regional Government and local Authorities and communicated to the Ministry of Environment and to the Department of Civil Protection and to all in-volved subjects which are already in possession of the previous version of EEP. It is hereby stressed the necessity of the guarantee of the update of information contained in the EEP, providing in the EEP the procedures and the re-sponsible subjects charged of the gathering and the diffusion of the information related to the differ-ent sections of the document.

The Test of the EEP constitutes an innovative element introduced by the Decree 334/99 and is conducted by mean of exercises that test the activation procedures of operational struc-tures, the operational capability of Authorities and of some socio-economic sectors like schools, hospitals, supermarkets and similar which are present in the areas at risk. In order to ensure an adequate frequency and a satisfactory training standard it is appropriate to organize exercises of different level of complexity, or structured on different levels of activation of op-erational resources and population. In this respect could be organized: - “Command Posts” exercises (without the

involvement of personnel, operational re-sources and population)

- “Joint exercises” (between several Agen-cies but without the involvement of the population) and finally

- “Real-Scale” exercises. The success of an exercise depends on the level of information and training of the person-nel responsible of the emergency management and depends on the level of information to the public made on this issue. It seems appropriate to provide more than one meeting in order to verify the results and ex-change participant’s experiences in order to highlight critical issues.


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2.4.2. Overview After a review of the previous pages, that actually represent only a small fraction of what is avail-able, in the following table we try to summarize the different levels of involvement and possibilities that can be chosen for the actuation of a specific phase of the emergency planning cycle. There will always be the need to inform the persons involved in our planning and getting a feedback. Training of teams and responding resources

Conference, Seminars, Workshop

Table Top Control Post Functional exercises

Live, Field, Real Scale, exercises

In this presentation we would like to stress on how impor-tant is the prepara-tion of teams but we are not dealing di-rectly with this as-pect. We assume that training has been adequately provided

These three different “tools” are mainly dedicated to inform the actors involved and to get some feedback indication in order to refine the plan (in terms of general issues). In the actors involved there is also the “population”.

A tabletop exercise simulates an emer-gency situation in an informal, stress-free environment. The participants, usually people on a decision-making level, gather around a table to discuss general problems and procedures in the context of an emergency scenario. The focus is on train-ing and familiariza-tion with roles, pro-cedures, or respon-sibilities.

Typically the control post may be run only for communication or both for communica-tion, teams (mostly virtually) and com-manders together (without the involve-ment of personnel, operational re-sources and popula-tion)

The functional exer-cise is similar to command post but is related to specific functions that need to be activated in the command and con-trol centers. In Italy, for large civil protec-tion emergencies there is a system called “Augustus” that works on 14 functions The functional exer-cise simulates an emergency in the most realistic manner possible, short of moving real people and equipment to an actual site. As the name suggests, its goal is to test or evaluate the capabil-ity of one or more functions in the con-text of an emergency event.

In this category be-longs all the activities that take place “on the ground”. Single resources in real set-ting, joint resources or full-scale. Please notice that these are to be considered dif-ferent from the activ-ity of single re-sources during recur-rent training where usually are con-ducted evaluations of single steps or single actions (even if com-plex) typically taking into account only on-site conditions

2.4.3. Most suited tools (Type of activity) for the different purposes The following is a table of comparison of different available tools that may be useful for a specific purpose Purpose Sequence of the most suited tools (Type of activity) Inform Conference Seminar Check resources Training Joint training Test structure of the plan

Table top Functional Command Post

Live exercise Full or partial for groups of responders

Verify ability of com-manders

Table Top Functional Command Post

Live exercise full scale


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2.5. Most common examples of aims of Plan Test Everybody knows that of one the most advanced international agency that has a very important set of documents related to emergency planning is www.iaea.org. The International Atomic Energy Agency, and all the National Agencies that are connected with it, since the beginning of their activity have produced large quantity of documents, all available on the internet. From the documents related to planning in the nuclear energy sector, the author has excerpted some indication related to the expected results of the emergency plan testing activities IAEA - International Atomic Energy Agency http://www.iaea.org/NewsCenter/MediaAdvisory/2005/MA_200512.html

NEA - Nuclear Emergency Agency Canada http://www.hc-sc.gc.ca/ed-ud/part/int/index_e.html

DEHLG - RPII - NEPNA Ireland http://www.rpii.ie/reports/2004/Ireland's%20National%20Report-2004.pdf

Media Advisory 2005/12 International Organizations and IAEA Member States Test Emergency Plans

(…) Exercises of the international plan, called the "Joint Radiation Emergency Management Plan", are conducted every few years so that the IAEA, its Member States and international organizations, can test preparedness for working cooperatively to respond effectively to an actual nuclear or radiological emergency or incident. This exercise is focused primarily on testing communication networks and assessing the technical implications. (…)

International Coordination of Nuclear Emergency Preparedness and Re-sponse

(…) The NEA regularly holds international exercises to test member countries' nu-clear emergency preparedness plans. These exercises are designed to test: - areas where trans-boundary commu-nication and coordination could be im-proved; - decision-making processes based on limited information and uncertain power plant conditions; - real time communications with the actual equipment and procedures; and - public information and interaction with media.

National Emergency Plan for Nuclear Accidents (…)External consultants were engaged by the DEHLG to conduct a comprehensive test of the NEPNA. This project included a critical review of the of the existing plans, a table top exercise to examine some of the issues confronted in the plan and the large scale exercise (Operation Gray-storm) conducted in November 2001. The consultants made 37 specific recom-mendations for improving the NEPNA in their report of August 2002 These recommendations cover aspects of NEPNA such as - national emergency preparedness structures - threat assessment - the functioning of the ERCC - clarification of roles and respon-sibilities - alerting mechanisms and com-munication with the public.

Looking at the above cited examples, it is easy to notice that there is a set of priorities in the aspects that are put to test. For instance: - Alerting procedures and mechanism - Communications - Cooperation between agencies and clarification of roles - Information to the public and the media. It seems to be quite evident that most of the plan tests does not (and probably should not) involve the direct verification of the “ability” of the responders teams. It appears equally obvious that this “verification” of teams preparedness is made during the training sessions, rather than during a test of the plan. Again, this is one of the aspects that support the need to make a “mental shift” on the typical way in which are conducted some “public” exercises. The “aim of the exercise” that we can frequently find stated in a lot of exercise documents may appear to be “to test the plan” but most of the times the exercise ends up simply like a “large scale team training”. Of course, with a lot of flashing emergency lights… everything seems credible.


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2.6. Plans Test Documentation In the process of testing there will be the need to prepare a series of document. In the following ta-ble we summarize the process through a list of examples of what kind of documents you should be prepared to write. Without these documents there will not be a “serious” plan test. documents

typical content Example of Resources/Offices involved

Existing Emergency Plan. We assume, of course, that there is already a valid existing plan. (Please remember we are not dealing, in this paper, with “how to write” an emergency plan)

- Emergency Planning Committee

Testing Requirements. From the plan itself or by man-datory requirements there is the need to test the plan. In this document will be listed all “the reasons” that require the testing activity and the goals related to this activity.

- Authorities - Emergency Planning Committee

Test Project. A project of the testing activity will be prepared. In this document there will be all the descrip-tions related to the organization of the test: methods, Agencies and Teams involved, scenarios, resources and so on. In the project will also be defined the evaluation procedures.

- Plan Test Committee - “Actors”

Activities Log. There will be a registration of all the test activities. This will be done from different positions and different “point of views”. It will be not only an image / audio / radio / video registration but also the collection of all the documents and forms used during the exercise.

- Plan Test Committee - “Actors” - Evaluators

Evaluation. This document will gather all the evalua-tions provided by different Actors and Evaluators. All in-formation will be categorized and sent to the Test Plan-ning Committee for the final recommendations

- Plan Test Committee - Evaluators

Recommendation. After the test and the evaluation, the Test Planning Committee will meet again, will examine the documents and will write the recommendations that will be given to the Authority (or the Office) that has re-quested the test of the Plan

- Plan Test Committee - Emergency Planning Committee

Amendments. The Emergency Planning Committee, tak-ing into account the recommendations of the Plan Test Committee, will prepare the amendments to the plan. These amendments will be approved by the Autority and will become an integration/modification of the previous existing Plan

- Emergency Planning Committee - Authorities

New edition of the plan. A new and updated edition of the plan will be promulgated by Authorities. The Emer-gency Planning Committee will organize the dissemina-tion of the new documents and will (probably) organize a new emergency plan test. The cycle is completed and will re-start again; at this point you should be able to compare the “plan before” and the “plan after” the exercise

- Authorities - Emergency Planning Committee

(updated)

EMERGENCY PLAN

Amen-dments TO THE PLAN

Recom-

mendations TO THE PLAN

TEST

EVALUATION

TEST

EXECUTION

TEST

PROJECT

Testing

Requirements

(existing)

EMERGENCY PLAN


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2.7. Comparison of different planning test activity and possible feedbacks

2.7.1. From Everyday work activities to Full Scale Exercise

For those of us working in emergency services, everyday work is one of the most powerful “feedback” activity, provided that we are able to collect, evaluate and disseminate the results of our responses. There is not better opportunity than a thorough evaluation of what we have been able to provide in case of real incident: communication, chain of command, resource deployment, safety, planning, accountability, procedures, operations and results.

In the following table the author have compared what he considers most interesting aspects for the different test activities. It is, of course, a very broad classification but it should help in understanding that there are several ways to reach adequate results. The very important issue is that any choice in organizing your test activity should be made after an accurate evaluation of all the opportunities and after an identification of what are the most relevant results that you want to achieve with that test.

TYPE

ASPECTS

Everyday work Conference Seminar or

workshop Command

Posts Table Top Virtual Full Scale

Preparation Effort

No extra costs

Low extra cost

Moderate extra cost

Moderate extra cost

Moderate extra cost

High Cost for quality product

Medium Extra Cost

Running Cost No extra costs

Moderate Cost

Moderate cost

No extra cost Medium Cost Moderate

Cost High Cost

Effectiveness Very effective with follow-up

Limited to audience

Specific to audience

Very effective Effective Limited

to Scenario Effective

Evaluation Influenced by persons

Difficult feedback

Adequate Feedback

Very appropriate

Very Appropriate Appropriate Appropriate

Revision Influenced by “system”

Not specific for revision

May provide in-puts to revision

Very effective

Very Effective

Limited to Scenario Effective

Media Relevance

High media relevance

May have relevance

May have relevance

May have relevance

May have relevance

Low media relevance

High media relevance

“Visibility” Influenced by “system”

Can give visibility

Can give visibility

Can give visibility

Can give visibility Low visibility High

visibility

Let us make a simple comment on two aspects: “Preparation Effort” and “Media Relevance”.

Regarding the “efforts in preparation”, if we think at the everyday work we could say that there are not any extra cost because emergency events happen everyday and response is provided automatically; on the other side in the effort to organize virtual simulations, where there is the need of an accurate project of the systems, the cost may be very high if a product of quality is needed. The preparation effort in a full scale exercise are usually significant, due to the fact that moving people, resources, and setting “live and real” scenarios may be (and often is) quite expensive.

Descriptions Color Low cost, hgh relevance, high visibility, appropriate and very effective

white

Moderate cost, effective, may give visibility yellow Medium cost, , low media relevance, low visibility orange High cost red


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Looking at “Media Relevance”, the everyday work (especially in the emergency services) is of course always under the eyes of the media, so the visibility of what we do is absolutely high (and this visibility is for free!). On the other side, it has not the same attraction – for the Media – a room filled with computers and radio where people, like in a video-game, operate receiving and sending messages and making/taking decision. Even if this could be (and often is) one of the most challenging environment for those who are exercising participating into the activity, after a few minute the general public may get bored and so, consequently, the media relevance lower.

For a full-scale exercise the media relevance is extremely high and this is the reason why most of the times this system is preferred, even if it needs extra cost in preparation and high cost when running the exercise.


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2.8. Evaluation of the exercise The details for a good preparation of evaluation process are well written in document FEMA IS 139 and in the related “comprehensive curriculum”. The author strongly suggest to read that document. In this page there is an example of the first part of a report model prepared by the author and used during an exercise in the international Airport of Milan-Orio BGY.

Interagency exercise “ORIO” 2007 International Airport (BGY) Reference framework for evaluations, notes and observations

Schema di riferimento per valutazioni, rilievi ed osservazioni

1. PLAN

2. RESCUERS 3. MANAGERS AND COM-MANDERS

4. ORGANIZATION OF THE ESERCISE

Key factors are observed in order to verify the real func-tionality of the plan, its ade-quacy and the updating.

Key factors are observed in order to verify the quality of response of the emergency teams, their internal manage-ment capability and their abil-ity to relate their activity with other teams of other agencies

Key factors are observed in order to define the real ade-quacy of the command action per formed by the different managers/ commanders. The capability to interact and act with synergy and with common objectives is meas-ured

Key factors are observed in order to detect what of these factors influence positively on the exercise organization, on the credibility and the useful-ness for the general scope of the exercise.

- Functionality of the plan - Communications - Safety - Strategies - Ordinary resources - Extra-ordinary resources - Coordination - Unexpected events (and

reaction) - Management of media - Public relation - Flights Traffic

management

- Readiness - Effectiveness - Efficiency - Adequacy of response - Coordination with other

teams - Coordination with other

Agencies - Capability to sustain long

term operations -

- Coordination - Command and control

capabilities - Flexibility - Knowledge of the work

environment and charac-teristics of all “actors” in-volved

- Unified command - Centralized command

structure with ramifica-tion

- scope of exercise - adherence to the existing

plan, deviations and mo-tivations

- redundancy of safety measures for actors

- inconveniences to ordi-nary activity

- credibility - factors that have facili-

tated the exercise - factors that have made

difficult the exercise

Each one of the single mentioned aspects is then further examined in depth with more specific evaluation items.


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2.7.2. Drills are something different from exercises An emergency drill is typically related to some specific phase of the emergency management, particularly those at the very first stages in terms of time. During drill you may usually test: - alarms - first communications and request to the

emergency services (internal or external) - first actions to do (and not to do) - evacuation procedures The drill commonly ends after some tens of minutes from the beginning. Even for complicated actions rarely it will exceed one hour. Of course if in the emergency drill your duty is to apply the shut-down procedures for a nuclear power plant... The author, with some other members of his Fire Department has contributed in the organization and the evaluation during the conduction of emergency drills in chemical plants and in hospitals. The experience shows that the scope of the drill is mostly accomplished once the involved Personnel has: - given the alarm following the correct pro-

cedures - evacuated the involved compartment and

the nearby compartments - been able to give information to emer-

gency responders on any victim or trapped personnel

- gathered to the meeting points. Even “limiting” the drill to these first phases, there is always the opportunity to make good improvements to the plan. Typically the first improvements are related to “how“ to send and receive the alarm and the direc-tions by the supervisors. Again, is not difficult to notice that the first revisions of the plan will probably involve the need of solution to communication problems.


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3. ORGANIZING A LARGE SCALE EXERCISE: SOME KEY ISSUES

FEMA Guideline IS 139 “Exercise Design” is one of the most complete document on exercise plan-ning and design and the author recommends to download it from www.fema.gov and use it as a ref-erence manual. In this chapter the author presents an overview on some aspects that has personally noticed when he actively participated to exercises and plan tests. 3.1. Introduction Once it has been established that there is the need to test the plan with a full scale exercise (see chapter 2.4), one of the obvious consequence is to define the chain of command. Less obvious appears the need to organize a similar chain of command for the “backstage” of the exercise test organization. But without that “backstage” organization there will not be a complete coverage of all the needs that arise during this activity. A scheme of that organization is represented in the following sample graphic

On the left there is the typical incident command organization. On the right there is the “backstage” organization of the exercise. It is easy to imagine that for large scale exercises there should be a large support staff.

EXERCISE DIRECTOR

(Directing Staff)

INCIDENT COMMANDER

(or Unified Com-mand Post)

CHIEF OF THE SIMULATION

STAFF

OBSERVERS

OPERATIONS PLANNING LOGISTICS

SAFETY MAKE-UP TEAM

STAFF FOR GENERATION OF INCIDENT SCENARIOS

OVERALL SAFETY

TEAMS SAFETY

SITE SAFETY

SIMULATED “VICTIMS”

ADMINISTRATION

Communications V.I.P. AND

AUTHORITIES

Media

GENERAL PUBLIC


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3.2. Preparation, Techniques, Roles One of the most important thing to keep in mind is that the exercise director cannot be the incident commander itself. It could appear obvious to say this, maybe, but it is not uncommon that the des-ignated person(s) to be the in the incident command staff in that exercise, participates in depth to the preparation of the exercise itself. This is the first thing to avoid. The second thing is that also the evaluators should be a separate team not involved in any way in the exercise itself. The following scheme is aimed to visualize the relationship between these different roles: What is important to notice is that the DIRECTING STAFF should be considered “transparent” to the EXERCISING RESOURCES. The interaction between the two should be only through the se-quence of injects that are prepared from time to time by the “DISTAFF” (Directing Staff). The objective is to create a sequence (not known in advance) of emergency situations that could be faced by the resources that are exercising: no matter if the exercising actors are authorities, incident commanders, or the population. The “OBSERVERS” (we indicate with this word all those that do not participate directly in the emergency) can play their role getting information and taking notes at any of the four levels de-scribed above.

EXERCISING RESOURCES Incident Commanders Emergency Agency (authorities) Emergency Responders - Public Teams - Private Teams Population

DIRECTING STAFF Exercise director(s) Simulation staff

OBSERVERS Evaluators Media V.I.P. General Public

generates the

“problems”

elaborate the

“solutions”


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For example they can observe:

- the credibility of the injects prepared by the Directing Staff, compared to risk assessment and emergency plan

o A mandate for the directing staff can be derived by the plan itself.

- the “quality” and visibility of the problem created o For this aspect needs to be taken into account the difficulty for the responder, some-

times, to “visualize” the real effects of the emergency situation in case of a simula-tion

- the capability of the emergency managers (and of all the chain of command) to elaborate a re-sponse

o the most relevant aspect

- the quality and the adequacy of the solutions to the inject of problems o this is the decisive proof of the effectiveness of the planning system

3.2.1. How much information can or should be given to the resources that are participating to exercise? There will be a general narrative of the scenario that will be public. This aspect can appear some-thing that gives some “help” to the responders. Actually, is not possible to ask or pretend that re-sponding agencies can exercise without having a general idea at least on how many resources will need to be employed; so, some general information is needed. This, for example, will allow the re-sponding agencies to organize their participation to the exercise without interruption (or with lim-ited consequences) in the provision of their everyday service. This does not means that the response sequence and the deployment of resources should be pre-packed, and revealed in advance to the responders and their chiefs. 3.2.2. Want to run exercise close to real conditions? Prepare for a really dynamic scenario Most of the times, the author have noticed that when an exercise is being organized, for example, with 50 “casualties” they remain with their “colour code” (according to the S.T.A.R.T. triage sys-tem) for some hours, until they are “rescued”. This is something different from real incidents, where victim conditions will degrade minute after minute. So, if you want to really challenge all the system it should be a good option to choose to let the “victims” condition worsen as time passes by until they are not rescued and treated. The continuous evaluation of the “speed” at which victims will change their status will be provided by medical per-sonnel helped, if this is the case, by toxicologists in case the event involves the contact with hazard-ous materials. Those specialist will work with the directing staff of the exercise, providing advice on how and when the changes should be made. The great possibility with this system is to really measure the effectiveness of the response: if the rescuers are not fast enough victims will move from a “red code” to a “black code”. This will be possible when the cooperation among the different agencies is excellent. Again, when real emergencies happen, these are the best “source of problem” for the verifica-tion of plans. The time spent in the examination of real responses to real emergencies is really in-valuable!


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3.3. Support activities (“logistics is everything”) During a Live Exercise, the typical support activities (besides those related to the simulation) range from the assistance to Authority, media and V.I.P. to the management of participating public or by-standers. One important aspect is to organize clearly defined points/positions where these persons can be po-sitioned at their best convenience without being posed at any risk. For example, there will be the need to provide extra transport, and assign specific personnel which should not be involved in any way into the exercise. Of course, if the exercise is a long term exer-cise there will be the need to provide also food and maybe lodging for the participating Agencies. This will require an adequate “backstage” organization (see paragraph 3.1). 3.4. Follow-up When we plan an exercise test, there should be set forth the terms for the follow-up activities. We should always expect that from each plan test exercise there will be a significant amount of obser-vations and ideas that should be collected and examined. All systems and forms for data collection and evaluation should be prepared in advance and explained to those who will use them. 3.5. Communications On a field exercise the communication between the different levels of command will generate the need to organize different “layers” of communication. This should be provided by mean of different communication channels that goes from dedicated tactical radio channel to satellite broadcast com-munication.

Important to notice that a completely separate “layer” will need to be provided for the Directing staff and all their collaborators. There will be the need of at least the following separate networks: - communication between command post and EOC - communications between commanders of different agencies - communications between teams (on separate radio channel) - communication between the assisting staff (figurants, safety, evaluation)


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4. VIRTUAL REALITY

4.0. introduction There are tens of examples on how the information technology is providing the emergency respond-ers with a series of tools that allow to “practice” most of the work to be done. Most of the famous software-house and recognized worldwide simulation providers are: http://www.vectorcommand.com/ http://www.emergencycommandsystem.com http://www.admstraining.com http://www.e-semble.com http://www.firesimulator.com/ 4.1. Virtual Simulation: the typical ways In extreme synthesis, the virtual simulation activity is aimed to send “inputs” to the stu-dent/operator in order to receive “output”. The quality of the input depends on the quality of the product. The quality of the output depends on the quality of the Student and: - the quality of procedures and plans that the student will follow when he has to elaborate a spe-

cific response - the knowledge of the students in his/her field - the ability to perform his/her duties - the ability to do this in synergy with other members of the same agency and members of other

agencies and Authorities - finally, the ability to show and perform all this during stressful conditions In principles these abilities are the very same abilities needed to face a real emergency. Some of the advantage in the virtual simulation is that the process can be logged precisely for further evaluation and can be repeated with the same sequences of input for other students.


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4.2. Information sharing and decision support. An available, public, tool for big emergencies When the “problems” are “XXL problems” (extra large in size as complexity and extension), it is easy to imagine that the content of plans are more related to mutual aid, deployment of resources, cooperation among States and so on. The emergency managers of each of the Agencies that want to support the stricken Nation are involved in a very complex response plan that is actually the addi-tion of tens and tens of local, national , international, worldwide Plans and Response Mechanism. There are not many sources for complete training on these issues and consequently there is not a specific description on how to test effectively this “collection of plans and rules”. The most “official” tool is “Virtual OSOCC” of the United Nations that allows enrolled members to be informed with updated news regarding emergency situation around the world. Here are some in-formation gathered from the descriptions posted on the sites. Interesting to notice is the opportunity to train and consequently to test continuously the procedures and the plans, not only by the direct participation in real emergencies, but also observing what oth-ers are doing in real emergencies and learning. There is also an interesting possibility of participa-tion in several training, meetings and discussion forums. The author thinks that even indirectly, the observation on-line of all the “reactions with solutions” to all the “injects with problems” coming from the real world can be a very powerful tool that helps immediately to receive a feed-back on the quality of responses that each Agency or Nation gives following their emergency plans.

http://www.gdacs.org/ The Global Disaster Alert and Coordination System provides near real-time alerts about natural disasters around the world and tools to facilitate response coordination, including media monitoring, map catalogues and Virtual On-Site Operations Coordination Centre.

http://ocha.unog.ch/virtualosocc/

Disaster coordination - the main purpose of the Virtual OSOCC is to facilitate decision-making for international response to major disasters though real-time information exchange by all actors of the international disaster response community. E-mail and sms alerts - All Virtual OSOCC users have the opportunity to create e-mail and sms messages that are sent automati-cally to subscribers to inform about critical situation updates during disaster response operations. UNDAC mobilisation - through the Virtual OSOCC the United Nations Assessment and Coordination Team (UNDAC) can be mobi-lised effectively through on-line workflow procedures including sms and e-mail. Training and meetings - the Virtual OSOCC facilitates management of UNDAC, INSARAG and UN-CMCoord training, meetings and workshops through e-mail notification, on-line participant registration and discussion of background material. Discussion forum - the Virtual OSOCC provides its users with a discussion forum for any area of interest, including information ex-change on best practice and lessons-learned after disaster response operations. Photo library - the Virtual OSOCC includes a photo library where users can share disaster and other related photos as documenta-tion or presentation material or souvenir of a joint mission. (OSOCC - On Site Operation Coordination Centre)


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5. LESSONS LEARNED

Dissemination of information about planning activity – A “Transition period” There might be a risk of (and sometimes a sense of) frustration when you actually respond to a real emergency after the redaction and approval of a Plan. The reason is that until (and unless) you have disseminated the content of the Plan to all the “Actors” involved, frequently it can happen that only part of the Responders of the involved Agencies have been trained into the Plan. These “informed” actors will probably act following the “desired” course of action provided in the Plan but other re-sponders will act “…as usual, as they did before the plan…”. The final outcome is that you and your trained Team may get frustrated because you’ll hear people that will say: “…even now that we have a Plan, the overall response have not been as expected in the plan itself…”. Don’t worry: this can happen and nobody should be blamed. The problems related to this “transition period” will always be present. The best solution is to work hard in the “compression” of this transi-tion period. As soon as you get all the responders informed and trained on the Plan and its “ex-pected” results you will be confident that there will be real improvements. Redundancy of safety measures during plan tests simulated with field exercises… There will always be the need of redundant safety measures during the live exercises. This is ex-tremely important and it is necessary to implement what is needed to be sure that the risk of injuries will be limited (or eliminated). One of the way to deal with this is to provide extra safety officers for each site where the exercise is taking place. These officers will not interfere with the activity of the personnel which is participating to the exercise, unless there will be some signal of a probable deviation from the expected course of action. Is it possible to organize a plan test with a field exercise without having conducted before a table top or a command post exercise? In principle we now know that is not as effective as it can be following the right sequence. But-sometimes it is the only chance that you get from your supervisors. So, you need to be very careful in the preparation of evaluation opportunities from as much points/position as you can. (COMPLE-TARE). So, actually it is worth to try to convince your supervisors or other agencies to give at least one opportunity to test the system “at cold” around a table, rather than starting “at hot” during a messy field simulation. Motivation of Emergency Response Teams and the risk of a “show” exercise My personal experience is that in Italy (and in many other Countries, I assume) most of the “exer-cises” are run in a “demonstration mode” which aim is rather mostly the aim of “showing” (to the Public, to Authorities, to other Agencies) the “field force” of the responding system. Of course it is more attractive for the media and easier to understand for the Public (at basic level, of course) a “field simulation” rather than a table-top exercise or a functional exercise, where you “see” only people around some tables or around some radios, sending and receiving messages.


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The risk is typically the following: to spend much more energy to organize the “V.I.P.” visit to the exercise site or a “Media-activity” rather than measuring the real effects of the test activity. Moreover you can bet (…you can be sure…) that when more Agencies are involved in the same field exercise, each one would try to “appear” as much as possible and everybody finds itself “forced” to do something “visible” that often is of marginal importance for the test but it is much more important for the feedback that they want to give to the V.I.P.s or to the Media. A positive approach that I have seen in some of international exercises at which I participated (in-volving several Countries) that one of the best way that to deal with this aspect is to provide a spe-cial “demonstration day” after the exercise itself. Adding one “demo-day“ (or a couple of “demo-hours” if the exercise will take place in one day only), allow everybody to focus first on the correct conduction of the exercise and then gives the opportunity to “show” the best of its capabilities in a “stage-like” setting. These aspects related to the need of “visibility” should not be considered “a problem”. It is very normal that the operating teams would like to show all their capabilities at the maximum possible level (even if this aspect in that moment of the field exercise may not be necessary). So, knowing in advance these needs, will help the Plan Test Planners in reaching their goals. Visibility of scenarios in real scale exercises… and Reality It is difficult to “simulate” on the field a real event. Most of the times the responders need to make a big effort in “recognizing” the situation and “reading” the assigned scenario. This issue is particularly significant when you deal with something that have a dynamic evolu-tion like a vapour cloud dispersed from a chemical plant or the effects of an explosion on the immediate environment and the “victims” (simulated, of course) around there. On the other side, sometimes there are cases where the response has been pre-modeled to the pre-defined scenario simulating to be close to reality but the final outcome is the risk of being too much “hollywood”. Other relevant issues One of the main risks that can be present in any emergency test is the overlapping of some roles onto the same persons. The reason is often due to the fact that sometimes it is not immediate to think, since the beginning of the planning activity, to provide a specific staff for the management and the generation of the exercise “problems”. Which should (and must) be different from the re-sponse teams that will be in charge of the “solution” of the emergency situation.


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Another typical aspect is the following: once it has been established for that specific exercise that there will be the need of a certain number and certain type of resources, if you discover during the exercise that you would need more resources, the risk is that you may keep “playing” with “what you have” even if in the reality you would probably have asked for more resources or of different types

Want to exercise your personal Emergency Management capabilities? Let others evaluate you.

Often, only in a few cases the “managers” find an appropriate way to “be tested”. Of course each single agency can run assessments of the abilities of the “internal” chain of command: there are very evolved systems available. But not all are so “mentally open” to allow honestly to compare their internal chain of command with the chain of command of other agencies.

Would we agree “to be tested”, individually, during a Plan Test? Would we agree that someone will take note of our perfect behaviour, our straightforward decision making process, our ability in elaborating the right decision? Probably we would. Would we consequently agree that the same persons will take note of our fragile behaviour, our complex decision making process, our inability to get the final result done? Probably we would not. In principle, we should not be aware to be “tested”. But there is a principle that should be always kept in mind when dealing with the need to test the “chiefs”, the commanders. If we want to be sure that we are testing the commanders we need to be sure that all the components of the Emergency Response System have been individually tested, in advance. As we explained in the first chapters the sequence of tests should be (let’s say: must be): 1) Test the resources (human and material) 2) Test the plan and the procedures 3) Test the managers (the commanding officers) Sometimes, it seems to be more effective organizing of a full scale exercise even without the prepa-ration steps. As we said, this results most of the times in an “illusion”. The organization of a large full-scale field exercise should be the final step of the process, not the first one.

testing your own emergency plans

Education

good emergency planning

emergency planning techniques

planning committees

emergency situation

good planning

testing emergency plans

participationgency planning

face emergency risks