Preface
Introduction Revisions to the first edition after its publication in 2011 have been undertaken with the aim of including new material, updates, and additional observations. In this instance I continue to advocate more complex scenarios and situations which feature high risk threats should be the focus of emergency exercises in the second and third decade of the 21st century. This can only be done by explicitly examining these challenges through the conduct of robust exercises. By drawing attention to unique exercise design issues at a significantly sharper level of detail my objective in supplementing the text is designed to help practitioners and students of emergency management understand obvious, subtle and indirect aspects of the exercise design process. In the decades following 2015 there will be increased pressure on state and local governments to demonstrate that ramped up and enhanced emergency performance in response and recovery operations has benefitted from prior years of experience. Well-crafted exercises can deliver on this expectation. The sheer variety of emergency challenges include natural disasters, industrial and infrastructural accidents, system failures and terrorism. Communities should be prepared for any scenario from the simplest to the most complex and challenging. However, not all are enthusiastic about exercises providing the ‘magic bullet’ to enhance overall performance. Some remain doubtful that exercises alone can strengthen emergency response. Today some hesitance remains about sharing insights and lessons learned from similar tabletops, drills and sophisticated deployed exercises doubtful that such events can impart operational wisdom and applicable insights which focus on the multiplicity of operational issues involved. This regrettably remains true in the international arena as well. One goal of this book is to encourage wider sharing of exercise outcomes and insights to the benefit of all engaged in the serious pursuit of better emergency management. More must be done to share perspectives and isolate key operational principles where possible so that real savings in lives and property can be attained. As such, efforts will be made in this new edition to focus on relevant subjects and themes which are compelling and rightly deserve some further discussion, analysis and elaboration such as these topics which merit attention via crafted emergency exercises that primarily focus on and deal with: ·Continuity of operations ·Dealing with WMD events ·Mass casualty disasters ·Infrastructure emergencies ·Unified command ·Homeland defense ·Business continuity planning ·Complex catastrophic emergencies ·Cybersecurity emergencies ·Energy grid collapse crises ·Agrosecurity crises ·Sustained and stressed emergency operations New language and selected text inserts will aim to underscore where these diverse issues, subjects and themes can best be dealt with inside the overall context of emergency exercise design and how these items might affect approaches to exercise evaluation activities. In most situations, well designed exercises will clarify and enhance the specific functions, roles, tasks and activities which will likely unfold in the midst of an actual emergency and thereby shine a light on which key behaviors, decisions, interventions and communications will ultimately prove to strengthen and upgrade the overall level of emergency response. Preface Designing emergency exercises and developing useful mechanisms for evaluating those exercises is a mixture of art and science. The scientific aspect involves identifying the essential elements, principles, and structural issues associated with making emergency exercises worthwhile and providing practical operational value to practitioners and professionals. My aim is to help students of emergency management grasp and understand the core issues as well. The artful dimension of exercise design and evaluation is pinpointing the variables, ambiguities, and risks associated with structuring, coordinating, and evaluating complex pseudo-emergencies events meant to replicate reality. Combining the two is vital to create a valuable learning experience. With this in mind, my focus is on natural disasters and technological emergencies more so than terrorism. The book’s focus is on small to medium-size cities and those wishing to get an in-depth look at exercise design issues. Finding a suitable guide or textbook to navigate this field of endeavor recalls the “needle in a haystack” analogy. To be sure, there are many guides and handbooks generated by state or local emergency management agencies that are helpful and instructive. However, what is needed is a textbook that includes the fundamentals and allows students and researchers to further enhance their knowledge by investigating those publications, inter- viewing emergency managers, observing the work of an exercise planning team, or just witnessing an actual exercise unfold. Hopefully, this book will supply the fundamentals that enable all students, practitioners and experts to agree on common terms, principles, and strategies. My emphasis is to explore both the value and purposes of scenario-based and capabilities- based exercises. Emergency exercises address and reveal the significant gaps between plans and capabilities. More importantly, well crafted exercises will draw attention to those areas of doctrine, staff training and operational requirements which can be validated and which deserve a second look for revision or adaptation. The overall aim of this book is to make it easier for emergency managers, emergency planners, academic leaders in emergency management and students of emergency management to understand some of the fundamentals associated with exercise design. Seldom does one find a credible and reliable college level course which seeks to impart this information however for those who embark on that effort this book should provide a useful introduction. The variety of exercise options available are built upon the fundamental educational principle that progressively difficult emergency exercises build effective learning, enhance comprehension, and ultimately increase emergency preparedness and operational readiness. Even with staff turnover, limited funds, and experience, some localities will seek exercises that stretch and stress their emergency responders. This book aims to help in that regard by providing specific guidance that is useful, less rigorous, and more flexible than the highly structured DHS HSEEP program. The overall purpose of the book is to reinforce the twin notions that 1.Well-designed exercises enhance emergency readiness, verify prepared- ness, test emergency planning assumptions, and sharpen response functions; and 2.Exercise evaluations that are comprehensive, honest, and analytical make a real difference in validating emergency preparedness and readiness if necessary changes are incorporated into EO plans and improved readiness procedures. It is also useful to point out the merits of the “progressive” education principle embedded in the successive iteration of emergency exercise train-ing programs. All of these approaches start with less complex emergency exercises and progress through a series of increasingly complex emergency exercises to verify preparedness and test readiness. That is how better emergency management happens—not accidentally. Of course, in any textbook odyssey, errors of omission, oversight and commission are mine exclusively. I want to thank all those who in recent years have been instrumental in shaping my own evolving sense of what matters and what doesn’t in the growing field of emergency management. There were several key persons whose views were invaluable as I sought to revise this volume and create a 2nd edition. I apologize for not listing them all. Some of these helpful souls include Don Donahue, Curry Mayer, Chuck Manto, Irmak Renata-Tenali, Tom Carey, and Mark Troutman. Special thanks are due for those who read early drafts of the first edition and provided invaluable comments and suggestions to improve the text—they are the experts after all—like former Maryland State Public Health Director James “Smokey” Stanton, DCFD HAZMAT Battalion Chief John Donnelly, and former Oregon State EM Director Myra Lee. Robert McCreight