1. Disaster Drills, Testing, and Evaluation  A part of any management program, testing, and evaluation is critical.  The purpose of an organized drill is to a test the disaster plan.  A drill will expose strengths and weaknesses in the plan and in the capabilities of responders.  It also allows various agencies that do not commonly work together to become familiar with one another’s response capabilities and with their roles in the plan.

2. Core Capabilities  The National Preparedness Goal identified 31 core capabilities—these are the distinct critical elements needed to achieve the National Preparedness Goal.  The Core Capabilities establish the expected activities to be carried out for a particular disaster.  Core capabilities may apply to all or some phases of the disaster (prevention, protection, response, recovery, mitigation)  When developing a disaster plan assessment program, drills, and evaluation methods, core capabilities should be used as a framework.

3. Examples of Core Capabilities  Planning  Public Information and Warning  Operational Coordination  Intelligence and Information Sharing  Screening, Search, and Detection  Access Control and Identity Verification  Housing  Cybersecurity  Risk and Disaster Resilience Assessment  Threats and Hazard Identification  Critical Transportation  Environmental Response/Health and Safety  Fatality Management Services  Mass Care Services  Mass Search and Rescue Operations  Operational Communications  Economic Recovery

4. Core Capability: Critical Transportation  Mission Area  Response  Description  Provide transportation (including infrastructure access and accessible transportation services) for response priority objectives, including the evacuation of people and animals, and the delivery of vital response personnel, equipment, and services into the affected areas.  Core Capability Targets  Establish physical access through appropriate transportation corridors and deliver required resources to save lives and to meet the needs of disaster survivors.  Ensure basic human needs are met, stabilize the incident, transition into recovery for an affected area, and restore basic services and community functionality.

5. Homeland Security Exercise and Evaluation Program (HSEEP)  The Homeland Security Exercise and Evaluation Program (HSEEP) doctrine consists of fundamental principles that frame a common approach to exercises.  Guided by elected and appointed officials  Capability-based, objective driven  Progressive planning approach  Whole community integration  Informed by risk  Common methodology  Applicable to any type of hazard or exposure.

6. Exercise Design and Development  Exercise planning team members are identified  Schedule planning meetings  Identify and develop exercise objectives  Design the scenario  Create documentation  Plan exercise activities  Plan evaluation  Coordinate logistics.

7. Exercise Overview  Scope:  Exercise type  Exercise duration  Exercise location  Exercise parameters  Mission Areas:  Prevention, Protection, Mitigation, Response, and/or Recovery  Core capabilities  Objectives  Threat or hazard  Scenario Overview  Participating organizations

8. Exercise Conduct  After design and development activities are complete, the exercise is ready to occur.  Activities essential to conducting individual exercises include preparing for exercise play, managing exercise play, and conducting immediate exercise wrap-up activities.

9. Different Disaster plan approaches  Disaster Plan Exercises and Drills can be of many different forms  Examples include:  Table top exercises  Drills  Full Scale Field Exercises

10. Table Top Exercises  Use paper, verbal, or computer-based scenarios designed to improve coordination, to share information, and to practice decision-making.  Paper drills are often done to demonstrate how "response functions" work and communication together as part of the Incident Command System plan.  In table tops exercises, those involved include a facilitator and agency participants.

11. Table Top Exercises  A tabletop exercise is a focused practice activity that places the participants in a simulated situation requiring them to function in the capacity that would be expected of them in a real event.  Its purpose is to promote preparedness by testing policies and plans and by training personnel.

12. Framework for a Table Top Scenario  Facilitator guides the group  Members would be representatives from the various groups/agencies expected to respond to the scenario  Provide background information about the scenario the participants will be responding to  The facilitator will then begin to provide the group information about what is occurring in “real time.”  For example: Hospital XYZ reports an apparent disease outbreak to the Department of Public Health. 75 people have arrived at the hospital emergency room in the last 24 with symptoms of abdominal pain and fever. All people recently attended a banquet at a local hotel.

13. Discussion Session  The group then holds discussions on how they would respond. Questions may include:  Who needs to be notified?  Would there be enough beds or medical personnel to handle a large disease outbreak in the participants’ communities?  What mutual aid agreements are in place to help assist the participants ‘communities in such a situation?  Does this size necessitate implementation of the Incident Command System (ICS)? If so, who would be in charge of Incident Command?  The facilitator continues to provide information to the group as the disaster unfolds. At each step, the group holds discussions on how the disaster response should be implemented.  This process also includes evaluators who are monitoring the interactions between the participants.  At the conclusion of the disaster, the facilitator debriefs the group to identify lessons learned from the exercise, areas of improvement in an after-action review.

14. FEMA Private Sector Division  The FEMA Private Sector Division began a new series of tabletop exercises in 2010 as a tool to help private sector organizations advance their organization’s continuity, preparedness and resiliency.  Tabletop exercises are designed to help an organization test a hypothetical situation, such as a natural or man- made disaster, and evaluate the group’s ability to cooperate and work together, as well as test their readiness to respond.

15. Emergency Preparedness Drills  A drill is a coordinated, supervised activity usually employed to validate a specific function or capability in a single agency or organization.  Drills are commonly used to provide training on new equipment, validate procedures, or practice and maintain current skills.  Drills can also be used to determine if a part of a plan can be executed as designed, to assess whether more training is required, or to reinforce best practices.

16. Field Exercises  A field exercise takes place in real time to test the mobilization, including the activation of the Emergency Operations Center, of all or as many as possible of the response components.  In full-scale exercises, the participants include the responder, controller, evaluator, and victims.

17. Exercise Evaluation  Evaluation is the cornerstone of an exercise and must be considered throughout all phases of the exercise planning cycle, beginning when the exercise planning team meets to establish objectives and initiate exercise design. Effective evaluation assesses performance against exercise objectives, and identifies and documents strengths and areas for improvement relative to core capabilities.

18. Evaluation  Evaluation tools are developed along with the drill/exercise.  The evaluation of the disaster exercise should be tied to the core capabilities and capability targets.  Core capabilities  The distinct critical elements necessary to achieve a specific mission area (e.g., prevention). To assess both capacity and gaps, each core capability includes capability targets.  Capability target(s)  The performance threshold(s) for each core capability; they state the exact amount of capability that exercise players aim to achieve. Capability targets are typically written as quantitative or qualitative statements.  Capability targets and critical tasks are based on operational plans, policies, and procedures to be exercised and tested during the exercise.  Critical tasks  The distinct elements required to perform a core capability; they describe how the capability target will be met.  Critical tasks include the activities, resources, and responsibilities required to fulfill capability targets.

19. Organizational Exercise Evaluation Guides  Exercise Evaluation Guides containing organizational capability targets and critical tasks.  These are developed for a specific organization.  Improvement Planning  During improvement planning, the corrective actions identified during individual exercises are tracked to completion, ensuring that exercises yield tangible preparedness improvements.  An effective corrective action program develops IPs that are dynamic documents, which are continually monitored and implemented as part of the larger system of improving preparedness.

20. National Training Program  The National Training Program (NTP) provides an organized approach to training for emergency managers and emergency response providers.  The NTP provides policy, guidance, and tools that address training design, development, delivery, and evaluation, as appropriate.  The NTP supports the development, promulgation, and regular updating, as necessary, of national voluntary consensus standards for training; and ensure that the training provided under the NTP is consistent with the standards.

21. FEMA Training Organizations  Center for Domestic Preparedness  Emergency Management Institute  National training and Education Division  National Fire Academy

22. Center for Domestic Preparedness  The Center for Domestic Preparedness (CDP) develops and delivers advanced training for emergency response providers, emergency managers, and other government officials from state, local, and tribal governments.

23. Emergency Management Institute  The Emergency Management Institute (EMI) develops and delivers emergency management training to enhance the capabilities of federal, state, local, and tribal government officials, volunteer organizations, and the public and private sectors to minimize the impact of disasters.

24. National Training and Education Division  Training and Exercise Integration/ Training Operations (TEI/TO) offers more than 125 courses to help build critical skills that responders need to function effectively in mass consequence events.  Training partners include the National Domestic Preparedness Consortium (NDPC), the Rural Domestic Preparedness Consortium (RDPC), the Naval Postgraduate School (NPS), and Center for Domestic Preparedness (CDP), among others.

25. National Fire Academy  Provides leadership skills and advanced technical training for local fire and emergency services in prevention, preparedness and response.