Emergency Exercise

An activity designed to promote emergency preparedness; evaluate emergency operations, policies, plans, procedures, and facilities; train personnel in emergency management and response duties; and demonstrate operational capability. Exercises consist of performing duties, tasks, or operations very similar to the way they would be performed in a real emergency. However, the exercise performance is in response to a simulated event. Therefore, exercises require input to emergency personnel that motivates a realistic action. Reclamation "mock emergencies" have been replaced with the five components of an emergency exercise program as defined by the Federal Emergency Management Agency. These five components are: orientation seminar, tabletop exercise, drill, functional exercise, and full-scale exercise.

• Orientation Exercise (Seminar) - An activity designed to introduce, discuss, and update emergency planning documents, organization structure, or early warning system (EWS) component to familarize key personnel with the emergency procedures and their responsibilities. This may be through a lecture, panel discussion, or general discussion and can include visual presentations. This should involve all personnel with a role in the plan, problem, or procedure. It should also include a review of past cases, if any, for lessons learned.
• Drill - An activity designed to evaluate a single emergency response function. This involves an actual field response such as making contacts to check the information included in the communication directory. A drill's effectiveness lies in the focus on a single or relatively limited portion of the overall response system in order to evaluate and improve that function.
• Tabletop Exercise - An informal activity involving discussions of actions to be taken on described emergency situations. A tabletop exercise is done without time constraints, which allows the participants to practice emergency situation problem solving, evaluate plans and procedures, and to resolve questions of coordination and assignment of responsibilities. A series of messages are issued to participants in the exercise, and they respond verbally to the simulated incident in a nonstressful atmosphere. This exercise should involve management, key agency staff, and personnel from outside organizations as appropriate.
• Functional Exercise - An activity in which participants respond in a coordinated manner to a timed, simulated incident that parallels a real operational event as close as possible. This exercise is generally conducted in an emergency operations center or Incident Command Post, and messages are passed to the participants in written form by telephone, radio, FAX, computer, or other method of communication. The functional exercise uses information such as emergency plans, maps, charts, and other information available in a real event and creates stress by increasing the frequency of messages, intensity of activity, and complexity of decisions and/or requirements for coordination. It does not involve actual mobilization of emergency response forces in the field. Participants should include management, key agency staff, and personnel from outside organizations as appropriate.
• Full-Scale Exercise - An activity in which emergency preparedness officials respond in a coordinated manner to a timed, simulated incident but includes the mobilization of field personnel and resources and the actual movement of emergency workers, equipment, and resources required to demonstrate coordination and response capability. This exercise is intended to evaluate the entire emergency organization or its major parts in an interactive manner over a substantial period of time. It mobilizes emergency officials in an emergency operations center plus the activation of one or more emergency functions outside of the center. Reclamation will not generally conduct this level of exercise, but will participate in exercises conducted by others when our facilities are involved.